Building the ark
Republican revelers in the foreground make music as they pass a reform ark being constructed in the background. Depicted are John Sherman playing pipes labeled “Southern Outrages,” John Logan playing cymbals labeled “Pensions,” Whitelaw Reid playing pan pipes labeled “Monopoly,” James Blaine playing a lyre, George Robeson riding on a donkey labeled “Surplus,” with George Hoar, John Roach, Joseph Keifer, and Roscoe Conkling among them. Among the crowd that follows are Ulysses S. Grant, Jay Gould, and possibly Rutherford B. Hayes, also a man playing a tambourine labeled “Bossism” and another carrying a standard labeled “Spoils,” and one with a sign labeled “River & Harbor Frauds.” In the background, John Carlisle stands at the head of those building the ark. Also shown are Henry Watterson with hammer and chisel, William Morrison holding up “Morrison’s Tariff Reform Plan,” and Abram Hewitt holding “Hewitt’s Free Trade Plank.” The ribs of the ship are labeled “Tariff Reform, Raw Materials Free, Lower Iron Tax, Lower Tax on Woolens, [and] Works of Art Free.”
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1884-03-05
