Republican elephant (Symbolic character)

A large cut-out of an elephant, labeled “Republican Partisanship,” is propped up by boards labeled “Patronage” and “Party Platform.” A similar cut-out of a donkey, labeled “Democratic Partisanship,” is also propped up by boards labeled “Safe and Sane” and “Party Platform.” Both are also supported by men labeled “Privilege.” Men labeled “Rep Boss” and “Dem Boss” stand next to their respective symbols, pointing to them. Crowds have gathered before each cut-out. In the background is a bright sun labeled “Patriotism” and surrounded with the phrase: “The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-07-06

On the left is Theodore Roosevelt, hand resting on a sledgehammer labeled “My Policies,” standing at the entrance to his shop “T. Roosevelt Horseshoer & Wheelwright” with “Dr. Abbott” at his side. A sign on the wall states, “Autos, Air-ships & Bicycles Repaired.” Road signs labeled “Republican Turnpike” are pointing into the background. At center and right is a jumble of ruined vehicles. A small wagon labeled “Direct Primaries” is being pulled in opposite directions by “Gov. Hughes” and “Wadsworth.” “Beveridge” gestures toward a wagon labeled “Indiana Campaign” that has lost a wheel. President Taft is driving a sulky labeled “Aldrich Tariff,” drawn by the Republican elephant, that has lost the rim to one wheel. A woman labeled “Woman’s Suffrage” is holding a bicycle with damaged tires. “La Follette” is pointing to the foot of a horse labeled “Wisconsin Campaign.” “Parsons” and “Woodruff” are in an automobile that has had an accident, while “Murdock” appears to be kicking one of the tires. An airplane labeled “Conservation,” with “Pinchot” and “Garfield” on board, has crashed into a tree labeled “Ballinger.” Also in the mix is a man labeled “Poindexter,” and in the background is “Penrose” walking away from an automobile accident labeled “Pennsylvania.” In the lower left corner is the shadow of the Democratic donkey.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-08-03

The Republican elephant lowers President Taft from a window in a burning building to Theodore Roosevelt as a fireman on a ladder. Billowing clouds of smoke labeled “Consumers Revolt” engulf the building.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-05-04

Vignettes show Theodore Roosevelt holding an elephant skull labeled “G.O.P.,” quoting “Alas, poor Yorick!”; sending “a wireless message to the Reactionaries” of lightning bolts; becoming “the Magnet for Republican Politicians” at “Sagamore Hill” in “Oyster Bay”; dining with stuffed figures labeled “King, Emperor, Crown Prince, Grand Duke, [and] Czar” in a room lined with the stuffed heads of wild animals “until he can get used again to ordinary society”; and among cheering crowds during a raucous “Wall Street Welcome” that offends a statue of George Washington.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-06-15

Print shows Uncle Sam and Columbia taking Christmas presents off a Christmas tree and distributing them to Native children labeled “Hawaii, Samoa, Puerto Rico, Cuba, [and] Philippine.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-12-27

President Taft struggles to dress the Republican elephant in a dress labeled on one side “Reactionaries” and on the other “Insurgents.” He is unable to bring the two sides together in the back in order to fasten them.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-03-16

Theodore Roosevelt meets with William II, the emperor of Germany, Armand Fallières of France, Victor Emmanuel III, the King of Italy, and King Edward VII, of Great Britain. He is being interrupted by a sobbing Republican elephant, imploring him to return home now, especially if he cares at all for the Republican Party. Caption continues: “The bell in the graveyard tolls One; / You said you were coming right home from the wilds as soon as your shooting was done. / Come now! Come n-o-o-w! Oh, Teddy! Dear Teddy! Ifyoucareevenalittlebitforusteddy, Come NOW!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-04-13

At center, Theodore Roosevelt kidnaps the “G.O.P.” elephant (this figure can be rotated 180° to show Roosevelt being kidnapped by the “G.O.P.”). Around this image are vignette scenes showing, on the left, Edward “Carson” kidnapping Ulster from “Home Rule Ireland,” a man with a movie camera who has lassoed theater-goers at the entrance to a theater labeled “Drama,” and a man wearing suit and top hat labeled “Prohibition” kidnapping the Statue of Liberty; and on the right, a British suffragist carrying a policeman labeled “The Law,” a newspaper labeled “The Calamity Howl” howling as sheaves of wheat labeled “Bumper Crop” carry off an infant labeled “Business,” and a woman labeled “Dame Fashion” kidnapping a corset.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-08-08

Print shows Chester A. Arthur riding the Republican elephant tossed high in the air in a “Political Arena.” The elephant is patched with scandals labeled “Credit Mobilier, Collusion with Monopolies, Back Pay Grab, Third Termism, Whiskey Ring, Navy Ring, [and] Dorsey ‘Soap’ 1880.” Below, on the floor of the arena, Samuel J. Tilden is sitting backwards on a donkey labeled “Incurable” and Puck’s Independent Party figure is riding a bucking bull, its horns labeled “Anti-Monopoly” and “Tariff Reform.” Puck applauds from a viewing stand on the right; sitting in the grandstand at left are Ulysses S. Grant, Cyrus W. Field, Rutherford B. Hayes, Thomas F. Bayard, Winfield Scott Hancock, Benjamin F. Butler, Adams, David Davis, Allen G. Thurman, William M. Evarts, Abram S. Hewitt, George F. Edmunds, Wayne MacVeagh, and George B. McClellan. Caption: Puck presents another prophetic cartoon – and the sooner it is realized the better.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-04-19

