Animals

Theodore Roosevelt, wearing his Rough Rider uniform, shares a feast with many wild animals sitting around a large banquet table in the wilderness. A bear is making a toast. Wearing buckskin, “Teddy Jr.” is sitting on a rock at a small table with a bear cub. Caption: The Bear (with deep feeling) Here’s hoping that when next we meet, we see you first.

Comments and Context

Puck took another opportunity at a holiday time, Thanksgiving 1905, to run a non-political cartoon. J. S. Pughe’s drawing certainly was not partisan, either, but today might be considered as advocating a social cause: Opposition to animal cruelty. Theodore Roosevelt’s joy of the hunt, and descriptions of shooting and slaughtering (though always for food, hides, or specimens) are off-putting to more readers today than in his time.

Pughe was Puck magazine’s go-to animal cartoonist for almost all subjects and jokes. Occasionally W. M. Goodes and L. M. Glackens drew animals, and drew them well. And when Will Crawford joined the staff he excelled in delineating horses. Other cartoonists, for other magazines, specialized in animal drawings too (anthropomorphic animals were common in humor around 1900) — Walt Kuhn, who later organized the landmark Armory Show of modern art, Bob Addams, A. Z. Baker, Gus Dirks, Leighton Budd, Frank Ver Beck, A. C. Conde, Eugene Zimmerman (ZIM), Emil Flohri, and the great A. B. Frost, most of whose work was outside the magazines (e.g., Uncle Remus).

Thomas W. Lawson, as Orpheus, plays a lyre while sitting beneath a tree on a hillside in a pastoral setting. In the foreground are John D. Rockefeller, James R. Keene, J. Edward Addicks, and Henry H. Rogers as wild animals that have become entranced by the music. In the middle distance, a sheep lies on its back.

Comments and Context

The mythical Greek god, repository of perhaps the most attributes and personality traits of any god, added facets and powers in various tales through the centuries. No manifestation was more unlikely than in the person of Thomas W. Lawson in this Puck cartoon by Joseph Keppler Junior.

The legend of Orpheus is most often associated with the god’s ability to charm people, creatures, and even rocks and trees, with the music of his lyre. In this cartoon Lawson is not enchanting the titans of finance, but rather driving them crazy.

A turkey sits on a tree branch, dreaming of a “Vegetarian Pledge” and countless people lining up to sign their names. All the wild and domestic animals laugh. In the lower right corner, an old man with an axe waits for the turkey.

Comments and Context

The major cartoon weeklies of the time had virtual designees as specialists in animal cartoons. Anthropomorphic creatures were a staple of American humor at the time — in fact, since Aesop — but cartoonists joined the ranks at this time. J. S. Pughe was the most prominent of Puck’s animal cartoonists.

The cartoonist must have relished this subject in Puck‘s 1904 Thanksgiving issue. It presents itself as a plea for vegetarianism, not merely a traditional gag urging sympathy for the poor turkey (in a day when American still slaughtered their own chickens and turkeys for dinners). A generic group of citizens, identified in their variety by dress and occupation, marches to sign a pledge as a chorus of animals watch with glee. The man signing the pledge bears a resemblance to cartoonist Pughe himself!

A haughty, well-dressed woman sits in the middle of a ballroom, holding a paper that states “Society hence-forth will strive to attract brains, not mere vulgar wealth. –A leader of Alleged Society.” Around her are animal acts, gambling tables, men eating on horseback, people with small animals, and a monkey, wearing clothing, squatting on the floor eating off china. Caption: Puck — Madam, you can attract neither brains nor decency to society with this miserable outfit.

Comments and Context

The “400” was the term given to the cream of American society, unconsciously bestowed by Ward McAllister, the unofficial arbiter of social events in Manhattan and Newport in the 1880s, and coined because of the capacity at one ball’s location. For social aspirants it became a term of ambition; for a growing class of moralistic conservatives — for instance, Theodore Roosevelt, who considered the playgrounds of the rich to be vulgar — and to the socially conscious and the poor, the activities of the 400 was something to disdain.

And then there were the cartoonists. A specialty of Charles Dana Gibson (although he traveled in its circles) in Life Magazine; and Samuel Ehrhart and C. J. Taylor, principally, in Puck, the doings of the society swells were fodder for ridicule. The activities depicted here are perhaps only slight exaggerations.

Photograph of an informational display entitled “Life in the Badlands,” which illustrates animals adapted to life in the badlands region; museum exhibit #12 in the South Unit visitor center of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Creation Date

1967-03-30

Photograph of an informational display entitled “Faded Trails,” which illustrates animals whose presence has declined in the badlands region; museum exhibit #11 in the South Unit visitor center of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Creation Date

1967-03-30

A family of bears dressed as humans stands near railroad tracks. The youngest cub is crying. A train labeled “Presidential Special” has just passed and standing on the back of the last car is President Theodore Roosevelt holding papers labeled “Speeches.” The mother bear indicates that Roosevelt is on a campaign tour rather than a hunting expedition. Caption: Mother Bruin–Don’t be alarmed, children! This is not a shooting trip!

