Atlas (Greek deity)

A college student, wearing cap and gown for graduation, offers to take the world off the shoulders of Atlas. Caption: Class of ’05 — I’ll relieve you of that now, Atlas, old man.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The “June Graduate” and his or her pretentious ambitions to immediately take on the world and all its challenges was an annual staple of editorial cartoons of the day, such as in this June 1905 cover drawing. The inevitable June cartoon featured the cap-and-gown generic character, joining the ranks of cartoon stereotypes like the Emancipated Women, the harried suburbanite, and an assortment of ethnic “types.”

Newspaper editor Joseph Pulitzer, as Atlas, supports a globe labeled “American Affairs, English Affairs, African Affairs, Cuban Affairs, [and] South American Affairs” on his back. He is sitting at a desk, drafting “Instructions to Congress,” and handing a “Telegram to Prince of Wales” to a messenger boy. On the floor around him are other communications labeled “Program for the Senate, Advice to the Cabinet, Commands to Sec. Carlisle – Issue a Pulitzer Loan At Once!, How the Country Must Be Run, [and] Orders to Foreign Powers.” A notice hanging on the wall states “Our Motto – Sensation! Sensation! Sensation!!” Pulitzer is perspiring from the burden of his labors.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-01-29

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