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David M. Munroe reports remarks made at the Libertyville Debating Club regarding the Jewish passport problem with Russia. The speaker believes politicians should be more concerned by the conditions of Americans living in congested cities.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-14
The writer challenges the pessimistic view of the degradation of American society, including quotes from President James Roscoe Day of Syracuse University and Chancellor Henry S. Drinker of Lehigh University.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-29
Ambassador Reid sends President Roosevelt a confidential memorandum. Reid also discusses a British dinner party and European perspectives of international relations and politics.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-23
Observations of Theodore Roosevelt’s appearance, mannerisms, and personality.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1912-08
Vignettes of life in prison show “Respectable” prisoners who play golf, wear fitted prison uniforms, go yachting, have their valets perform their hard labor, attend lavish dinners complete with speakers under the banner “The Lord Loveth a Cheerful Grafter,” and are transported in fine horse-drawn carriages. Caption: A way to aid Justice in landing the “respectable” crook.
In 1905 the first trial of Harry K. Thaw, Pittsburgh scion who famously killed his wife’s lover, was a year in the future, but readers can be assured that celebrities and trust magnates were being convicted of crimes and sent to prisons at an increasing rate. It was, after all the Age of the Muckraker, when exposes and revelations were continual fare in daily newspapers and monthly magazines.
Two Mormon elders discuss another Mormon who has been found guilty of bigamy. Caption: Elder Heaperholmes–He has been tried by the church and found guilty of bigamy. / Elder Holikuss–Guilty of bigamy? / Elder Heaperholmes–That’s the judgment. He’s been married only twice.
Among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at the time of this cartoon, bigamy was more common than it is today. Mormons were heavily criticized outside of Utah and other areas where the sect dominated, and there were many laws proposed to restrict polygamy. Ehrhart’s cartoon — with the Temple and a horde of children surrounding one father in the background — jokingly suggested that Mormons disfavored those with merely two spouses.
At center, a young woman asks Cupid about his flower garden where all the blossoms have male and female faces. Six vignettes show scenes from country and country club life that generally relate to relations between the sexes. A poem called “Cupidculture” is included.
A double-page spread by Puck‘s counterpart of Charles Dana Gibson (creator of the Gibson Girl stylish cartoons in Life Magazine) at the time. These are seasonal gags in an issue dated in the middle of April. The poem in the central cartoon was written by Arthur H. Folwell, the editor of the magazine for more than a dozen years, later on the staff of the New York Tribune and writer for The New Yorker, and script writer for the Mr. and Mrs. comic strip.
A devil takes the lid off a box labeled “Society” allowing fumes to escape which show the liberation of women, such as being granted divorces, horseback riding, driving automobiles, gambling, and smoking in social situations.
Ehrhart’s Puck cartoon appeared a week before Easter in 1904. While its constituent details seem overtly scolding and of a moralizing nature, this double-page cartoon was really the contemporary cartoonists’ stereotypical theme at every year’s end of the Lenten season. Earthly pleasures and frivolous pastimes, putatively suppressed during Lent, were released after Easter, at least in the minds of editorial cartoonists of the day.
A haughty, well-dressed woman sits in the middle of a ballroom, holding a paper that states “Society hence-forth will strive to attract brains, not mere vulgar wealth. –A leader of Alleged Society.” Around her are animal acts, gambling tables, men eating on horseback, people with small animals, and a monkey, wearing clothing, squatting on the floor eating off china. Caption: Puck — Madam, you can attract neither brains nor decency to society with this miserable outfit.
The “400” was the term given to the cream of American society, unconsciously bestowed by Ward McAllister, the unofficial arbiter of social events in Manhattan and Newport in the 1880s, and coined because of the capacity at one ball’s location. For social aspirants it became a term of ambition; for a growing class of moralistic conservatives — for instance, Theodore Roosevelt, who considered the playgrounds of the rich to be vulgar — and to the socially conscious and the poor, the activities of the 400 was something to disdain.
At center, a young woman at seaside writes to her beau in the city, asking when he can come down (in verse by Edwin L. Sabin). Surrounding the main image are scenes of summer life at the sea, at the resort, on the road, and at home.
