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either as small woodcuts in newspapers or as single-sheet copper engraving broadsides, were cruder in appear- ance than their British counterparts. But such images as Franklin’s 1754 “Join or Die” snake, calling on Britain’s colonies to form a unifi ed defense as war with France approached—often cited as the fi rst American political cartoon and reissued during the 1765 Stamp Act Crisis and again in 1774—and Revere’s 1770 fanciful depiction of the Boston Massacre were eff ective expressions of the Patriot cause and were widely disseminated on both sides of . Th e broadside form of cartoon contin- ued to make an appearance, albeit infrequently, during the early electoral contests and presidential administra- tions of the young republic (one authority counted only 78 political prints before 1828).

Jacksonian Prints Th e cartoon fi nally became a staple of political commen- tary and a weapon in the arsenals of political campaigns with the 1828 presidential contest between incumbent John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Cartoons became ubiquitous during the campaign, fueled by the expansion of male suff rage and the unusual bitter- ness of the election. Th eir rise as a popular form of po- litical expression also resulted from the introduction of lithographic prints, which were substantially cheaper to cartooning produce and purchase than other visual print media of the time. While newspapers eschewed publishing car- Political or editorial cartooning has been a ubiquitous toons via the more expensive process of engraving (which feature of American politics since the eighteenth century. Usually characterized by a single image supplemented by or juxtaposed to text, cartoons comment on events, Benjamin Franklin’s warning to the British colonies in ideas, people, policies, and social mores, framing their America to unite shows a snake in segments, each named observations with humor, derision, or irony. While the for a colony or region. Published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, term cartoon did not gain its current meaning until 1843 May 9, 1754. (Library of Congress) (via a reference in the British satirical weekly Punch ), the form had long made a regular appearance in election campaigns as a partisan tool and as a popular form of visual commentary on local and national politics in gen- eral. Cartoons introduced many of the enduring symbols and terms in American politics, including the Repub- lican Party elephant and the manipulative redistricting term gerrymander . Th e form emerged out of the transatlantic print culture of the eighteenth century and London’s vibrant pictorial market of political prints commenting on British politics and colonial policy. Th e few American contributions by the likes of Philadelphia printer Benjamin Franklin and Boston silversmith and engraver Paul Revere, published

