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Cartoon shows Cuban ambassador to the U.S. Gonzalo de Quesada placing a bomb “Proposicion Hay-Quesada” (Hay-Quesada proposal) under the wheelchair “Libertad” (Liberty) of a woman representing Cuba.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1902
Cartoon shows Cuban ambassador to the U.S. Gonzalo de Quesada fleeing as a bomb “Proposicion Hay-Quesada” (Hay Quesada proposal) explodes blowing up the wheelchair “Libertad” (Liberty) of a woman representing Cuba, who stands startled, holding a U.S. shield.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1902
Two men light matches to ignite two cannons–“Senate inquiry” and “House inquiry”–with “resolution” padding. They say, “Ready” and “Aim” as they are pointed toward President Roosevelt. The president smiles as he looks on holding a “reply” bomb. He says, “Fire away.”
The inspiration for Joseph Harry Cunningham’s cartoon in the Washington Herald (reprinted in the Omaha Bee and clipped for the cartoon scrapbook kept by the Roosevelt White House) would be unclear to contemporary readers, but quite obvious to citizens at the end of 1908.
Two turkeys, one dressed as a Turk standing among smoking bombs and pumpkins, stand beneath clouds that rain axes, bombs, vegetables, pies, and rifles upon them.
In 1908, at Thanksgiving time, puns and affinities were hard for a cartoonist to avoid.
There were several “sick men of Europe” in the parlance of diplomats in these days before the advent of the Great War; Emperor Franz-Josef of Austria-Hungary, for instance, whose dual monarchy was crumbling.
The child king Alfonso XIII, as a wooden puppet, is slumped over on the “Throne of Spain” with a clergyman standing next to him. On the walls to the right are portrait paintings of “Charles V, Ferdinand and Isabella, [and] Philip II.” On the left, an arm labeled “Home Riots” reaches through the curtains with a torch to ignite a bomb labeled “Anarchy” next to the throne.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1898-06-08
A woman holding a flag labeled “Woman Suffrage” stands behind an angry hag labeled “Militant Lawlessness” with a Medusa-like face. The hag, wide-eyed and open mouthed, rushes toward the viewer, carrying a bomb and a torch with smoke labeled “Arson.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-06-04
Thomas William Lawson stands among Christmas gifts and a notice posted on the wall, which states “Christmas Greeting to Lawson Put all insurance proxies in your possession on the State House Steps by 11:15 to night or–!!!” Lawson is surrounded by such gifts as a box of “Dynamite Perfectos Smoke Up! [from] Addicks,” a box of “Poisoned Candy Merry Xmas from McCall,” a large box labeled “Infernal Machine Best wishes of Wall St.,” a large jug with a skull and crossbones labeled “Drink Hearty from PA McCurdy,” a smoking bomb labeled “To Tom from John D.” nestled among flowers “From Rogers,” and a sword “From Hyde.” In the background is a Christmas tree with an oil can and one ornament showing a face.
Udo J. Keppler’s cartoon is a caricature of Thomas William Lawson, whose 14 magazine articles, collected in a sensationalist best-selling book, Frenzied Finance, marked him at the time and in subsequent history as a prototypical Muckraker on a par with Upton Sinclair (the meat industry), Ida M. Tarbell (Standard Oil), and Samuel Hopkins Adams (medicines). Lawson’s expose was of the mining business, specifically Amalgamated Copper and related companies.
Ironically, Lawson’s book was as much a tell-all retaliation against his former partners in Amalgamated as the confessions of a reformed corporate predator. That he was not wholly repentant about the misdeeds of trust magnates or their system mattered little to the public. An insider’s view was enough to attract attention.
The “trusts” stand in front of an “administration bomb” while President Roosevelt watches from the background.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-01-11