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City and town life

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The dreaded guest

The dreaded guest

William II, Emperor of Germany, stands in the middle of a narrow cobblestone street, possibly in Italy (the pope, wearing the papal crown, is walking down the street into the background). He is taking a visiting card labeled “Wilhelm” from a small pouch in his left hand. The French flag is hanging above a door labeled “RF,” on the left, where a man is leaning out a window. Austria appears to be the next door on the left, and other rulers lean out windows on both sides of the street. At William’s feet is a suitcase with labels “William Berlin, Hotel Britain, Polar Star, [and] Morocco.” Caption: “Let me see! Whom shall I call on next?”

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905-08-23

The age of specialists

The age of specialists

Various incidents are shown where a person refuses to perform a task because he or she is a specialist in some other field. The series concludes with two men speaking to each other over the caption, “The only specialists from whom nothing else is expected.” They are Weber and Fields, the German-dialect stage comedians immensely popular at the time.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1903-02-18

Creator(s)

Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to George Otto Trevelyan

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to George Otto Trevelyan

On the occasion of his recent inauguration, President Roosevelt sends his reflections on the accomplishments of his first term in office and the challenges of his second term, along with a description of the inauguration itself. Secretary of State John Hay gave Roosevelt a ring with a lock of Abraham Lincoln’s hair in it, which he wore while taking the oath of office, sharing his thoughts about Lincoln and how he tries to live up to Lincoln’s example. Roosevelt describes the various groups of people who participated in the inaugural parade, including cowboys, Indians, veterans of several wars, civic organizations, coal miners, farmers, and more. Roosevelt describes current domestic and international challenges. In the English-speaking countries, Roosevelt finds the divisions between rural and city dwellers to be of concern, as well as the dwindling birth rate.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-03-09

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Letter from J. W. Petavel to Theodore Roosevelt

Letter from J. W. Petavel to Theodore Roosevelt

J. W. Petavel has written a book about his belief that the proper practicing of Christianity as a “strenuous” faith will solve many of the social questions and problems of the modern day. He believes his views on the faith and society match Theodore Roosevelt’s, and would like Roosevelt to write a preface of the book. He sends various clippings about the book and his work, and will send the book under separate cover.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-10-15

Creator(s)

Petavel, J. W. (James William)

Privileged sport

Privileged sport

An automobile driven by a chauffeur speeds down a road, surrounded by newspaper clippings with headlines about numerous traffic accidents involving pedestrians struck by automobiles, including one where a chauffeur was charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 13-year-old boy.

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-06-09

Uncle Sam’s income

Uncle Sam’s income

A customs officer places a tax stamp on an American heiress. Surrounding vignettes suggest other ways of generating revenue, such as taxing “poodles and other precious pups,” people who tell tall stories, “divorce,” “sidewhiskers,” “amateur elocutionists,” and “rubber plants,” “instead of putting it all over the poor old consumer.” Caption: Some stamp-tax suggestions for raising the wind.

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-04-21

Holy trinity

Holy trinity

A priest stands at the pulpit in a cathedral, preaching from the “Holy Ledger.” Beneath his feet is a cut-away of an area labeled “Rentals” and revealing bags of money above the phrase, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” The bottom half of the image shows the squalor of poor families living in sections of the city identified as “Filth Lane, Tuberculosis Alley, Bacteria Court, Thug Corner, Squalor Street, [and] Fire Trap.”

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-01-06

The “new journalism” beats him

The “new journalism” beats him

A bespectacled man wearing a top hat and overcoat stands in the street, holding a book titled “Old Sleuth the Detective.” Near him, young children are reading the newspapers labeled “Daily Scandal Monger,” “Morning Cyclone of Crime,” “Daily Rot, Daily Scooper, [and] Morning Scavenger.” Behind are newsstands labeled “All the Sensation Papers” and “Don’t Fail to Buy the Sunday Slop Bucket,” with headlines such as “How to Poison a Whole City,” “Murder,” and “Crime.” Caption: Dime Novel Writer–And they used to say that my books were bad for young peoples’ morals!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-03-17

Creator(s)

Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937

From producer to consumer

From producer to consumer

Two men, one labeled “Producer,” use a pulley system labeled “U.S. Parcels Post” to ship a package labeled “Direct to Consumer” beyond the reach of a man labeled “Express Co.” straddling a “R. R.” station and a man labeled “Middleman” standing in front of a “Commission Market” to a man labeled “Consumer” and a woman standing at the other end of the pulley system. The consumer in turn sends payment for the goods received by the same system. Caption: What the parcels post would mean to them both.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-01-04

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

Our Japanese village

Our Japanese village

In a crowded outdoor scene, possibly in “Times” Square, Japanese paper lanterns are hanging and almost everyone is wearing Japanese-style clothing. Among the porters, street vendors, and street railroad conductors are depicted Jay “Gould,” H. O. “Thompson,” Charles A. “Dana,” Whitelaw “Reid,” Benjamin F. Butler, “Bergh,” Elizabeth Cady “Stanton,” Joseph “Pulitzer,” Samuel J. “Tilden,” Thomas De Witt “Talmage,” William M. “Evarts,” and “Grace, Murray, [and] Barrett,” and Marcus “Daly,” along with Puck holding his lithographic pencil.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1886-01-13

Creator(s)

Keppler, Joseph Ferdinand, 1838-1894

The knitting craze

The knitting craze

At center, an effeminate Santa Claus stands in front of a fireplace where stockings are hanging. His bag of toys is on the floor nearby. He considers taking the stockings “for the Belgians.” The surrounding vignettes show scenes depicting the “knitting craze”: a chess player knits while waiting for his opponent to make a move; a society woman knits while walking the dog, with a servant following her to carry the yarn on a tray; a man knits while sitting in the bathtub, the only free time he has; passengers and a conductor knit while riding on a streetcar; a boxer drops a stitch when caught off guard by the gong; and a drunkard tells his wife “No, my dear, I wash tnitting at the tlub.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-12-26

Creator(s)

Mayer, Henry, 1868-1954

Olde Christmas

Olde Christmas

Two winter scenes are depicted with a verse by Breton Braley printed between them. On the left is “The Christmas Coach” showing a stagecoach with passengers riding on top, with a crescent moon and winter spirits in the night sky. On the right is “The Spirit of the Snow” showing the Snow Spirit spreading snow over a city at night with a church in the background. Each half of the spread includes a remarque at the bottom signed with monogram (E within a box) and showing a 19th century farmhouse and a church.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-12-19

Creator(s)

Ewer, Raymond Crawford, 1888-1915