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cartooning permitted the publication of within the col- Although the pictorial press was centered in New York umns of type), lithography houses such as H. R. Rob- City, these publications relied on a broad readership and inson and, subsequently, Currier and Ives sprang up in regularly featured cartoons that addressed national is- New York and other northeastern cities, producing af- sues, printed in the crisp black and white linear codes fordable single-sheet political prints in the thousands for of engraving. Cartoons often appeared on the weeklies’ a picture-hungry electorate. covers, complemented by a full- or double-page cartoon Artists such as Edward William Clay and David Clay- inside, and followed by more modest cartoons, usually pool Johnston established commercial careers as creators commenting on social mores, among the ads in the back. of political pictorial commentary during the antebellum Th e number of cartoons and their vituperative tone in- period. Johnston, in particular, created many stark and creased every election cycle, and the cartoonist whose original images, such as his 1828 of Andrew name was synonymous with this mode and medium of Jackson as “Richard III,” his face composed from the expression was the German immigrant and ardent Re- dead bodies of Seminole Indians. But the standard an- publican Th omas Nast. tebellum political print featured fl at, theatrical tableaux Nast became Harper’s Weekly’s leading cartoonist in which stiff fi gures—their faces rendered in expression- in his early twenties during the Civil War, and subse- less portraits—were depicted performing absurd acts in quently sealed his position at the publication, and his incongruous situations, with gobs of pun-infested text reputation in the broader fi eld, with a series of bril- emanating from their mouths into balloons overhead. liantly reductive, savagely caricatured cartoons attack- Despite its representational limitations, the print re- ing the “ring” of the corrupt Tammany Hall Democrats mained the dominant form of political pictorial com- that controlled ’s government. Th e only mentary for more than three decades, extending into the cartoonist able to rival Nast was another German im- presidential administration of Abraham Lincoln. Yet his- migrant, Joseph Keppler, whose Democratic-leaning torians continue to speculate about how these often rau- satirical weekly Puck made its English-language debut cous and highly partisan images were actually used and in New York in 1877 (after a brief phase as a German- where they were displayed. Too topical and unedifying to language magazine). What set Puck apart, and inau- conform to the sentimental or didactic goals prescribed gurated another phase in editorial cartooning, was his for lithographs that decorated genteel parlors, the prints introduction of chromolithography to U.S. magazine may have found a place on kitchen walls; they were most publishing. Each issue featured skillful of the likely to be appreciated in male-dominated institutions illustrious and notorious rendered in full color against such as taverns, barber shops, and political clubs. lavish, elaborate settings. As both Puck ’s publisher and chief artist, Keppler cultivated a host of younger car- The Political Cartoon Comes of Age toonists; some left his employ in 1881 to start Judge, a By the 1840s, topical cartoons were a regular feature in rival Republican satirical weekly. weekly illustrated newspapers in Europe and England, Th e work of Nast, Keppler, and other Gilded Age including publications devoted entirely to satirical com- artists established and, through repetition, institutional- mentary, such as the French Le Charivari (1832), which ized many of the symbols and pictorial conventions of inspired the British Punch: Th e London Charivari (1841). political cartoons. Nast, in particular, excelled at devis- Meanwhile, pictorial publication remained anemic in the ing fi gures that would become enduring iconographic until midcentury, when improved trans- political symbols. Figures embodying the nation, such portation, innovations in printing—especially in the as Liberty and Uncle Sam, had evolved and gained process of wood engraving, which was compatible with purchase in U.S. political culture since the eighteenth movable type—and public concern about the growing century; Nast introduced new symbols, including the sectional crisis created the conditions for a viable com- Republican elephant, the Democratic machine Tam- mercial illustrated press. With the rise of weekly pictorial many tiger, and the bloated, diamond-bedecked urban newspapers, particularly Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News- political boss— epitomized in his rendition of Tammany paper in 1855 and Harper’s Weekly in 1857, political car- Hall’s William M. “Boss” Tweed. As that encapsulation tooning entered a new phase that spelled the end of the of corruption demonstrated, both Nast and Keppler long, comparatively tepid reign of the individual politi- were masters of caricature—the exaggeration and distor- cal print. tion of the features and fi gures of individuals—in itself a

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In his cartoon “Th e Tammany Tiger Loose,” Th omas Nast depicts the Tammany Hall Democrats as a vicious tiger attacking the law, the ballot, the republic, and power. Published in Harper’s Weekly, November 11, 1871. (American Social History Project, Center for Media and Learning at Th e City University of New York Graduate Center)

sharp departure from antebellum cartoons’ presentation continued to dominate editorial cartooning. With the of relatively accurate countenances. By midcentury, cari- exception of the short-lived New York Daily Graphic , cature received a big boost from the invention of pho- newspapers remained underillustrated. Th en on Octo- tography and the corresponding rapid proliferation of ber 30, 1884, Joseph Pulitzer published a cartoon by offi cial photographic portraits. Th e public quickly grew Walt McDougall (assisted by Valerian Gribayedoff ) on familiar with the faces of the famous and infamous, giv- the front page of his New York World . “Th e Royal Feast ing cartoonists license to off er contorted versions that of Belshazzar Blaine and the Money Kings,” which por- were intended to reveal the true motives and morality of trayed a poor family begging at a sumptuous feast at- their subjects. But these cartoonists’ devotion to physical tended by notorious robber barons and presided over by distortion was most fervently directed at groups. While Democratic presidential candidate James G. Blaine, was racial stereotypes had a long presence in U.S. cartooning later cited as a factor in Blaine’s loss to Grover Cleveland. (dating back to E. W. Clay’s 1830s “Life in Philadelphia” After the publication of McDougall’s picture, political series lampooning northern free African Americans), cartoons became a regular front-page feature in daily Nast and Keppler reveled in grotesque ethnic portray- newspapers across the country. als to attack political opponents, especially simian Irish Political cartoons were part of the larger visual extrav- Americans for whom, along with Catholicism, both art- aganza of Sunday supplements, comic strips, celebrity ists expressed antipathy. portraits, color, news illustrations, and eventually photo- journalism that became crucial to the success of the Cartoons and the Daily Press mass-circulation press. For the fi rst time, editorial car- Th e true popularity of the Gilded Age cartoonists re- toons became a truly popular medium reaching millions mains diffi cult to determine. Th e readership of the com- of readers daily. In turn, cartoonists became part of the paratively expensive illustrated weeklies rarely exceeded celebrity culture the newspapers helped foster, gaining the hundreds of thousands. Nonetheless, the weeklies greater prestige and commensurate salaries.

