The crusaders
Subject(s): Adams, Samuel Hopkins, 1871-1958, Baker, Ray Stannard, 1870-1946, Colby, Everett, 1874-1943, Corruption, Ethics, Folk, Joseph Wingate, 1869-1923, Hapgood, Norman, 1868-1937, Jerome, William Travers, 1850-1934, Johnson, Tom Loftin, 1854-1911, Journalists, Knights and knighthood, Lawson, Thomas William, 1857-1925, McClure, S. S. (Samuel Sidney), 1857-1949, Reform movement, Russell, Charles Edward, 1860-1941, Steffens, Lincoln, 1866-1936, Tarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva), 1857-1944, Weaver, Frank, 1849-1931
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A large group of politicians and journalists appear as knights on a crusade against graft and corruption. Many carry large pens like a lance. Periodicals mentioned are “Colliers, Harper’s Weekly, Life, Puck, [and] McClure’s” Magazine. Caption: Marching embattled ‘gainst the Saracens of Graft.
Comments and Context
This cartoon by Carl Hassmann, which resembles a poster, could indeed be a historian’s guide to the leading crusading Muckrakers of the day (circa 1906, the high-water mark of reform before the Progressive Era and certainly in journalism and books). The double-page cartoon is a panegyric to the movement, a paean to the personalities.
Hassmann addresses not an issue or controversy of the week, but pulls back to portray the army of reformers and crusaders fighting corruption, exposing corporate scandals, fighting for reform. It is interesting to note that fewer than five years before this cartoon, there was no such crusade sweeping across America, and many of the names were yet unknown to the public. This surely was a period of change.
It is curious that Hassmann included virtually all of the publishers, editors, writers, and authors who were prominent and influential journalists. Yet indeed there were many politicians of the day either whose reforming tendencies sharpened at this time; or who burst upon the scene as members of the House of Representatives or as mayors or (as with William Travers Jerome, a crusading district attorney). To depict virtually all the Muckrakers but only share a few of the politicians leaves a somewhat skewed view of the crusading army so effective at the time.
Further choices Hassmann made students of the Muckraking Era will understand: Puck and its sister cartooning weekly Life are in the army; the third major political-cartoon magazine of the day, Judge, is likely absent due to its editorial inconsistency — sometimes reformist, sometimes Stand-Pat Republican. Also, there might have been an argument that editors of “yellow journals,” especially William Randolph Hearst, whose own magazines and writers are pictured in the cartoon, and whose own political career was as a crusading reformer, deserved a place in the parade. But Hassmann declined.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1906-02-21
Creator(s)
Period
U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)
Repository
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Page Count
1
Record Type
Image
Resource Type
Rights
These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.
Citation
Cite this Record
Chicago:
The crusaders. [February 21, 1906]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278490. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Hassmann, Carl, 1869-1933. The crusaders. [21 Feb. 1906]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. February 13, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278490.
APA:
Hassmann, Carl, 1869-1933., [1906, February 21]. The crusaders.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278490.
Cite this Collection
Chicago:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. February 13, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
APA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
