Fife and drum corps music

President Roosevelt plays a fife as Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon and South Carolina Senator Benjamin R. Tillman beat on “House” and “Senate” drums respectively. William Loeb walks behind them with a “railroad rate bill” flag that uses a “big stick” and pitchfork as a flag pole. They are dressed in colonial attire, in a recreation of the famous painting The Spirit of ’76 by Archibald Willard.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-03-21

Three members of a fife and drum corp marching into battle all have the face and figure of Theodore Roosevelt.

Comments and Context

“The Spirit of ’76” (sometimes called “Yankee Doodle”) is a painting by Archibald MacNeal Willard (1836-1918), an Ohio artist who produced few other works of fame or distinction in his career.

The iconic original painting was exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It attracted only mild attention there, but an increasing notice by end of the fair; and its fame grew through subsequent years. It hangs today in Abbot Hall, a museum in Marblehead, Massachusetts.