Getting cool
Subject(s): Cable cars (Streetcars), Heat, Leisure, Subways, Summer
Click on image to zoom in
On an extremely hot day in New York City, a man decides to go to Coney Island to cool off. Vignettes show that first, he has to ride on a stuffy streetcar through Brooklyn, then he stands in a long line for the bathhouse, next there is a thunderstorm, after that is a sweltering ride on the subway, and finally he arrives at the comfortable confines of home. Caption: The combination of a hot day, a sizzling mortal and the Isle of Coney.
Comments and Context
This center-spread cartoon is a typical Puck midsummer topic — and a respite from the incessant political news of candidates’ machinations and the two nominating conventions in 1908 — by the typically clever L. M. Glackens, who was assuming an increasing workload in the weekly.
Glackens, a facile cartoonist of clever and fresh ideas, this week drew a current-events theme, inescapable heat in the city or the seashore (Brooklyn’s Coney Island), a virtual comic strip of six unorthodox but narrative sequential panels and scenes.
Aside from his skill as a humorous cartoonist and idea man, Glackens must have been a fast worker, a skill with which only some cartoonists are blessed. After he left Puck in 1914, Glackens illustrated a few books and went headlong into the nascent animation industry, which then required that artists draw every element of every frame in an animated film, sometimes as many as 24 separate drawings per second on the screen. Cartoonists had to work fast, and Glackens’s experience on Puck must have been good experience.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1908-07-15
Creator(s)
Glackens, L. M. (Louis M.), 1866-1933
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:
Getting cool. [July 15, 1908]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o286352. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Glackens, L. M. (Louis M.), 1866-1933. Getting cool. [15 Jul. 1908]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. April 2, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o286352.
APA:
Glackens, L. M. (Louis M.), 1866-1933., [1908, July 15]. Getting cool.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o286352.
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. April 2, 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.
