Lyre

Thomas W. Lawson, as Orpheus, plays a lyre while sitting beneath a tree on a hillside in a pastoral setting. In the foreground are John D. Rockefeller, James R. Keene, J. Edward Addicks, and Henry H. Rogers as wild animals that have become entranced by the music. In the middle distance, a sheep lies on its back.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The mythical Greek god, repository of perhaps the most attributes and personality traits of any god, added facets and powers in various tales through the centuries. No manifestation was more unlikely than in the person of Thomas W. Lawson in this Puck cartoon by Joseph Keppler Junior.

Marcus Alonzo Hanna, in a small sailboat with sail labeled “Under no circumstances will I consent to become a candidate,” sails past a rocky coastline. Two female sirens with the lower torso of chickens, one playing a lyre labeled “Wall Street Interests” and the other holding a paper labeled “Trust Influence,” try to lure him onto the rocks.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon by Joseph Keppler Junior is a major example of supreme irony, and unavoidable exigencies of the publishing business.

James Gillespie Blaine is pictured as Apollo playing a lyre labeled “N. Y. Tribune” fashioned from the body of Whitelaw Reid, before a gathering of the gods on Olympus. Among those present are Cyrus W. Field as Mercury, George M. Robeson as Neptune, Charles A. Dana as Minerva, Jay Gould as Zeus, Thomas Collier Platt, Robert Green Ingersoll, and Rutherford B. Hayes as angels, Chauncey Depew, W. H. Vanderbilt as Pluto, Russell Sage, William W. Phelps, John Roach as Vulcan, Stephen B. Elkins as Dionysus, Joseph Warren Keifer as Hercules, John Alexander Logan as Mars, Benjamin F. Butler as Venus, Stephen Wallace Dorsey and Thomas Jefferson Brady as putti, and John Kelly as an owl.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-10-08