Presidents--Elections

Woodrow Wilson, as a doctor, holds aloft a bottle of “Tariff Subsidy Morphine” among a group of men at the “Democratic Sanitarium – Morphine and other Drug Habits Cured.” On a table are bottles of “High Protection Cocaine, High Protection Dope, [and] Tariff Subsidy Morphine.” Caption: Dr. Wilson — Don’t be alarmed, gentlemen. We won’t take it from you all at once. We’ll taper you down gradually, and after a while you’ll have confidence enough in yourselves to get along without it.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-09-11

Theodore Roosevelt, as a burlesque dancer labeled “Rosie,” clutching money, stands with a man labeled “Perkins” who is reaching into his pocket. In the background is a poster labeled “Bull Moose Burlesque.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-09-18

A large bull labeled “Lincoln,” with the head of Abraham Lincoln, stands among the reeds of a swamp where a puffed-up frog labeled “Roosevelt” is standing on a piece of driftwood labeled “Progressivism” in a pool of water labeled “Practical Politics.” Caption: The frog who wanted to be as big as the bull.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-09-25

A man labeled “Wilson” wearing rubber gloves labeled “Fearlessness” and “Common Sense” touches a live electric wire that spells out “The Tariff.” In the foreground, Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft flee in fear of getting electrocuted. Caption: The live wire and the man with the rubber gloves.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-02

President Taft climbs a mountain labeled “White House Glacier” with members of his campaign committee hanging from ropes attached to his waist. On the left are “Crane, Penrose,” and the Republican elephant, and on the right are “Sherman, Barnes, [and] Root,” who is driving a piece of heavy machinery. Caption: What can Taft do? They are his guides and he is tied to them.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-02

Two little children labeled “Taft” and “Sherman” are crying because they have lost their way. Vice President Sherman, as a little girl, is holding the string to a pull-toy which is an elephant on a base with wheels. Caption: Pitiable plight of little Willie and Jamey.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-09

A good samaritan labeled “Wilson” offers a fallen “Consumer” a drink from a bottle labeled “Tariff Reform” and dresses his wound with “Direct Relief.” A donkey stands to the right. Two men, one labeled “Roosevelt” and the other labeled “Taft,” have passed by, not bothering to stop and offer any assistance. Caption: And the two that passed by on the other side.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-09

President Taft, wearing a suit of armor, holds a standard labeled “Campaign of the Full Dinner Pail.” A squire labeled “Sherman” is placing the helmet with plume labeled “W.H. Taft” over his head. Another squire labeled “Penrose” is drawing back the opening of the tent through which Taft can enter the fray.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-16

A figure composed of corn and corn stalks labeled “Record Breaking Crops” walks through a dark wood at night with a diminutive Uncle Sam, who is frightened by scary-looking trees labeled “Johnson, Taft, Sherman, Roosevelt, Wilson, [and] Debs.” Caption: “Don’t be frightened, Sammy. They can’t hurt you while I am with you.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-16

Cameo portraits of Woodrow Wilson and Thomas Marshall, with Puck holding a banner that states “For President Woodrow Wilson: of New Jersey. For Vice-President Thomas R. Marshall: of Indiana.” Campaign Number.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-23

Cameo portraits of “Clark, Saulsbury, Metz, Wells, Marshall, Gerard, Wilson, McAdoo, Sulzer, Bryan, Elkus, Hudspeth, Underwood, Harmon, [and] Daniels” form a cluster of comets in the night sky on election night, November 5, 1912. An elephant and a bull moose are frightened by the “celestial display.” Caption: A celestial display which may be seen to best advantage on the night of Tuesday, November 5. Elephants and Bull Moose should beware of comets and seek cyclone-cellars. Display will be especially dazzling at Oyster Bay, N.Y., and Beverly, Mass. Visible anywhere in the United States, however, shortly after sundown.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-23

A man labeled “Wilson” with an axe labeled “Tariff Revision,” who has just chopped through vines labeled “Excessive Protection,” causes a giant labeled “Monopoly” to fall to the ground.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-30

The ghost of the Republican elephant rises from behind a tombstone that states “Sacred to the memory of a united Republican Party.” President “Taft” and “Teddy” Roosevelt believe that it is coming after them and are fleeing in fear. Caption: A graveyard is no place to be on Hallowe’en.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-30

Uncle Sam, as a rooster crowing, stands next to Dame Democracy as the hen that laid the egg which has just hatched, producing a chick labeled “Wilson.” Caption: After twenty years of unproductive eggs.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-11-06

Uncle Sam wakes up in bed, hung over, with everything in his room caught up in a whirlwind of bottles of alcohol labeled “Stand Pat Booze, Bull Moose Bitters, [and] That’s All Wilson,” a pitcher of “Debs Dope,” a ballot box, playing cards, chips, cigars, and furniture. Within the whirlwind is another whirlwind with the Democratic Donkey, Republican Elephant, and a Bull Moose buzzing around his head.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-11-06

Charles W. Fairbanks, as an old woman, sits in a rocking chair in front of a fireplace, holding a portrait of the “G.O.P.” elephant. “Blessed Are the Pacemakers” appears on a sampler above the mantle. Fairbanks is wearing a pair of shoes labeled “Nomination Sneakers,” and a basket of knitting labeled “Political Fancy Work” lies on the floor next to the chair. A cage with a bee inside is on a table labeled “Presidential Bee.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This Puck magazine cover by Udo J. Keppler is a textbook example of the political points that subtly can be made below the surface of simple cartoons. That is, deceptively simple, for some cartoons contain visual elements — signs and symbols — and some rely on labels, phrases, and “code words.”

The “G.O.P.” elephant, as an emperor during the Manchu Dynasty, sits on a throne looking at men labeled “Wilson, Champ Clark, Foss, Harmon, [and] Underwood” armed with large knives or swords.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-11-15

President Taft, as Solomon, holds a baby elephant labeled “G.O.P.” aloft in one hand and a large sword labeled “Party Cleaver” in the other. One man labeled “Stand-Patter” pleads for Solomon Taft to spare the elephant. Another man labeled “Insurgent” stands to the right looking concerned, but not pleading for mercy.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-11-29

Theodore Roosevelt, as a large red-suited devil, sits on cliffs at the seaside. A diminutive “G.O.P.” elephant, holding a paper labeled “Nomination” behind its back, stands at Roosevelt’s feet. On the waves of the sea is the word “Defeat.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-01-03

President Taft sits at a desk, working late, frightened, his hair standing on end, as a raven labeled “Teddy,” with the face of Theodore Roosevelt, perches on a bust opposite and cries “Nevermore.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-01-24