Circus animals

President Roosevelt, as a trainer in a circus, holds a whip and is getting tangled in ropes attached to a hippopotamus labeled “The Trusts,” an elephant labeled “G.O.P.”, a donkey labeled “Panama,” and two natives labeled “San Domingo” and “Philippines.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

J. S. Pughe was Puck Magazine’s go-to animal cartoonist, and this week’s center-spread cartoon — one week into the new administration — enabled a flexing of his skills to set a scene in a circus’s center ring.

Roosevelt bear, Teddy G, rides a giraffe at the circus. Number 16 in a series of postcards depicting scenes from Seymour Eaton’s “Roosevelt Bears” books.

Collection

Fritz R. Gordner Collection

Creation Date

1907

The Cracker Jack Bears are at the circus. One bear rides an elephant while juggling four boxes of Cracker Jack while the other bear feeds the elephant peanuts. A poem about Cracker Jack at the circus is located at the top right hand corner of the card. Number eleven in a series of sixteen cards that were sent for free to anyone who mailed in ten sides from Cracker Jack boxes or ten cents in “silver or stamps.”

Collection

Fritz R. Gordner Collection

Creation Date

1907

David B. Hill as the animal trainer Carl “Hagenbeck” performs a circus act with trained animals labeled “Murphy, Pugh, Chandler, Peffer, Morgan, Coke, Higgins, Stewart, Teller, Cullom, [and] Hoar.” Hill is standing at center with a bag of “Peanut Politics” at his feet. He holds a whip in his right hand and a string in his left, which is attached to a ring in the nose of “Murphy” as a dancing bear. “Pugh” as a monkey sits on the floor. The other animals are standing on short pedestals arranged around the rear of the cage.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-02-07

A ringmaster labeled “Harrity Chairman Dem. Natl. Com.” stands on the left, offering an opportunity to ride the Democratic Donkey which wears a saddle labeled “1896” and “$50,000 a year for the man who can ride on this donkey to the White House.” Several reluctant man observe from the grandstands. They are identified as “Stevenson, Hill, Pattison, Olney, Matthews, [and] Campbell”, and William R. Morrison. In the background, riding on the Republican Elephant labeled “1896” are “McKinley, Morton, Reed, Allison, [and] Quay.” McKinley holds a pennant labeled “Protection.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-04-15