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President Roosevelt participates in a variety of events at the circus, including taming “political lions” to riding “trust” bulls to flying on a trapeze to juggling to directing the Republican elephant.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-12
A Republican elephant stands on its hind legs as it lifts his trunk. President Roosevelt stands on top of the elephant’s trunk. Uncle Sam holds a whip and holds up his hand.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-07
Assistant Secretary Roosevelt writes to his sister Corinne Roosevelt Robinson and hopes that both she and her daughter are feeling better. Roosevelt informs her of the behavior of their sons at a recent event and extends an invitation to go to the circus. He also mentions various social calls and dinners.
1897-04-01
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.”
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.
Theodore Roosevelt writes to H. Rider Haggard to discuss the Progressive Party’s political platform.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-06-28
In the preface to her book Behind the Scenes with Wild Animals, Ellen Velvin “makes no pretension” that its contents are “wonderful or unknown”; they are merely her personal experiences. She thanks those who helped her in the book’s preparation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08
President Roosevelt introduces a Republican elephant who wears bells labeled “U.S. rights,” “merger decision,” and “Panama Canal.” Caption: Gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you a stanch, true friend of mine—one who has been weighed and found not wanting.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-07
A “St. Louis telegram” hits the “Greatest Show on Earth” tent that collapses on a Republican elephant, George B. Cortelyou, New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt, President Roosevelt, and New York Governor Benjamin B. Odell. Indiana Senator Charles W. Fairbanks runs away.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-07-14
Chairman of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou rides a Republican elephant with Indiana Senator Charles W. Fairbanks that is about to land on a “nomination” pad. The elephant has just passed through a “Chicago convention” that President Roosevelt holds up. Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon looks on and cheers. William Jennings Bryan rides a Democratic donkey, holds a “St. Louis Convention” sign, and has a “16-2-1” feather in his hat.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06-27
President Roosevelt breaks through a “G. O. P. presidential nomination” hoop.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06-28
President Roosevelt stands in the center of an arena with an angry Republican elephant and men labeled “trust” around the circle. Caption: “Behold my own original and greatest act of the twentieth century, entitled he won’t step on the trusts! While the elephant will seem to be about to crush the trusts. Not a hand, foot, toe, nor hair of their heads will be touched by this sagacious animal!”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-04-17
President Roosevelt lands on the stomach of a man labeled “the trusts” after jumping over an elephant with a seat that has several spikes—”postal scandal,” “Ohio quarrel,” and “New York fight.” There is a sign in the background: “Opening of the circus.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-03-18
This collection of cartoons addresses the conflict between Manchuria and Korea, the Panama Canal treaty, President Roosevelt’s choice of a vice presidential candidate, and his attempt to push the Cuban reciprocity treaty through Congress.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-11-29
President Roosevelt and Postmaster General Henry C. Payne attempt to scrub the stains of the “Post Office scandal” off the Republican elephant in a tent labeled “G. O. P. The Sacred White Elephant Show.” A “Department of Publicity” megaphone sits on a table outside of the tent.
The United States Postal Service was traditionally identified with politics — and the basest exercise of politics, as local postmasters and other officials were regarded, and rewarded, as political functionaries more than experts in postal matters. Thousands of jobs were dispensed after elections, and thousands of officials were removed according to parties winning national elections. The opportunities for corruption were multiplied when expanded services, new delivery routes, and proposals for rural delivery were discussed.
There had been major scandals, and calls for reform through the years; and there were gradual reforms. For instance, when Theodore Roosevelt was Commissioner of Civil Service under Presidents Harrison and Cleveland, he succeeded in prosecuting corruption, and expanding merit-based appointments.
President Roosevelt stands in front of the Republican elephant and looks at Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna. To the right of the Republican elephant is a white elephant—”Post Office scandal.” Caption: Ring Master Roosevelt: “I think we would have a better show if we didn’t have that white elephant.”
Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna was by no means the only, or major, political figure tainted by the burgeoning Post Office scandal in 1903. Yet the cartoon depicts him for two reasons: he was implicated in revelations about his seeking favors (postal distribution deals and rebates of charges) dating back to 1900; and at the time of this cartoon’s publican he was chairman of the Republican National Committee. Any scandals, of course, could redound on the party (Roosevelt himself was never implicated, although many Republican office-holders and bureaucrats were).
The cartoon is notable as a very early example of Gorge McManus’s work. He drew his first awkward cartoons — note the insertion of a photograph instead of a caricature for Roosevelt’s face — for the St. Louis Republic, a Democrat paper, and evidently was noticed by the paper’s major Democrat rival, the Post-Dispatch. McManus was hired… to draw, however, for its publisher’s New York City outlet, Joseph Pulitzer’s World.
President Roosevelt rides a horse with a knife between his teeth and types on a typewriter. There are papers flying around him: “Liars I have known–$1.00 per word,” “Big game I have killed–$1.00 per word,” “Wild animals and fakes–$1.00 per word,” and “I, as a lion killer–$1.00 per word.” Caption: NOTE–A circus man has offered Theodore Roosevelt $10,000 per word to do stunts in the ring. Mr. Roosevelt also gets $1.00 per word for stories. He could write 10,000 words a week too.
Throughout the 1908 presidential campaign, James Calvert Smith reliably led the pack or followed the pack of extreme partisan, or anti-Roosevelt, political cartoonists. The pattern continued as Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency wound down. Many cartoonists, even those who traditionally opposed the president, drew good-natured cartoons speculating on the African safari, Roosevelt’s choice of “retirement” pursuits (he was only 50 years old), and so forth.
Thomas Taggart points to a poster of John Griffin Carlisle and Grover Cleveland with the words, “Greatest Show on Earth.” Caption: Taggart (the new barker of the Democratic combination, pointing to the Carlyle-Cleveland poster): “Come one, come all! We still stand pat on the panic of ’93! We haven’t changed a particle, and our old friends are still with us! Don’t miss the exhibition!!”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-22
President Roosevelt juggles a revolver, sword, glove, and cannon in front of a “Constitution” hoop through which he has stepped. The shirt he wears bears a large dollar sign on the front.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10
Circus performers Alton B. Parker and Henry Gassaway Davis shakily stand on two galloping horses, labeled “free trade” and “protection.” August Belmont walks along as the ringleader, while David B. Hill watches as a clown.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-05
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.”
1907