Liberty

Liberty strides forward, carrying a flaming torch labeled “Revolution” and an American flag, and wearing a phrygian cap with tricolor cockade. She crushes underfoot a scepter and a crown labeled “Plutocracy.” In the background, buildings are burning. Caption: If the tariff farce is continued many years longer.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The April 28, 1909 issue of Puck perfectly illustrated the dichotomy — not quite schizophrenia — between the magazine’s dual courses from this period until its demise as a political-cartoon weekly in 1914. The front-cover cartoon was a general observation about the average consumer’s dreams and expectations of a lower cost of living, and the role of the new president, William H. Taft, in that likelihood.

German Emperor William II, with wings made from swords and handguns, and holding a sword labeled “Absolutism,” stands on a cliff with other “Pillars of My Throne” identified as a soldier labeled “Military Force,” a police officer labeled “Police Persecution” carrying a club labeled “Royal Crusher,” an old man with a magnifying glass labeled “Legal Arbitrariness,” Joseph Pulitzer wrapped in paper labeled “Subsidized Press” and “Reactionary Methods,” a well-dressed man labeled “Privileged Nobility,” and a teacher labeled “Drill in Subserviency.” They are illuminated by a large sun labeled “Divine Right.” The “vision” on the right shows a scene in “Transvaal” with a female figure wearing a Phrygian cap and holding a flag labeled “Spirit of Freedom” rising in the clouds of smoke issuing from productive factories.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-01-29

A large gloved hand labeled “Plutocracy” with a design showing the U.S. Capitol emerges from dark clouds to crush a group of citizens with its thumb. On the left, in the clouds of the past, a Union army marches into battle as Abraham Lincoln frees the slaves.

comments and context

Comments and Context

A strong cartoon by Udo J. Keppler keeps pace in Puck with the increasing radicalism of editors like John Kendrick Bangs and cartoonists like Art Young. The weekly was taking fewer partisan stands — that is, candidates and party politics — and addressing larger issues of corruption in business, civic life, and society.

A series of images starts in the upper left, with a kitten labeled “Romish Influence” drinking from a saucer labeled “Toleration,” and a young boy holding a book labeled “Public School System,” standing with Liberty. As the images progress across the top, the kitten grows into a young tiger, until on the bottom left, it becomes a frightening tiger sitting on a table. In the final vignette, it has grown to full size, wearing clerical robes labeled “Romish Influence” and now stands over both the boy and Liberty, with a paw on each of them. Caption: Reprinted from Puck of January 16th, 1884. – Puck finds no stronger comment on the renewal of Catholic agitation for a share of the Public School Funds.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-01-03

Print shows an Irishman confronting Uncle Sam in a boarding house filled with laborers, immigrants from several countries who are attempting to sleep. The “Frenchman, Japanese, Negro, Russian, Italian,” and “German” sleep peacefully. The “Irishman” kicks up a row. He has thrown such bricks as “The Chinese must go,” “Recall Lowell,” and “Irish independence” at Uncle Sam and the female figure of liberty standing on the left. He disturbs a “Chinese” man and an “Englishman,” who are in the berths next to him. Caption: Uncle Sam – “Look here, you, everybody else is quiet and peaceable, and you’re all the time a-kicking up a row!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-06-07

Uncle Sam and a female figure identified as Liberty stroll through a park among trees labeled “Equal Rights, Free Press, Free Schools, Free Speech, Free Ballot, Constitution, [and] Religious Liberty.” Around the bases of the trees are many mushrooms labeled “Total Abstinence Fanatics, Monopoly, Socialist, Nihilist, Dynamiter, Communist, Anarchist, Demagogism, Bribery, [and] Corrupt,” and a vine labeled “Protection” is beginning to strangle a tree labeled “Unrestricted Commerce.” Puck, sitting on a tree branch, tells Uncle Sam that he needs to clear out the fungus before it destroys “Liberty’s” park. Some of the mushrooms have faces that might be identified. Caption: Uncle Sam – Hello, Puck, are you “up a tree”? – Puck – No, but you will be if you don’t clear this stuff out pretty soon!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-02-25

A wide-eyed man (Mr. Henry Peck) sits in a canoe loaded with camping gear while a Native guide rows him out on a wilderness lake. A woman (Mrs. Henry Peck) stands on the shore with her hands on her hips. A large building, possibly a lodge, stands at the top of a hillside leading up from the lake.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-07-02

In this speech draft with handwritten corrections, Governor Roosevelt campaigns against William Jennings Bryan and his policies. Bryan’s prophecies regarding the need for free silver have not come true and the country has prospered. Roosevelt advocates national action to combat the complex problems of trusts. He points out the plight of African Americans and that Bryan seems more concerned with the rights of the “bandits” in the Philippines. Roosevelt does not want the United States to shirk its duty in the Philippines and believes that liberty will come to the islands under the American flag.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1900-10-09

In one scene, political prisoners or activists are sentenced to hard labor and sent to Siberia. In another, they are sent to serve on legislative assemblies. Caption: Formerly, patriots were sent to Siberia. Now they are sent to the Duma.

comments and context

Comments and Context

After decades of unrest in Imperial Russia — assassinations, palace revolts, restive movements in subjugated satellite nations and provinces, the rise socialism, anarchy, and Communism, financial crises, and a disastrous war with Japan — things under Czar Nicholas II spun out of control in 1903-1905. Regional protests, and revolts in the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg, bloody pogroms against Jews, all further weakened the control Nicholas had over his own people and his own Imperial court.

Theodore Roosevelt explains his relationship with Cornelius Newton Bliss while he was in a position of power for the Republican Party and that while he respects Bliss, he was never stopped from prosecuting a company or person by Bliss’s advice. John D. Archbold and Senator Boise Penrose know this and that is why they have attacked Roosevelt in their testimony to Congress. Archbold and Penrose know that Roosevelt is the people’s champion as the Progressive Party candidate and will hinder their dishonest work if he were elected.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1912-09-22

Theodore Roosevelt discusses his trust in the American people to rule themselves and how he will be a leader to guide the people in those decisions. He uses the example of Revolutionary France for how not to lead a people through change, saying the ultimate goal of the people should be social and political justice for all.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1912

Theodore Roosevelt accuses Woodrow Wilson of defining liberty as only an historical term and not understanding what it means to 20th century America. Wilson’s idea of liberty uses the power of the trusts and big business to oppress the workers of the country.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1912-09-22

A cartoon of Theodore Roosevelt saluting the figure of Liberty as she changes a star to gold in honor of Quentin Roosevelt after his death during World War I.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site

Creation Date

1918

Since his arrival in the United States, Vice President Alzamora has been pleased with the “cordial and brotherly feeling” displayed towards Peru. He hopes for more “intimate commercial and social relations” between Peru and the United States. Peru welcomes North American workers and has high hopes for the railroad concessions given to the Pacific Company. Peruvians share the ideals and ambitions laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the country is seeking to cooperate with other American republics for unity and mutual benefit.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-10-04