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By the turn of the twentieth century, every major instructions about appropriate subjects and how to il- newspaper across the country published political car- lustrate them. While absorbing cartoons into the war toons, usually on the front page. Amounting to some eff ort, the government also targeted dissenting images. 2,000 professional editorial cartoonists, the ranks were After passage of the 1917 Espionage Statute and the 1918 notable for their absence of the generation that had Sedition Act, publications alleged to engage in “obstruc- dominated the era of the newsweeklies. And, in contrast tion of recruitment” were banned from the U.S. mail, to their often obstreperously independent predecessors, eff ectively eliminating most alternative publications. In newspaper cartoonists were in thrall to their publishers the case of the New York–based Th e Masses, a radical and the latter’s political party allegiances (as well as to the monthly with a small circulation but a big reputation newspapers’ increasing reliance on advertising revenue). for featuring cartoons by some of the outstanding artists Th e transition to the newspaper phase of cartooning of the era, the government went further and, citing the also marked a signifi cant change in the medium’s form. cartoons, prosecuted the editor and several artists. Two Now on daily rather than weekly schedules, required trials resulted in hung juries but also ultimately spelled to address a broader range of readers and hampered by the end of the magazine. cruder newspaper reproduction, the new generation of cartoonists adopted a simpler pen-and-ink drawing style Uniformity, Decline, and Experimentation and briefer captions, relinquishing the laborious detail, Isolationism, complacency, and suspicion of reforms baroque compositions, text-heavy messages, and classi- characterized commercial editorial cartooning after cal and Shakespearean references that characterized the the war. Signifi cantly, most of the women who had Gilded Age cartoons. Soon that form became even more breached the walls of the male cartoonist club (and streamlined when Robert Minor convinced the St. Louis were limited to drawing only cartoons about suff rage) Post-Dispatch’s pressmen to let him draw using a blunt lost their jobs in the wake of passage of the Nineteenth grease crayon on textured paper; the more sketchlike Amendment. National syndication of cartoons only ex- technique quickly caught on. acerbated uniformity as local cartoonists were replaced Th e cartoonists of the mass-circulation press, along by more celebrated practitioners located in major cit- with their professional predecessors, were not the only ies. Public interest in editorial cartoons lagged: they artists publishing editorial cartoons. From the Gilded were removed from their long-standing front-page Age onward, immigrants, African Americans, trade perch and relocated to the interior editorial page in re- unionists, feminists, and radicals published alternative duced size. and oppositional periodicals. Often limited in circula- Over the course of cartooning’s long history, com- tion and resources, these publications included visual mentators and scholars have contemplated its infl uence commentary off ering their constituencies perspectives on public opinion. Stories abound about its impact on that countered or supplemented those in the commer- presidential contests such as the 1884 election, where cial press. Th e number of these publications—and their the wide circulation of the World ’s “Belshazzar” cover cartoons—increased at the turn of the century with the and Puck ’s corruption-covered “Tattooed Man” car- great wave of immigration, a burgeoning reform move- toon purportedly undermined Blaine’s chances. Th ere ment, an increasingly militant labor movement, and is strong evidence that multitudes were entertained by the rise of the Socialist Party and other third parties, such energetic cartoon assaults but little indication that all assisted by decreased costs in the reproduction of the medium actually changed minds. Moreover, some illustrations. of the most notorious campaigns, such as the assault on America’s entry into World War I starkly demar- Republican William McKinley’s candidacy by Hearst cated alternative from mass-circulation cartoons. Few cartoonist Oliver Davenport in 1896, did not avert their newspapers (and consequently, cartoonists) criticized victims’ electoral triumphs. the mobilization for war. Recognizing the popularity Indeed, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal is a signal of political cartooning and capitalizing on the press’s example of a time in which mainstream political cartoons war enthusiasm, President Woodrow Wilson’s adminis- misrepresented popular political sentiments. Infl uenced tration established a Bureau of Cartoons as an arm of by their overwhelmingly Republican publishers, most the propagandistic Committee on Public Information. commercial political cartoons in the 1930s denounced Th e Bureau issued a weekly Bulletin for Cartoonists with the administration’s policies and tirelessly depicted the

