Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

“And the waters were divided”

Woodrow Wilson, as Moses, stands on a rock with his left arm raised at the parting of the seas labeled “Republican Split,” through which a horde of Democrats labeled “Marshall, M’Combs, Bryan, Kern, Williams, O’Gorman, Harmon, Mack, Gore, Underwood, Clark, Watterson, [and] Harvey” escape the “Predatory Pharaohs” caught on the far shore as the sea closes between them. Caption: The walking is good to the Promised Land.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-07-31

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

Salvation is free, but it doesn’t appeal to him

Theodore Roosevelt, looking somewhat devilish, appears as a minister standing in a pool labeled “Teddyism,” attempting to pull the Republican elephant in for an immersion baptism. A small “Third-Party Choir” stands behind him composed of “Perkins, Munsey, Pinchot, [and] Garfield.” President Taft and others labeled “Sherman, Barnes, Lodge, Penrose, Crane, Root, [and] McKinley” are holding the elephant back. Crowds of people watch from a boardwalk, wharf, and a nearby pavilion. Caption: Third-Party Choir — “And sinners bathed beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-08-07

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

In the name of labor

A gigantic man wearing a crown labeled “Protected Monopoly” holds upright a wooden figure of an American laborer labeled “Protected American Labor” and a sign that states “Protection Maintains for American Labor the American Standard of Living.” The wooden figure holds a dinner pail in one hand and a booklet labeled “Savings” in the other. A diminutive man labeled “American Laborer,” in the left foreground, looks at the viewer and gestures with his thumb back at the wooden figure. On the right, from a ship at a dock, a stream of “Foreign Labor” disembarks, passing through a gate labeled “Starvation Wages,” and heading for factories in the background. Caption: How much longer can he get away with it?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-08-14

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

The great American bull-fight

At a bullfight, Theodore Roosevelt is the bull surrounded by picadors and banderilleros labeled “La Follette, Root, Taft, Sherman, Bryan, Watterson, [and] Crane,” and William Barnes, who is unidentified. The men are thrusting lances and banderillas into the bull, while the matador, Woodrow Wilson, waits in the upper right background to finish it off. Caption: When the picadors sufficiently puncture him, the matador will finish him.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-08-21

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

The call

A moose hunter uses a bullhorn labeled “Insatiate Egotism” to call moose. A large bull moose with the face of Theodore Roosevelt stands off in the distance. The reflection in a body of water shows a bull moose.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-08-28

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

“After you, Teddy!”

Theodore Roosevelt, on his way to the “Hall of Fame,” passes between two rows of kings, emperors, military leaders, statesmen, and others, including, on the left, “Alexander, Nimrod, Caesar, Joshua, Solomon, Moses,” and possibly Ramses I, King of Egypt; and on the right, “Wellington, Washington, Napoleon I, Frederick the Great, Cromwell, Shakespere [sic], Luther,” and two unidentified kings, possibly William I and Richard I, kings of England.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-09-04

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

Protection Tweedledee and protection Tweedledum

A businessman addresses a group of laborers, explaining to them how important tariffs are to their jobs and that if the reform candidate is elected, then the factory would have to close. On the businessman’s return from a trip abroad, customs officials search his luggage, and he rails against tariff duties and the invasion of his personal property. Caption: Around election time at the shop. On his return from a trip abroad.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-01-11

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

The lost ski

President Taft skis down a steep slope labeled “Nomination Slide 1912.” One ski is labeled “Control of Senate” and the other, which has broken its strap and come loose, is labeled “Control of House.” Taft looks about to fall after losing one ski.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-01-18

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

What everybody knows

An ailing Uncle Sam, holding his head and his stomach, stands in the middle of a half-circle with a series of private citizens telling him what ails the country: “Socialist Agitation!, Laws Not Enforced!, Public Service Commission!, Persecution of Rail Roads!, Plutocracy!, Interference with Business!, Graft!, Too Much Legislation!, Rum!, Blue Laws!, [and] Roosevelt!” Caption: “Do you want to know what’s the matter with you? Well, I’ll tell you!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-01-25

