Presidents

President Roosevelt readies his big stick, labeled “1912,” standing above the sleeping form of President Taft.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-1912

President Taft swims in a lake labeled “My policies — T. R.” Two boys observe, the first commenting, “Sure! He’s great big — he’s got de ava de poiz [avoirdupois, “weight, heaviness”] — he can’t sink.” The second says, “Gee! He’s a regular floater.” A moon with President Roosevelt’s face rises in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1908

An image of impoverished, bedraggled Revolutionary War-era patriots is contrasted with President Roosevelt portrayed as a king, with Uncle Sam bending to kiss Roosevelt’s foot.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1902

Six frame cartoon showing Benjamin F. Barnes expecting to be punished for throwing a woman out of his office, and instead, being rewarded with the position of Washington, D.C., postmaster.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1906-04-03

A group of legislators meet at night, but are threatened by the specter of President Roosevelt, wielding his “Big Stick.” Caption: Will it fall? …

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-1907

Theodore Roosevelt and a heavyset man depicting Congress, both in colonial dress, sit beside each other, locked in a stockade at the ankles. Congress, with arms folded, looks angrily at Roosevelt who, with arms folded, thumbs his nose at his adversary. Their backs are against the base of a column beside which stands Uncle Sam in a three-cornered hat, who guards them with a billy club.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon was published one month before Roosevelt finished his term. By the end of Roosevelt’s administration relations with the Senate were at a boiling-point. It had formally refused to accept, or “read,” Roosevelt’s last Annual Message and did not order the otherwise routine publication of presidential commissions such as the first conservation conference records, the “National Governor’s Conference.”

President Woodrow Wilson emerges from the “River of Doubt” carrying clothes labeled “Popularity,” “Leadership,” and “Progressivism.” Former President Theodore Roosevelt is unclothed in the river and appears to be throwing a tantrum, while William H. Taft looks on. Caption: Willie: Goody, goody! you stole mine, Mr. Smarty, an’ kept ’em seven years!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1916

Several former presidents of the United States, including Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Grant, and Cleveland, rest their elbows on a wall and hold out their hands, collectively saying “Good Luck, Theodore! We had to suffer the same kind of abuse in our day.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-05-27

Two figures stand above the “senatorial pool” armed with fishing equipment. Theodore Roosevelt holds a large pole with a can labeled “bait amendments” by his side. Next to him, holding a pitchfork with a net strung in it, is the figure of Benjamin Tillman, a democratic senator from South Carolina. In the pool are a number of creatures, including a frog labeled “statehood bill,” a fish labeled “Santo Domingo,” a crocodile labeled “Philippine tariff bill,” and a large turtle with the head of a steam locomotive labeled “the railroad rate bill.” Roosevelt’s fishing pole has hooked under the lip of this turtle’s shell.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1906-02-25

President Cleveland, at the helm labeled “Congress” of a yacht labeled “Repeal,” races against British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone who is holding an oar labeled “House of Commons Majority” and piloting a boat labeled “Home Rule.” Gladstone’s boat has a broken spar and is bumping up against debris labeled “Opposition of the House of Lords” floating in the water. Caption: “Home Rule” is a good boat, but “Repeal” gets over the course a good deal quicker.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-09-27

President McKinley, with an enormous white elephant labeled “Philippines” wearing an eye patch labeled “Aguinaldoism” behind him, speaks to the 55th Congress. Many of the Congressmen react with fear, notably, George F. Hoar in the lower left foreground, and Speaker of the House Thomas B. Reed who drops the gavel. Caption: President McKinley (to the 55th Congress)–Now, gentlemen, I’ve done my share; – I pressed the Spaniards; you do the rest!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-12-21

President McKinley rides on the back of a large tortoise labeled “Congress,” its body bound with ribbons labeled “Demands of Populists,” “Concessions,” “Demands, East, West, North, and South,” “Demands of Silverites,” and “Demands of Monopolists.” McKinley is holding a whip labeled “Administration.” They are making slow progress on the road “To Prosperity.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-05-05

President McKinley addresses an audience from a stage in a theater. Behind the curtain, an overturned hat labeled “Aldrich” lies on the stage next to a man holding papers labeled “Committee on Finance,” kneeling before another man who is about to strike him with a club labeled “Demands of Western Senators.” Two other “members of the cast” are engaged in a fist-fight.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-06-16

Theodore Roosevelt furiously writes at a desk covered with papers, which have also spilled to the floor. Outside the window are standing the spirits of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln. Caption: George, Thomas, Andrew, and Abe — How did we ever run the country without him?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-07-20

Film celebrating Theodore Roosevelt’s achievements as President of the United States. It was produced by the Roosevelt Memorial Association with Caroline Gentry, Director of Films, and Mae V. Manning, Film Editor. Contains a collection of still images and video footage following Theodore Roosevelt from his assumption of the presidency after the assassination of President McKinley through his 1905 inauguration. Includes sections on fighting the trusts, the anthracite coal strike of 1902, Roosevelt’s conservation efforts, the creation of the Roosevelt Dam, the handling of the Russo-Japanese War, and the creation of the Panama canal.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

Unknown

President Taft sits in a rocking chair, tangled in yarn from balls labeled “Conservation, Rail Road Legislation, Postal Savings Tax, Income Tax, [and] Corporation Tax” that have fallen onto the floor and are the playthings of three cats labeled “The House, Senate, [and] The Cabinet” and a dog labeled “The Courts.” One ball of yarn labeled “My Policies” remains in a box shaped like the U.S. Capitol. Theodore Roosevelt is watching, disapprovingly, from a window on the side of the room.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-06-22

Print shows Emile Loubet holding papers that state “La Constitution” and standing with a young female figure representing France; they are looking toward the sun labeled “Le Triomphe de la Vérité” in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-03-15

President Taft, as a photographer, works in a darkroom illuminated by a small red light labeled “Public Support,” developing glass plates labeled “Progressive Measures.” One labeled “Tariff Reform Plate” is “Botched.” He is using “Cannon Developer” and “Aldrich Fixing Bath,” which he gets from bottles shaped like the heads of Joseph Cannon and Nelson W. Aldrich. Caption: An amateur photographer who spoils good plates by using bad chemicals.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-03-02

President Taft, as a hen, sits on eggs labeled “Reform Measures” on a nest that is infested by rats labeled “Cannon, Aldrich, Gallinger, [and] Smoot.” Caption: If the trustful hen doesn’t wake up, there’ll be nothing left but the shells.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-03-30

The “Black Horse Cavalry,” under the leadership of “Woodruff” wearing the red suit of the Devil, is about to charge through a valley toward the “People’s Heavy Artillery,” with the “Taft National Battery” on one side and the “Hughes State Battery” on the other. Overlooking the scene is a cloud with the face of Theodore Roosevelt. Caption: Woodruff’s Albany Dragoons have a hunch that “some one has blundered.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-04-06