Cortelyou, George B. (George Bruce), 1862-1940

President Roosevelt holds a “presidential nomination 1904” paper and rides a Republican elephant with a “Cortelyou halo” that pulls a “campaign fund band wagon.” New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt and Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge ride smaller elephants while Secretary of Commerce and Labor George B. Cortelyou holds a “reform in elections” stick. Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw and Attorney General and recently appointed Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox are dressed as jugglers. The entire party walks toward the Republican National Convention.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-17

President Roosevelt attempts to put Secretary of Commerce and Labor George B. Cortelyou on a bucking  “Republican National Committee” horse. “Chicago” can be seen in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-18

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.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-27

Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou rides a Republican elephant.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-13

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.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-14

President Roosevelt opens his cabinet, which features busts of his cabinet members, and tells them, “Come now, all of you must take the stump.” In the foreground is the “Taft campaign stump” and the following cabinet members are depicted as busts: Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar S. Straus, Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou, Bureau of Corporations James Rudolph Garfield, Secretary of State Elihu Root, Secretary of War Luke E. Wright, Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer, Secretary of the Navy Victor Howard Metcalf, and Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The cabinet as a cabinet: two factors attest to the appropriate characterization of events pictured by P. B. McCord’s political cartoon during the last week of the 1908 presidential campaign.

President Roosevelt holds a sign out the window that reads, “We will bust no trust.” Meanwhile, Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou rolls a “J.P. Morgan bar’l” through the “back door” of the “National Republican Headquarters.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-12

An African-American man holds two hands of playing cards. One hand includes cards that feature the faces of President Roosevelt, Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou, J. Pierpont Morgan, Charles W. Fairbanks, New York Governor Benjamin B. Odell, and New York Lieutenant Governor Frank Wayland Higgins. The other hand includes cards that feature the faces of Patrick Henry McCarren, Charles Francis Murphy, William Jennings Bryan, David B. Hill, Alton B. Parker, and Henry Gassaway Davis.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10

Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou and Chair of the Democratic National Committee Thomas Taggart roll barrels of money toward their respective party’s headquarters. Behind them is a doorway to “Wall St.” They tell each other, “There’s nothing in it.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-15

President Roosevelt appears as a furnace, steaming and smoking, with the pressure gauges at their maximum. Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou, rather than shoveling a pile of coal labeled “war news” into the furnace, holds down the stop valve. Caption: The Japs winning glory! Vesuvius erupting! Zounds! I wish Cortelyou would let Me blow off!

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-30

A tall Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou stands on “his record” as a small Thomas Taggart grabs “mud” to throw at Cortelyou.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-25

Alton B. Parker throws a paper on the ground that reads, “Money from the trusts. Deny it! Alton B. Parker.” Meanwhile, Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou and President Roosevelt stand in front of a “campaign funds” vault. Cortelyou holds a “Trust Secrets compiled by G. B. Cortelyou” book.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-02

President Roosevelt is tied to an “official chair” like his “big stick” is tied to the wall. Both are attached to a “November 9 time lock.” There is a pile of papers in front of Roosevelt, and he looks out the window at a “Democratic mass meeting” where Alton B. Parker is giving a speech.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-04

Alton B. Parker holds a “safe and sane democracy” shield and a sling that he uses to hit the head of a trust giant. President Roosevelt and Chair of Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou stand behind a “stand pat wall” and hold up their hands in horror.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-05

A large man labeled “The Trusts,” with his pockets bulging with money, is being held at gunpoint by George B. “Cortelyou.” “Teddy” Roosevelt stands behind Cortelyou with his gun holstered, but wielding “The Big Stick for Campaign Funds.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-05

President Roosevelt pops out of the “White House” and speaks into a megaphone: “falsehood,” “absolutely false,” “wicked falsehood,” and “monstrous.” A Republican elephant, William Loeb, and Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou, who holds a “Trust Secrets compiled by G. B. Cortelyou” book, run away.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-06

A volume summarizing and recording the 1902 restoration and renovation of the White House, including the report by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White summarizing the extent of work that was done, historical notes regarding the White House, and many drawings and photographs of the construction work on the White House and Executive offices.

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1903

A number of Republican and Democratic politicians play a game of baseball while large crowds look on. President Roosevelt is the pitcher while Charles W. Fairbanks is the catcher. The “voter” stands at the “White House” home base while Alton B. Parker tries to run to home base. Thomas Taggart tells Parker, “Get ready to slide, Judge.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-11

President Roosevelt and Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou walk in front of a number of gagged officials from the “War Dept,” “Navy Dept,” “Post Office Dept,” “Pension Bureau,” and “Agricultural Dept.” Roosevelt points to a sign: “By direction of the president, officials will neither discuss nor give out any information regarding the annual estimates until further orders.” Another sign reads, “The governmental expenditure last year mounted up to five hundred and eighty-two millions, which is not equalled by any year since the Civil War, with the exception of the year of the Spanish War. Judge Parker’s speech.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-11

President Roosevelt brands a Republican elephant with his initials “T.R.” underneath a crown. The elephant is chained to the ground and wears “pension order” and “postal fraud” covers on its front legs. Chair of the Republican National Committee, New York Governor Benjamin B. Odell, New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, and Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge all watch from behind a fence.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-17