Mirrors

This postcard shows the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, a long hall lined with windows on one side and mirrors on the other. The hall is richly decorated with paintings on the walls, as well as on the ceiling.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “Here is what is called the Hall of Mirrors. This room is 236 ft long 33ft wide and 43 ft high. On one side is 17 large arch windows which command a beautiful view of the gardens, while on the other side of the hall is as many large mirrors, corresponding in size to the windows.

The paintings overhead represent the many events during the reign of Louis 14th from 1661 to 1678, during the war with Germany, Holland and Spain.

President Roosevelt looks in a mirror and shakes hands with himself.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08

President Roosevelt points to two pictures on the wall—one of which is the pirate Blackbeard, and the other depicting highwayman Dick Turpin—as Uncle Sam looks in a mirror, having exchanged his top hat for a pirate’s hat and bandana, brandishing a pistol and cutlass, and wearing a scroll reading “recognition of the insurgent government of the new ‘Republic of Panama'” tucked in his sash. Caption: Uncle Sam, costume maker, to the customer Roosevelt: Sir, do you want this pirate costume?

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-11-14

President Roosevelt wears a cape and holds a mirror and a candle. In front of him is a “muckrake.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

After the 1908 election, it seemed that some Democratic cartoonists could not let go of attacking President Roosevelt, even as the challenges facing President-Elect William H. Taft and other topics loomed. This cartoon, mocking Roosevelt as a modern Diogenes in search of an honest man, almost seems ad hominem.

Secretary of War William H. Taft holds “the big stick” and wears President Roosevelt’s Rough Rider uniform as he looks in the mirror. Roosevelt holds scissors and thread as he watches Taft. Caption: “When first I put this uniform on/I said, as I looked in the glass,/it’s one to a million if any civilian/this figure or face can surpass.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-05-26

A young couple stands near a mirror, and as the young man declares his love for her, the young woman gazes on her reflection in the mirror and wonders how it would be possible not to love her. Caption: “I love you” … as he made the vow they near a limpid mirror stood. She gazed within and mutely said, “Well really, I should think he would.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-03-09

Uncle Sam stands before two mirrors that distort the reflected image. One mirror is labeled “Seeing is Believing – the Republican Minority” and shows Uncle Sam as a tall, thin, gaunt figure. The other mirror is labeled “Seeing is Believing – the Democratic Majority” and shows Uncle Sam as a happily rotund figure. A man labeled “Underwood” is directing the viewer’s attention toward the Democratic image and a man labeled “Mann” is directing the viewer’s attention toward the Republican image.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-05-28

A beautiful young woman holding a mirror sits on the floor next to containers of cosmetics.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-09-27

A woman holds Cupid in one arm while plucking and arranging Cupid’s feathers in her hair and admiring herself in a mirror held by a faun who is mostly hidden by tall grasses.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-04-26

Charles W. Fairbanks, dressed as a Rough Rider, stands in front of a mirror and sees himself as Theodore Roosevelt. Caption: Fairbanks — De-light-ed!

Comments and Context

The context of Keppler’s cover cartoon in Puck is that Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana had just been nominated for Vice President, as President Roosevelt’s running mate. The famously taciturn and colorless Fairbanks had a personality that in no way mirrored that of the ebullient Roosevelt, except in a cartoon’s mirror (note the reflection of the real Roosevelt, complementing the props and notes associated with him).

The cartoon is a reminder of how vice presidents once were chosen, and how casually they were treated despite being a heartbeat away from the presidency. With rare exceptions, vice presidents were chosen by conventions (or backroom bosses), sometimes without the knowledge or assent of the presidential candidate, and sometimes over the latter’s objections.

Columbia is adjusting her bonnet, which is a battleship labeled “World Power” with two guns labeled “Army” and “Navy.” It is spewing thick black smoke labeled “Expansion.” She is inserting a tiny sword as a hatpin to hold it in place.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-04-06

Aug Schulze shares his business idea to extend daylight hours in San Francisco, California, by installing mirrors in New York, New York with Theodore Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-03-31