Elephants

This cartoon depicts a race between the three candidates of the 1912 presidential election sitting astride animals symbolizing their respective parties: Wilson riding a donkey, Taft riding an elephant, and Roosevelt riding a moose. The White House sits in the background as the ultimate finish line. Taft and Wilson are neck and neck, while Roosevelt’s moose bites at Taft’s elephant, seemingly distracting it and slowing it down.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912

An elephant in a top hat and suit talks with a bull moose in a suit as Woodrow Wilson walks by.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-1920

Roosevelt and Taft stand at the head of an elephant (representing the G.O.P) saddled with two chairs. While the president’s chair has a sign on it noting that it is reserved, the vice president’s chair is vacant. Roosevelt pulls on the elephant’s trunk attempting to move it while Taft looks on. Charles Evans Hughes sits in the window of a building labeled “Governor’s Office, Albany.” Timothy L. Woodruff holds a ladder through a street floor window with a sign on it reading “It might taper down to Tim.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1908-01-30

Theodore Roosevelt sits on top of a Republican party elephant with a rate bill under his arm. Roosevelt is facing a man labeled Allison, who is standing under an arch labeled full court review.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1906-05-08

Theodore Roosevelt leads a “G.O.P.” elephant with “Cortelyou,” “Bliss” and money bags on top of the elephant in the direction of “Wall Street.” Dog labeled “yellow dog fund” follows behind. Lambs in window watch procession.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905-09-25

Theodore Roosevelt on lead elephant, “vice president” Charles Fairbanks in tow. “The railroads” and “the trusts” on far left and right. Judges, army and navy men in middle. Man carrying shovel labeled “Panama” leading procession.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905-03-04

Joseph Gurney Cannon, speaker of the House of Representatives, stands at right, facing two elephants, a large one labeled “For President” with Theodore Roosevelt on its back, and a small one labeled “For Vice President” awaiting a rider.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-06-15

A silver elephant wearing a ribbon labeled “Currency Problem” stands in a stall with a shackle labeled “Cleveland’s Veto” on one foot. A notice on the wall states, “Look Out for the Elephant – He is Dangerous.” A battered old man labeled “Dem. Majority” lies on the floor, while another man labeled “Rep. Majority” approaches reading a booklet labeled “Republican Method of Handling Financial Elephants.” Uncle Sam taps him on the shoulder in warning. Caption: Uncle Sam–Don’t be over-confident, my friend; – he was too much for that Democratic keeper, and he may be too much for you!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-02-06

Uncle Sam uses a pitchfork to pile up money labeled “$160,000,000.00 Yearly” as food for a “U.S. White Elephant” wearing a military hat labeled “Pensions.” Caption: “Has the moth of avarice, the canker of greed, so eaten into the hearts of this generation that they are unmindful of these men? God forbid!” (From Harrison’s speech to the G.A.R. encampment.)

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-09-20

President McKinley rides an elephant driven by Marcus A. Hanna. The elephant is carrying Russell A. Alger, Nelson Dingley, William R. Day, and William T. Sampson. A second elephant follows, and a group of men that includes “Nelson A. Miles, Theodore Roosevelt, Joseph Wheeler, Fitzhugh Lee, Henry C. Lodge, William R. Shafter, Winfield S. Schley, John T. Morgan, Cushman K. Davis, George Dewey,” and others, march alongside under the standard “Imperialism for Ever.” A group of disgruntled men sit on the roadside, watching the procession.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-01-18

President McKinley, with an enormous white elephant labeled “Philippines” wearing an eye patch labeled “Aguinaldoism” behind him, speaks to the 55th Congress. Many of the Congressmen react with fear, notably, George F. Hoar in the lower left foreground, and Speaker of the House Thomas B. Reed who drops the gavel. Caption: President McKinley (to the 55th Congress)–Now, gentlemen, I’ve done my share; – I pressed the Spaniards; you do the rest!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-12-21

President Chester A. Arthur sits on a rock with a large white elephant that looks like Roscoe Conkling standing next to him. Arthur is wondering how to get rid of the elephant. Uncle Sam, holding papers labeled “Conkling Declines,” walks away from the “Supreme Court.” Roscoe Conkling had turned down Arthur’s offer for a position on the Supreme Court. Caption: “How shall I ever get rid of him? It won’t do for me to have him on my hands in 1884!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-03-15

Print shows a large elephant labeled “Bismarck” lifting “Alfonso” XII high over the head of a soldier labeled “France.” Caption: The Uhlan King “I’m taller than YOU, now!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-11-28

Handwritten draft of life history descriptions of African game animals. The descriptions were published in Life Histories of African Game Animals.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1914

The “G.O.P.” elephant laments a broken pail labeled “Full Dinner Pail” on the ground before him. The U.S. Capitol building is in the background. Caption: “Gosh! How am I to get that pail in shape for next fall’s campaign?”

comments and context

Comments and Context

As it looked ahead to the 1908 presidential campaign, and the plausible economic insecurity among voters in the aftermath of the October 1907 Wall Street Panic, Puck magazine able simultaneously to tweak its traditional opponent, the Republican Party, and its crosstown rival Judge magazine.