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Pogo took on imposing fi gures such as Senator Joseph McCarthy; but the most promising cartoonist of the war generation, (creator of the irreverent Up Front cartoons eagerly read by GIs in Stars and Stripes ), weary of attacks on his postwar cartoons about domestic problems and political repression, quit the profession for almost a decade. Only when the Vietnam War reached its height in the late 1960s did many political cartoonists emerge from their torpor to take the unprecedented step of criticiz- ing U.S. government foreign policy during wartime. But these visual commentaries—which found even greater purchase during the Watergate scandal that eventually undermined President ’s administration— paled compared to the work of “antiestablishment” cartoonists such as Jules Feiff er, , and . Th ese and other polemical and innova- tive cartoonists were published in periodicals directed at younger and more liberal readers (complemented by Gary Trudeau, whose Doonesbury reinvigorated the oth- erwise moribund newspaper comic strip). At the close of the fi rst decade of the twenty-fi rst century, the fate of editorial cartoons seemed entwined with the rapid decline of newspapers. Only some 70 Robert Minor’s cartoons, like this one published in Th e Masses, July 1916, set the precedent for short captions and full-time professional cartoonists continued to work in sketch-like drawings. (American Social History Project, the commercial realm. Yet once again the introduction Center for Media and Learning at Th e City University of of a new medium, the Internet, signaled a change in New York Graduate Center) the fi eld—at least in the number of practitioners whose work is available. In the realm of print, a period of ex- perimentation was under way, exemplifi ed by the recent country in the grip of an unpopular dictatorship. In con- work of “graphic journalists” such as Joe Sacco, who cre- trast, cartoons in the alternative press provided greater ated extended, fi rst-person investigatory narratives about insight into the attributes that contributed to Roosevelt’s Bosnia, the Gaza Strip, and Iraq. Published serially in political longevity. magazines and as books, these and other “long form” Th e post–World War II era saw little change in politi- projects defi ed the constraints of the time-tested single- cal cartoons’ overall lackluster and conservative perfor- panel format and marked yet another new phase in the mance. Most newspaper cartoonists avoided controversy, history of the political cartoon. which the larger profession implicitly applauded in a See also press and politics. run of Pulitzer Prizes awarded to uninspired (and sub- sequently forgotten) work. Postwar conservatism and FURTHER READING political repression, coupled with the rise of television, Dewey, Donald. Th e Art of Ill Will: Th e Story of American the triumph of syndication, and the start of what would Political Cartoons. New York: New York University Press, be a long death roll of newspapers and cartoonist jobs 2007. further undermined originality and fostered conformity. Fischer, Roger A. Th em Damned Pictures: Explorations in Amer- Th e aging cohort of cartoonists saw their ranks dimin- ican Political Cartoon Art. North Haven, CT: Archon Books, ish, and few registered surprise when 1996. decided not to replace its cartoonist Edwin Marcus when Hess, Stephen, and Milton Kaplan. Th e Ungentlemanly Art: he retired in 1958. Herbert Block in A History of American Political Cartoons. Revised ed. New and Walt Kelly in his politically infl ected comic strip York: Macmillan, 1975.

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Hess, Stephen, and Sandy Northrop. Drawn and Quartered: Th e History of American Political Cartoons. Montgomery, AL: Elliott and Clark, 1996. Kemnitz, Th omas Milton. “Th e Cartoon as a Historical Source.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 4 (Summer 1973), 81–93. Leonard, Th omas C. Th e Power of the Press: Th e Birth of Amer- ican Political Reporting . New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Reilly, Bernard F., Jr. American Political Prints, 1766–1876: A Catalog of the Collections in the Library of Congress. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1991.

JOSHUA BROWN

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