Political cartoons

Nathan Bijur defends President Roosevelt’s actions and character in response to a political cartoon published in the New York Herald. He was surprised that a dispatch printed in the Herald contained incorrect information about the reason that Roosevelt refused to see a delegation from the National Association of Stationary Engineers. Since Roosevelt can only receive delegations related to public business, Bijur argues that the situation “has not the remotest relation to labor or labor movements.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-10

Joseph Bucklin Bishop, editor of The Globe and Commercial Advertiser, forwards a series of cartoons to President Roosevelt. Although he usually sends them to Edith Roosevelt, this series is different, and Bishop thought it worthwhile for the President to see them first. He comments on the possible nomination of Alton B. Parker for as a candidate for President. He also comments about an attack on him by Thomas Platt, noting that he is proud of the disapproval of his conduct by “that rotten old reprobate.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-03

Postcard featuring a political cartoon of President Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, and William H. Taft playing baseball. The postcard shows Roosevelt, the catcher, and Taft, the pitcher, teaming up against Bryan, the batter. The postcard references Bryan’s failed attempts at becoming president, and foresees another loss in the 1908 election. A handwritten note on the reverse compares Sylvester Rucker’s run for mayor to that of Bryan.

Collection

Marple Collection

Creation Date

1908

Political cartoon postcard featuring Theodore Roosevelt emerging from the tall grass with a gun labeled “1912”. President William H. Taft attempts to give Roosevelt a baby labeled “Roosevelt Policies,” stating, “You’re just in time, take back your kid ouch!” as the baby pulls his hair. The White House is in the background.

Collection

Marple Collection

Creation Date

1910-1912

Postcard featuring a black and white political cartoon by Clifford Kennedy Berryman. The postcard shows Theodore Roosevelt giving a speech in support of letting the people rule. Both men and animals affirm their roles, while women ask, “We’re what?” The reverse of the postcard features a message discussing suffrage efforts in Ohio wards.

Collection

Marple Collection

Creation Date

1913

The front cover of this issue features a commemorative stamp issued by the United States Postal Service in 2020 to mark the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the nineteenth amendment in 1920. A postcard featuring the work of political cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Berryman that also addresses the topic of women’s suffrage appears on the back cover.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2020

Richard (Rick) Marschall examines a famous political cartoon from 1884 that features one of the earliest depictions of Theodore Roosevelt. Marschall focuses on Bernhard Gillam’s Phryne Before the Chicago Tribunal which depicts various leaders of the Republican Party pondering the political fate of James Gillespie Blaine, the eventual Republican nominee in the 1884 presidential contest. Marschall chronicles the highs and lows of Roosevelt’s life in 1884, and he identifies many of the prominent Republicans depicted in the cartoon which is based on the French painting Phryne Before the Areopagus. The political cartoon supplements the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2018

Two political cartoons of Theodore Roosevelt from the summer of 1912 appear on the front and back covers of this issue. The front cover shows Roosevelt speaking from a hotel balcony in Chicago in June 1912 while the back cover cartoon depicts him as a bull moose. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1912

The front cover of this issue of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal features a political cartoon by Thomas Nast from 1889 depicting Theodore Roosevelt as a cowboy trying to tame a horse branded “spoilsman” in reference to Roosevelt’s work with the Civil Service Commission. The back cover has two photographs of members of the Rio Roosevelt Expedition of 1992. One of the photographs shows expedition members displaying the flags of the organizations that sponsored the journey.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1992

Michael Kelly describes the fallout from the dinner meeting between Booker T. Washington and President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House on October 16, 1901. Kelly quotes from newspaper accounts of the time, and examines eight examples of political memorabilia that emerged from the meeting such as political cartoons and buttons. The items, which are shown in the article, mostly criticize Roosevelt and portray African Americans in a racist manner, although two items, a picture and a button, emphasize the word “equality” and were originally intended to praise the meeting. Kelly notes that the meeting was widely and fervently criticized in the South but met with a warm reception in the African American community and the items produced reflect those differing opinions.

John A. Gable provides a short introduction to the article and says that historians and historical journals need to preserve and study the past “however unpleasant or distasteful such records may be.” Eight illustrations of political cartoons, buttons, and campaign memorabilia supplement the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Roger A. Fischer examines the emergence of Theodore Roosevelt as a subject for political cartoonists in the years 1883-1884. Fischer highlights Roosevelt’s battles with the Tammany Hall political machine in New York City and his role at the 1884 Republican National Convention. Fischer argues that Roosevelt received a lot of attention because he was from New York City where the major magazines of the time had their offices.

The article features seven cartoons depicting Roosevelt and others, and it also includes a listing of the officers of the Theodore Roosevelt Association along with the members of its executive committee.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Jay N. Darling’s famous political cartoon of Theodore Roosevelt, “The Long, Long Trail,” published shortly after Roosevelt’s death in 1919, appears on the front cover of this issue. The back cover photograph shows Brigadier General Chuck Yeager and Reverend Norman Vincent Peale, winners of the 1985 Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal, at the awards dinner along with two other guests.  

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1985-04-20

The cover of this issue features a photograph of President Ronald Reagan working at a desk under a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt. There is a brief caption and the president’s signature beneath the photograph. The cover page is followed by a page announcing that this issue of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal is a special issue dedicated to the 125th anniversary of Roosevelt’s birth. It features an illustration used on a special commemorative plate designed for the anniversary. It is followed by the Journal‘s first ever table of contents along with a listing of the officers of the association and members of its three major committees. The Journal concludes with a full page political cartoon by Robert Carter depicting Roosevelt with his hand on Uncle Sam’s shoulder. The back cover has a full page photograph of the exterior of the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site in New York City.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1983

Book reviews take center stage in this issue of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal. Two historical novels are reviewed by members of the association, and there are articles devoted to Edmund Morris’s The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and John A. Gable’s The Bull Moose Years: Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party. Each of those articles draws on reviews found in major newspapers, magazines, and historical journals. 

This issue also has articles on the attempted assassination of Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 and on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s invocation of his distant cousin to further his own political career and causes.

The editorial page from The Wisconsin State Journal, published September 19, 1911. Article titles and a short description are the following:

Down in Maine – a recent vote in Maine against prohibition

“ED.” Madison – a memorial for Ed. Madison

Stand Up Mr. Works – an indictment of John D. Works, a Progressive junior senator from California

Henry L. Stoddard asks William Loeb to ask President Roosevelt if he will meet the cartoonist Homer Davenport next Saturday. Stoddard would like Davenport to do a pen and ink sketch of Roosevelt from life, rather than from a photograph.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-05

In the wake of President Roosevelt’s dinner with Booker T. Washington, this newspaper article criticizes a cartoon depicting Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt sharing a table with Washington. The author of the piece believes that Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt is to be respected, and that including her as a political target in this has “gone beyond all bounds and their work is not a question of politics, but a question of common decency.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-29

Herman Henry Kohlsaat says that the enclosed cartoon “speaks louder” than an editorial in The Daily News, which is widely read by the laboring classes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-16

Political cartoon “Ma! Teddy’s Takin’ a Hog Bite o’ my Pie!”; from a Utica, New York, newspaper; dated May 25, 1912. The cartoon has an older woman labeled as the “Republican Party” knitting in a rocking chair, with President Taft in tears, and Theodore Roosevelt taking a bite of a pie slice labeled “Delegates.”

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

Creation Date

1912-05-25

List of political cartoons featuring Theodore Roosevelt and the magazines where they were published.

Collection

Newberry Library

Creation Date

Unknown