Concerning the American girl

A priest stands on the left holding a paper that states “The steady decline of womanhood from its old ideals.” Puck pulls back a curtain to reveal women in many roles in society, such as doctors, lawyers, school teachers, athletes, artists, nurses, secretaries, “Tenement House Inspectors,” and as members of such organizations as the “S.P.C.A.” Caption: Puck — Do you really think, my clerical friend, that the old ideals were better than these?

comments and context

Comments and Context

Through its life as a publication, Puck frequently found fault with clerics and traditional denominations, although not with the Bible itself. Sermons and messages that Puck criticized usually dealt with what it deemed to be excesses, foolish pronouncements, and hypocrisy.

Ehrhart’s double-page spread “Concerning the American Girl” featured the cartoonist’s trademark vignettes-on-a-topic, but also allows the magazine and its social cartoonist to register displeasure about a cleric’s attack on one its advocacies — the “emancipation” of the American Girl as typified by Ehrhart’s cartoons and the Gibson Girl of Life Magazine.

Not labelled in the cartoon, but certain from the caricature and the sermon topic is Reverend Morgan Dix, D. D., of New York’s Trinity Church. His hotly discussed message, “Threatening Social Conditions,” was delivered on November 26, 1903, by the Episcopal divine. One of 12 troubling aspects he identified was “the steady decline of womanhood from its old ideals and its steady deterioration through copying the ways and invading the sphere of men.” He saved the attack on the rise of socially liberated women for the last, but hardly least, on his list.

The figure of Puck — editorial voice of the magazine in its cartoons — asks the rhetorical question about whether important activities and professions pictured in the cartoon are less worthy than “old ideals.” The cartoon serves as evidence of changing social attitudes of the day; and, implicitly, a challenge more than a century later about some of these “emancipated” avocations being considered stereotyped derogations to another generation.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-01-06

Creator(s)

Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937

Period

U.S. President – 1st Term (September 1901-February 1905)

Repository

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Page Count

1

Record Type

Image

Resource Type

Cartoon

Rights

These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.

Citation