Pride and vanity

Theodore Roosevelt stands at center, beaming, with several supporters (Elihu Root, Thomas Collier Platt, William H. Taft, Charles W. Fairbanks, Joseph Benson Foraker, and J. S. Sherman) and a bunch of hands pointing toward him. Caption: The sum and substance of the Republican platform.

comments and context

Comments and Context

In mid-term years of administrations in these days, state political parties often “endorsed” the president and his policies; or, of course, if out of the White House, would nod to the most recent positions of the parties. In 1903, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker of Ohio embarrassed his in-party Ohio rival Marcus Hanna by drafting an extreme, not generic, endorsement of President Roosevelt and actually promoted his renomination.

At the end of the summer vacation season Puck annually chronicled the disappointing results and unfulfilled romantic hopes of young men and women. The figure of Puck invites readers to visit little cupids disassembling the settings of lovers’ scenes; of a young woman discovering that her engagement ring, and its giver, are false; and the stereotypical hosts of bucolic getaways return to normal pursuits.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The end of summer was frequently memorialized by Puck not by comments on the weather, or by addressing the resumption of college, but by the end of the social convention of rural vacations at resorts — often engaged by young adults seeking romance. The virtually constant observations addressed failed romances, broken promises, and disappointments.

A duck with clawed feet, wearing a medal labeled “The Senate,” carries peacock feathers labeled “Probity, Incorruptibility, Statesmanship, Patriotism, [and] Highmindedness.” Caption: The Senate is indignant over the attacks on it in American magazines. A suggestion under consideration is that some able expounder be selected to deliver a response to the criticisms.–Daily Press.

comments and context

Comments and Context

In February of 1906 — the month this Udo J. Keppler cartoon appeared Puck— the revived William Randolph Hearst magazine Cosmopolitan commenced a nine-part series addressing corruption in the Upper House, “The Treason of the Senate.”

A man described as “America’s greatest Pecksniff,” an allusion to Dickens’ character Seth Pecksniff in the novel Martin Chuzzlewit, stands, full-length, facing slightly right, holding a paper that states “The Widow & Orphan Pump” which shows a pump spewing money into a trough. Likenesses of Pecksniff appear in the background as a bust statue, a painting, and a silhouette. Caption: “There is no deception, ladies and gentlemen; all is peace; a holy calm pervades me.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The beatific expression on the face of New York Senator Chauncey M. Depew, and the quotation from Charles Dickens’ humorous novel Martin Chuzzlewit — spoken by the hypocrite Seth Pecksniff — mask the irony of Depew’s situation, and the venom in cartoonist Keppler’s drawing.

This vignette cartoon chronicles the social and financial fortunes of the “Smallclip” family following Mrs. Smallclip’s interview with reporters and artists for the society pages of the newspaper. The society report leads to a dinner with “old friends” at their “modest home,” resulting in another notice in the society news where they are referred to as “leaders of fashion.” This causes Mrs. Smallclip to refurnish their home “on a scale in keeping with her new social status,” which places a financial strain on Mr. Smallclip. Mr. Smallclip is beset with bills as the cost of Mrs. Smallclip’s ascending social status begins to overwhelm him. The final vignette shows the Smallclip family a year later in humble housing, Mr. Smallclip having failed to meet the financial obligations of society leadership.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-04-01

Puck stands next to a camera, dangling marionette figures of well-dressed men before a woman holding a lorgnette, reclining on a seat across the room.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-12-14

A woman appeals to a man holding a cane labeled “Allopath” and topped with a skull who has turned his back on a sick child lying in a bed. On the far side of the bed is another man with papers labeled “Homoeopath” and “Apothecary” extending from a pocket. Caption: Dr. All. O’Path – “Very sorry, madam, if your child must die; but you ought not to have called in a Homœopath first.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-06-13

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 holds a large magnifying glass labeled “National Vanity” which he is using to examine a battleship flying an American flag labeled “U.S. Navy.” He is also holding papers labeled “Monroe Doctrine.” Caption: Why not look at it with the naked eye?

comments and context

Comments and Context

The sailing of the “Great White Fleet” might have prompted the cartoon of Udo J. Keppler at this time, which was the approximate arrival of the fleet in San Francisco. The fleet of 16 battleships, divided into two squadrons, and variously escorted by other vessels in its circumnavigational cruise to many ports, was at sea for 14 months.

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

Newspaper article attacking American’s desire for titles.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-05