The Governor of New York, David B. Hill, rides backwards on the Democratic donkey labeled “Democracy” running on railroad tracks near a sign that states “Look Out for the Enlightening Express.” He is waving papers labeled “Defiance to Mugwumps” at a locomotive labeled “Independents” bearing down on him and driven by a familiar Puck cartoon figure with Carl Schurz standing behind him. To the right of the tracks are an old man dressed as a clown labeled “Sun,” looking down at a small elephant lying on the ground, also dressed as a clown, that looks like Benjamin F. Butler. Next to them are William W. Phelps and Whitelaw Reid resting on the fallen Republican elephant that looks like James G. Blaine and is labeled “Ditched Nov. 1884.” Caption: The little experiment made by the Blaine Republicans last year will now be repeated by the New York Democrats.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-10-07

Print shows a “Church Bell” as a female figure, an injured elephant labeled “Republican Party” with bandages and an eye patch labeled “Nov. 1882”, and a Chinese man.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-09-05

President Taft leads the Republican elephant in circles, creating a rut. Among those riding the elephant are Joseph G. Cannon, Nelson W. Aldrich, and James S. Sherman.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-11-10

President Wilson, as a pharaoh, rides in an Egyptian chariot drawn by the Democratic donkey. Wilson holds a small sword and ropes attached to a man labeled “Monopoly” whose arms are bound behind him, walking on his knees, and wearing a money-bag crown, a moose, representing the Bull Moose Movement, and the Republican elephant. In the upper right are two figures labeled “Underwood” and “Simmons” leading an army of Congressmen who supported the Underwood-Simmons Act.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-10-01

William Jennings Bryan and William H. Taft drive a stake labeled “Publicity” into the ground in a wilderness area. A rope labeled “Public Opinion” is tied to the stake, and one end is tied to the Democratic donkey’s tail while the other end is tied to one leg of the Republican elephant. Caption: And the green grass grows all ’round.

comments and context

Comments and Context

In mid-August 1908, the presidential campaign between William H. Taft and William Jennings Bryan moved into gear in the public square as well as the pages of opinion journals like Puck. The weekly’s owner and chief cartoonist Udo J. Keppler open the head-to-head contest with “Tethered,” a remarkable drawing for what it implies.

Full color political cartoon depicting President Roosevelt leading the “Regular Republican Party Ticket,” in the form of an elephant, along the road to the Pennsylvania State Capitol. Behind them on the road is a keg-shaped wagon mired in mud and being confounded by obstacles. The wagon is being urged on by William Jennings Bryan and driven by Lewis Emery. A donkey labeled “Democratic Destructive Party” pulls the wagon along with a giraffe labeled “Lincoln Obstructive Party.”

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

Creation Date

1906

Full color political cartoon depicting President Roosevelt cutting the bonds that are restraining the Republican elephant. The bonds have labels reflecting factional difficulties and fighting. The Democratic Party can be seen in the form of a braying donkey in the background.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

Creation Date

1906

The “G.O.P.” elephant, wearing an engagement ring, and William H. Taft, wearing a tuxedo, embrace. Taft is smiling, while the elephant is weeping as it holds up a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Two weeks prior to the Republican nominating convention in Chicago, L. M. Glackens drew “The Great Renunciation” — a cartoon that presented the stark reality of American politics that summer, with no nuance or implications. Symbolism there is, of course: the Republican elephant with shiny engagement ring, hugging her intended, William H. Taft.

At the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, Theodore Roosevelt is passing the pike of “Policies” to William H. Taft, as “The New Mahout,” sitting on the “G.O.P.” elephant. Seen through the left lens of Roosevelt’s spectacles, labeled “Before Taft is Nominated,” are James J. Hill, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas Fortune Ryan, John D. Rockefeller, Edward Henry Harriman, Joseph Gurney Cannon, Joseph Benson Foraker, and Nelson W. Aldrich looking very somber. Seen through the right lens labeled “After Taft is Nominated,” the same group is cheering. In the lower right, Roosevelt refuses another curtain call. On the lower left he offers “Taft Bitters” to a cowboy. Across the bottom is Roosevelt’s familiar toothy grin.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Forsaking harsh criticism of the Republican Party, or President Roosevelt or the imminent nominee William H. Taft, the nominally Democratic magazine Puck instead had it cartoonist L. M. Glackens devote this Convention Issue’s centerspread drawings to topical humor and light commentary.

Charles Evans “Hughes” appears as a sphinx labeled “Senate” and “Assembly” in a desert at night, with a donkey and an elephant standing in the foreground. Several presidential candidates stand on the left, including Joseph Gurney Cannon, William H. Taft, and Charles W. Fairbanks. They are straining to hear some words from the sphinx.

comments and context

Comments and Context

There are times in politics and opinion journalism when people find it advantageous to promote a cause or a candidate when circumstances suggest futility. In some cases the proponents keep hope alive in order to fuel a longer-range objective, or to fan the flames of controversy, or occasionally, to sell copies of newspapers or magazine.

The “G.O.P.” elephant laments a broken pail labeled “Full Dinner Pail” on the ground before him. The U.S. Capitol building is in the background. Caption: “Gosh! How am I to get that pail in shape for next fall’s campaign?”

comments and context

Comments and Context

As it looked ahead to the 1908 presidential campaign, and the plausible economic insecurity among voters in the aftermath of the October 1907 Wall Street Panic, Puck magazine able simultaneously to tweak its traditional opponent, the Republican Party, and its crosstown rival Judge magazine.