S. D. Ehrhart became Puck‘s go-to cartoonist of humorous and light social commentary in special holiday and seasonal issues of the magazine in the century’s first decade. As here, his format was to feature one large drawing or central joke (or illustrating a poem related to the theme), surrounded by one-panel gags. Seldom did they refer to political issues, as magazines like Puck, Judge, and Life increasingly desired to attract general, and not narrowly partisan, readerships.
A larger-than-life “Spirit of Civilization” points with contempt to a man on a pedestal labeled “Russia.” Standing around the pedestal are John Bull, Uncle Sam, and symbolic representatives of other nations.
Czarist Russia, so recently applauded by the world for land reforms, abolition of religious restrictions and other measures announced in a Ukase issued by Nicholas II, attracted universal condemnation for immediate reversals and counter-measures, especially pogroms against the Jews in his domain.
The vacant home of a millionaire appears at center, surrounded by vignettes showing the whereabouts and activities of the millionaire’s family members. His wife and a daughter are on the golf course, a son is cruising on a yacht, another daughter is at the seminary, and another son is marking time on a ranch, while “Papa [gambles] at Monte Carlo” and the pets spend their days in the kennel.
Besides showing off Ehrhart’s considerable talents as an illustrator-cartoonist, this cartoon is benign group of drawings whose points illustrate the sharp observations of critics like the economist Thorstein Veblen. The critique of Veblen’s controversial but influential book The Theory of the Leisure Class (Macmillan, 1899) focused on the excesses of the wealthy. It described an unflattering pattern of the accumulation of personal wealth and its inevitable corrupting effect on societies. Veblen introduced the phrase “conspicuous consumption” to the language, and Ehrhart’s cartoon of a mansion made redundant by its family’s outside activities, could serve as an illustration of Veblen’s critique.
At center, a man looks out a garret window, daydreaming or musing on the life of the farmer. Vignettes around him offer humorous views of summer activities, including courtship, neighborly visiting, and swimming.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1902-07-16
At center, a carte-de-visite photograph labeled “The horrible photo-portrait of present” is juxtaposed to a portrait painting labeled “the fine old Gilbert Stuart portrait of yesterday.” Other vignettes compare the days of old to the modern ways, such as “Ye ancient stage coach is – supplanted by the flying ‘Mobile'” and “Dear old Broadway of yore and – as it is now.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1901-07-03
A large red devil turns the crank of a large wheel decorated with scenes of gambling and with male and female figures labeled “Reformers,” “Citizen’s Committee,” “Women’s League,” and “Salvation,” as well as police officers hanging onto the wheel as it spins.
Published just after Easter, this Puck cartoon visited a frequent theme of cartoonists, as well as clergy and reformers, especially during the Lenten season, about sinful habits, and how society could ameliorate the unfortunate results of wanton behavior. Easter sermons predictably made headlines in these times.
A humorous certificate, usually issued when sailors cross the Equator for the first time, names Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt “one of our trusty shellbacks” and an honorary member of the Ancient Order of the Deep.
The U.S.S. Louisiana, a Connecticut-class battleship, was sailing south around South America to reach the west coast of the United States as part of the first leg of the Great White Fleet’s journey around the world.
President Roosevelt writes his son, Ted, about a variety of matters. He discusses the trouble that Emperor William II of Germany is in with both conservatives and socialists. Last year, he gave a damaging interview to American journalist William Bayard Hale, which Roosevelt intervened to prevent the New York Times from publishing. A portion was published in Century and suppressed by the Germans. Roosevelt reflects on the current state of the liberal and democratic movement, and believes that the situation is not as dire as in the French Revolution, or in 1840s America. He also explains his lukewarm support of women’s suffrage. Finally, Roosevelt offers his son advice on working with the people around him when it is natural, but not pursuing relationships that are merely social in nature.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-11-20
President Roosevelt introduces his cousin Laura d’Oremieulx Roosevelt, “Mrs. J. West Roosevelt” and hopes Ambassador Hill will extend “all proper official courtesy” to her.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-01
President Roosevelt introduces his cousin Laura d’Oremieulx Roosevelt, “Mrs. J. West Roosevelt” and hopes Consul General Diederich will extend “all proper official courtesy” to her.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-01
President Roosevelt informs John La Farge that finishing the John Harvard memorial window “is of the utmost importance” as Ambassador Joseph Hodges Choate wants to dedicate it rather than have his successor do it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01-21