Comments and Context

This cartoon aims for an easy target — President Roosevelt and hunting, particularly for bears. He was an avid hunter, as the public knew. Many articles and chapters of books devoted were to the subject. In fact, only months after he was sworn in as president, Roosevelt went on a famous bear hunt in the canebrakes of Louisiana and Mississippi, and initial lack of success led well-meaning guides to rope a bear — which Roosevelt angrily refused to shoot — giving birth to the legend, image, and popularity of the “teddy bear.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

A large group of wild and domestic animals sit around a table for the “Thanksgiving Banquet of the ‘Survival of the Fittest’ Club.”

Comments and Context

American cartooning’s foremost animal cartoonist at this time, and until the mid-1920s, was T. S. Sullivant. He drew for Life and, during the period of this cartoon, for Judge Magazine; seldom for Puck. J. S. Pughe was Puck‘s go-to cartoonist for animal subjects, which was a popular genre at the turn of the century.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

A large group of happy animals gather around a sign that states “Meeting to thank the Meat Trust for raising prices.” A bull stands on a platform, addressing the gathering. Caption: The Orator — Let us give thanks, my friends, to the noble Meat Trust for putting up prices. In Europe the laborer has meat once a week. Here he has been eating it three times a day. The higher we come the longer we live.

Comments and Context

What appears to be a light Aesopian jest cuts to the main argument of low-tariff advocates and free-traders. Cartoonist Pughe illustrates the dilemma inherent in “protective” high tariffs on foreign, imported goods. Industries, and presumably their workers, benefited from cheap foreign imports having duties imposed. But when domestic industries and agricultural/farming interests were thereby “protected,” they often felt free to raise their prices, to the ultimate disadvantage of the consumer.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

President Roosevelt is shown leading a group of animals labeled after different Western states. Caption: When Teddy comes marching home again he’ll have a new story to tell.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-03-31

Theodore Roosevelt expresses to Frederick Courteney Selous his sympathy for the poor treatment Selous received during a scientific expedition, including health issues and bureaucratic obstacles. Roosevelt defends Selous’s integrity and scientific value, criticizes British officials for their lack of support, and reflects on his own African experiences. He praises Selous’s field observations and urges him to continue his contributions to natural history despite age and physical limitations.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09-11

Theodore Roosevelt grants Abbott Handerson Thayer permission to use a picture and expresses his strong disagreement with Thayer’s theory that all animal coloration serves as camouflage. Roosevelt urges Thayer to recognize the complexity of natural coloration and avoid forcing all examples into a single theory. He praises Thayer’s artistic talent and love of nature but warns that his refusal to acknowledge alternative explanations diminishes the scientific value of his work.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09-08

Theodore Roosevelt writes to C. G. Schillings to agree with what he has said about the fauna of East Africa, but also tells him that it is unwise for Roosevelt to send the pamplets to the German Emperor since he would be a non-German interfering in German affairs.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09-05

Theodore Roosevelt writes to James L. Clark acknowledging receipt of the elephant tusks and offering to do all that is necessary to get the “groups at Washington for mounting.” Roosevelt encourages Clark to mount the giant eland if he is able.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-06

In response to William T. Paterson’s question about animals’ experience during birthing, Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary says that Roosevelt states that wild animals “seem to feel but little inconvenience or pain” but do die sometimes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-03-08

Theodore Roosevelt is glad that Frank M. Chapman is interested in documenting the bird and mammal life of the marshes in Paraguay. Roosevelt is also glad Chapman’s Colombian book is coming along well and looks forward to reading it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1916-02-01

Theodore Roosevelt writes John Burroughs about the practical application of the term “species” to different animals. Roosevelt is also interested in Burroughs’ account of the woodchucks and thistle-finches, and updates Burroughs on the birds he has seen throughout the season. Roosevelt hopes that “the spirit” will move Burroughs to write about his visit to Pine Knot.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-07-28

President Roosevelt has never read nor heard of Briar Patch Philosophy. If Clark wishes to write a letter, Roosevelt wants it to be clear he is not responsible for what Dr. Merriam has said, and the only part of the offending article he corrected were the quotes from his interview. He will republish his article on Nature Fakers in his next volume, directly attacking Reverend Long.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-04

President Roosevelt thanks Director Hornaday for his letter and the articles he sent. He laments that he gave writer William Joseph Long any press, even if it was to draw attention to his inaccuracies. His stories are complete fabrications, but “he says they are true simple because it pays better.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-02

President Roosevelt thanks John Madden for the copy of his book, Forest Friends; the Woodland Adventures of a Boy Pioneer. He agrees with Madden on writer William Long, saying that Long has no interest in reflecting the truth in his writing.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-01