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

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.

The idea of the drawing seems to be more a statement of current events, memorializing the president and his challenges, perhaps, than opposing policies or intending to persuade readers. The reasons Roosevelt seems nervous that his own administration embraces his famous Big Stick, and why the president sits astride the judiciary, seem as dense as the canebrakes he handsomely depicted. The House and Senate are bears, too, but not of threatening demeanor. The snake, labeled “corporate influence,” was indeed dangerous in the bayous, and always threatened Roosevelt’s programs — sometimes supported and sometimes stymied, by the judiciary.

At best, therefore, the cartooned frieze might have been intended as a “freeze”; that is, a snapshot in time — Roosevelt’s condition at this point in his presidency. What neither the president nor the cartoonist could have known was that “corporate influence,” for good and ill, would be in the headlines soon after the drawing’s publication as a financial panic hit Wall Street’s banks and brokerage houses.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-10-22

Creator(s)

Cunningham, Joseph Harry, 1865-1946

Language

English

Period

U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)

Page Count

1

Production Method

Printed

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