Cunningham, Joseph Harry, 1865-1946 | - Theodore Roosevelt Center

“De-lighted” in the canebrakes

President Roosevelt stands on the back of a train as he is sent off by several men at the train station and a group of four bears in the canebrakes. The bears say, “Dey-dey. You’re all right,” “You’re a jolly good fellow–but–we’re glad we’re not in the trusts,” “Tra-la. We’ll play tag again,” and “Bye-bye. Come again.”

Comments and Context

On the very day that President Roosevelt departed Stamboul, in Louisiana’s “Cajun Prairie” in East Carroll Parish, where he had hunted black bears for two weeks, cartoonist Joseph H. Cunningham imagined the event. A small group of men waving from across the tracks; a small sleuth of bears waving their good-byes from the tall and thorny canebrakes.

Guarding his child

President Roosevelt holds William H. Taft, dressed in children’s clothes, in his arms as three dogs try to get to Taft: “Stand-patter’s scare,” “third term scare,” and “Hughes’ boom scare.”

Comments and Context

In the very midst of President Roosevelt’s two-week hunt after black bears in the Louisiana canebrakes, Joseph Harry Cunningham of the Washington Herald resisted the temptation to which many other cartoonists succumbed and drew a political cartoon about current politics. The newspapers and their artists during this hunt (during which reporters and cartoons were denied the right to follow and describe Roosevelt’s hunt) concentrated almost exclusively on the hunt: its putative adventures, its possible success, its comic aspects.

Suggestion for White House frieze

President Roosevelt sits atop a “judiciary” bear as the “administration” bear holds a “big stick” and the “House” and “Senate” bears look on. A snake labeled “corporate influence” slithers underneath the judiciary bear.

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Joseph Harry Cunningham, never in the first rank of his cartooning contemporaries, drew this cartoon of President Roosevelt in the Louisiana canebrakes, only after the president emerged from the Louisiana canebrakes after two weeks of hunting black bears, and resumed his speaking tour.

In the Louisiana canebrakes

President Roosevelt, with a rifle in his right hand, runs after a bear with a chain and a stake attached to it. Bears hiding in the canebrakes all say, “Saved.”

Comments and Context

Joseph Harry Cunningham’s cartoon was rather snide, considering it appeared in the Republican Washington Herald, as it shows President Roosevelt, in odd hunting attire, chasing a black bear in the Louisiana canebrakes. As other bears — presumably free and wild — hide in the dense bamboo-like brakes, Roosevelt chases a bear who has broken loose of fetters. The reference is to a bear hunt in the same general area, but closer to, or in, Mississippi, earlier in his presidency. Roosevelt’s failure then to bag a bear, and refusal to shoot one that had been tied to a spike, led to the creation of the teddy bear at the hands of cartoonists and doll-makers.

Home again

President Roosevelt returns to the White House with a pitchfork over his right shoulder and a tennis racket in his left hand. There are suitcases labeled “T.R.” behind him. William Loeb follows with a locked bag of “speeches,” an “elephant’s tail,” and Roosevelt’s bulldog, Pete. The pillars of the White House are “fresh painted — Uncle Sam Co.”

Comments and Context

Joseph Harry Cunningham’s drawing is more of an editorial cartoon than a political cartoon, as it portrays an event — President Roosevelt’s return to Washington after a long vacation and string of appearances — and does not attack, support, nor attempt to persuade readers.

His masterpiece

Senator Joseph Benson Foraker holds a paint palette labeled “tariff tint” as he looks on a painting of President Roosevelt playing the violin and Secretary of War William H. Taft dancing. The painting received “1st prize – Salon 08.” On the ground are tubes of paint: “railroad rate red” and “Brownsville black.”

Comments and Context

Joseph Harry Cunningham’s cartoon about the early rivalries for the 1908 Republican presidential nomination delicately portrays the tension between two Ohioans, Secretary of War William H. Taft and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker. It was rare that two formidable candidates arose from the same state in any election cycle, yet the confrontations were many, and the state’s leading Republicans generally split along southern (Taft was from Cincinnati) and northern lines, each man with longtime associations and commitments.

New diversion at Sagamore Hill

President Roosevelt holds a net and chases the “Harriman bug” that looks like a locomotive. On Roosevelt’s shoulder is the “presidential bug” and in the “specimen case” across his shoulder is the “oil bug,” “powder bug,” “tobacco bug,” “securities bug,” and “marine bug.” In the background is a building with the label, “hay all stored,” and a group of people cheering him on — “other varieties of bugs.”