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

The white slave

Charles F. Murphy stands in an alley in the red light district, illuminated by a red streetlamp labeled “Tammany,” forcing a woman labeled “N.Y. State Democracy” to get out of the alley and onto the main street.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-02-01

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

Bearers of evil tidings

A man labeled “Protected Monopoly” lies on a bench in an Egyptian temple next to a large bloody sword labeled “Closed Mills” with which three man, labeled “Labor,” have been slain. Each lies next to papers labeled “No Orders the Prices Come Down, Cancelled Orders, [and] Consumer Balks.” At one end of the temple are the faces of “Sherman, Aldrich, [and] Payne.” In the distance are factories.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-02-15

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

A phase of our tax system – the greater the service, the heavier the tax

Two men labeled “Charity Worker” address an over-sized man sitting on a throne, taking money from a box labeled “Rents,” into which two men labeled “Rent Collector” and “Agent” pour money, and putting it into a basket labeled “Organized Charity.” In the background are run-down tenement buildings. Caption: Charitable Worker — We thank you for your generous contributions for the relief of the suffering poor, but why don’t you replace those rookeries with model tenements and relieve their miseries in that way? / Tenement-House Owner — Why? Why because, if I did, the city would fine me with increased valuations and heavier taxes.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-03-01

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

The interrupted ceremony

Uncle Sam is marrying a woman labeled “Canada” with President Taft as the clergyman. When Taft asks anyone who objects to the marriage to speak, all the guests in the church (they all have hogs heads) clamor to object. Caption: Clergyman Taft — Into this common-sense estate of Reciprocity these two persons present come now to be joined. If any man can show just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now sp– / Chorus of Tariff-Protected Monopolies — We object!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-03-08

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

On the seventeenth – the Irishman’s idea of Atlas

An old Irish man, as Atlas, holds aloft a globe that shows “Ireland” as comprising an entire hemisphere. In his other hand he holds a shillelagh. Shamrocks line the sides and bottom of the design and the title “Puck” is composed of Celtic knots.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-03-15

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

“Away with that life-net!”

A raging fire in a building billows dark smoke labeled “Disease.” People are trying to escape by climbing to the edge and jumping into a safety net labeled “Vivisectional Research Life-Net” held by fire fighters. Other fire fighters stream water labeled “Knowledge” on to the flames. A man with a hatchet labeled “Legislation” is about to chop the water hose into pieces, as other citizens attempt to pull the safety net away. Caption: The anti-vivisectionists to the fire-fighting doctors.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-03-22

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

“There is a rich land to the south” – the Pan-American Mercury to the Yankee manufacturers

The Roman god Mercury wears a hat labeled “Pan-American Union” and is draped in cloth the color of the American and South American flags. He points to a large globe showing “South America” and tells a group of mostly old men who are North American manufacturers that South America is ripe for exploitation. Caption: They jeer and scoff at him now as others jeered and scoffed at Columbus when he told them of a land to the west.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-03-29

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

The Monroe doctrine – let Sam do it

A resolute Uncle Sam, as a soldier with rifle, stands on a pile of money bags labeled “Financial Interests in South & Central America.” Sleeping on the ground, using the bags as pillows, are men labeled “St. Petersburg, Wall St., Lombard St., Paris Bourse, Berlin, [and] Vienna.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-04-05

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

Yumping yiminy, what a yolk!

A large egg labeled “Taft’s Message” has hatched in the congressional chamber, startling the congressmen. Two large conjoined chicks (a double-yolk), labeled “Reciprocity” and wearing hats labeled “Canada” and “U.S.,” are standing on the broken shell.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-04-12

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

The helping hand

A diminutive Uncle Sam rows a sailboat and receives a helping hand from J. P. Morgan.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-04-26

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

The coming of the cat

Many rats take chunks of cheese labeled “Graft” from a large block of cheese labeled “Public Office” and run into a hole labeled “Statute of Limitations,” as a black cat with a collar labeled “The Recall” approaches through an open doorway.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-05-03

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956