Comments and Context

Sometimes cartoonists employ icons for clarity’s sake, or to be a “crutch” to convey a point; and sometimes a cartoonist will load a drawing with numerous signs, symbols, and icons out of desperation. Such, it appears, was the motivation of Joseph Harry Cunningham.

Lens of public opinion

President Roosevelt looks at three men from the “lens of public opinion.” William Jennings Bryan says, “The president is carrying out all my ideas.” Representative William Sulzer says, “The president has taken up my policies.” William Alfred Peffer says, “The president is going in the right direction.”

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Joseph Harry Cunningham depicts President Roosevelt and three maverick politicians sizing each other up. The optics — literally, an absurd use of chart-graphics as might be found in textbooks — are rather absurd, and hardly relevant to the point of the drawing. Relevance to medical breakthroughs in optometry did not serve to elucidate the cartoon’s theme.

Tobacco trust

President Roosevelt sets a trap for an animal labeled “tobacco trust” that gets its left leg in the trap.

Comments and Context

The subtext of this cartoon — technically an awkward drawing, employing graphically illogical attention to the animal’s hide (tobacco leaves) — is a detail in the overheated dispute between President Roosevelt and railroad baron Edward Henry Harriman. Related, partly as a consequence of the controversy, was anti-trust legislation, all interrupting the president’s summer vacation in 1907.

Chemist Roosevelt at work

President Roosevelt looks at milk under a microscope, surrounded by containers of milk and scientific tools.

Comments and Context

Of the many reforms advanced during the Roosevelt presidency, the work to assure poor foods and drugs was as noble and far-reaching as any. “Adulterated” foods and drugs, “patent medicines,” miracle cures, and foods and beverages stretched by chalk, sawdust, and worse, were a plague that affected all. Rancid meat and fraudulently labeled perishables were clear hazards to health.

The sweet voice of democracy

President Roosevelt, dressed like a farmer, holds chicken feed in his hand and looks down at the squawking chickens.

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Joseph Harry Cunningham, in the Roosevelt-friendly Washington Herald, assigned no political motive to the president-as-farmer; nor implied anything about current debates or pending legislation regarding agricultural issues.

Uncle Joe a revisionist

Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon holds “President’s Indianapolis Speech” with the words, “Revision to Tariff” struck out and holds a pen to write on it as President Roosevelt looks on.

Comments and Context

This cartoon in the Washington Herald refers to the Memorial Day address President Roosevelt delivered in Indianapolis a few days prior. Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon was indeed a chief congressional supporter and protector of trusts and tariffs.

Scenes at the Gridiron Club Annual Dinner

In the upper left hand corner, a man measures the door of the White House at five feet while Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks stands at six feet, four inches. In the upper right hand corner, Samuel G. Blythe, president of the Gridiron Club, stands as President Roosevelt and Vice President Fairbanks remain seated. In the lower left hand corner is a man dressed up as “Cuba,” and in the lower right hand corner Clifford Kennedy Berryman gives a chalk talk about the teddy bear with the caption, “Initiation Act.”

Comments and Context

The exigencies of newspaper publication deadlines seem evident in this cartoon. One of the most famous altercations of the American presidency — certainly the most contentious of a Washington D.C., institution, the annual Gridiron Club dinner — was depicted by an artist of the morning Washington Herald on the published date of the dinner. The anomaly is that the cartoon’s vignettes are presented as a round-up, but a cartoon drawn actually after the fact could not have avoided the tense confrontations at the dinner.

Cartoon in the Elmira Advertiser

President Roosevelt sits at his desk and holds a book entitled “Big Game in Africa Shown to Be Extinct” in one hand and “Petition from [T]exas. Spare African Animals. Signed–School Children. Petition from New England. Have mercy on African animals. Signed–School Children” in his other. His rifle–“my pet”–is on his desk as well as “Nature Stories.” On the ground is an open book: “Political Game in America: Dead and Dying.” Kermit Roosevelt says to his father, “Dad, they’re mollycoddles.” President Roosevelt replies, “Oh! No! This needs investigation.”

Comments and Context

As Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency drew to a close. he was not less busy as some Chief Executives who managed to “transition,” but rather more occupied than usual, which famously was hectic and strenuous at normal times. He was involved in a messy dispute with Congress, he hurriedly made appointments, proclamations, and executive orders while he had those powers, he prepared to meet the returning Great White Fleet from its circumnavigational tour, he did what he could to implement the initiatives that grew from the National Governors Conference he convened (on conservation matters), and so forth.

When Congress again convenes

Two men light matches to ignite two cannons–“Senate inquiry” and “House inquiry”–with “resolution” padding. They say, “Ready” and “Aim” as they are pointed toward President Roosevelt. The president smiles as he looks on holding a “reply” bomb. He says, “Fire away.”

Comments and Context

The inspiration for Joseph Harry Cunningham’s cartoon in the Washington Herald (reprinted in the Omaha Bee and clipped for the cartoon scrapbook kept by the Roosevelt White House) would be unclear to contemporary readers, but quite obvious to citizens at the end of 1908.

Cartoon in the Washington Herald

William H. Taft wears a suit made of “T. R.” tags and asks J. S. Sherman who is hiding in a hole, “Where have you been Jimmy boy?” Sherman replies, “Dare I come out?” In the background is a “Hearst volcano” with “letters” and “accusations.”

Comments and Context

Virtually every political cartoonist, whether pro-Taft or anti-Taft, had fun at his expanse; the broad aspects of William H. Taft were irresistible to caricaturists. But credit must be paid to an otherwise pedestrian cartoonist, Joseph Harry Cunningham of the Washington Herald, for adding some extra graphic stereotypes; it is surprising that they were not adopted by other cartoonists, or survived the presidential campaign.

Cartoon in the Washington Herald

President Roosevelt holds a newspaper that reads, “Roosevelt the people’s choice. Probability that the Chicago convention will stampede to him,” as he pets a “third term” cat. Roosevelt says, “That’s a good pussy–now go ‘way and leave me alone.”

Comments and Context

There are two smiles in this cartoon by Joseph Harry Cunningham, and it is probably intentionally challenging to discern whether the cat or President Roosevelt bears a stronger resemblance to the famous Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Cartoon in the Washington Herald

President Roosevelt sits at his desk and holds a paper that reads: “for the uplift of the American farmer—reforms necessary etc. etc.” On the wall is a picture of William H. Taft and on the ground is “Darkest Africa” as well as a variety of papers: “Foraker silent,” “Hughes needs attention in New York,” “Illinois stirred up,” “West Virginia muddle,” “Indiana very uncertain,” and “Iowa situation cloudy.” An American farmer has a “bank account” paper in his pocket and says, “Don’t worry about us. You have other troubles.”

Comments and Context

The cartoon by Joseph Harry Cunningham in the Washington Herald addressed several matters that were prominent in the news of the time, only peripherally suggesting by the attitude of the figure representing American farmers that the agricultural section was dissatisfied with President Roosevelt at that time. Beyond normal nuances of support and priorities, such was not the case.

Cartoon in the Washington Herald

President Roosevelt leans against a hay stack with a book opened to “In Darkest Africa” and “Big Game Classified” as well as a picture of William H. Taft and the label of “my candidate.” He dreams of seeing William Jennings Bryan’s face in many animals as he walks off with his gun. Taft sits on a log and says, “Don’t be long.”

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Joseph Harry Cunningham probably was closer to the truth than he knew when he imagined President Roosevelt’s inability to forget politics, even while he was planning for his upcoming African safari. Similarly, he could have only surmised the role of candidate William H. Taft in the campaign against the Democrat William Jennings Bryan.

Cartoon in the Washington Herald

William H. Taft is dressed in clothing tagged with President Roosevelt’s initials and “my policies T.R.” belt as he boxes. Roosevelt holds “my oil” and says, “That’s a corker.” On the wall are “my rules”: “soak the malefactors,” “punch the trusts,” “upper cut the combinations–,” “solar plex the reactionaries–,” “jab the mollycoddles–” and “biff the bosses–.” On the ground is a picture of Taft with the label of “my candidate.”

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Joseph H. Cunningham, who seldom displayed prescience in his cartoons, much less a gift of prophecy, unknowingly forecast the sad summary of the Taft Administration vis a vis the policies of Theodore Roosevelt. And this cartoon was one of the very first of the 1908 campaign, after the nomination of William H. Taft and before he was elected or inaugurated.