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Henry Litchfield West thanks President Roosevelt for his public letter on the smoke nuisance. West has been very clear in his support of the law, but his work on enforcing it seems to be a story of “neutralized endeavor.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-25
Photograph of smoke emanating from a seam in a burning coal vein in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
1961
A dejected coal sculpture of a royal figure labeled “Old King Coal” wears robes and a crown which he holds onto his head. In the background are factories burning oil for fuel and spewing thick black smoke which drifts, in the shape of a hand, toward the coal sculpture with the intent of snatching the crown from his head.
This feast of iconography by cartoonist Pughe also is prophetic. Oil was a relatively new commodity in the United States at this time, but today less than a third of America’s energy is provided by coal.
President Roosevelt still finds the “smoke nuisance” in Washington, D.C., intolerable and would like to know what the Commission has done since his last letter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-02-19
President Roosevelt requests a report from the commission on what has been done about the “smoke nuisance” in Washington, D.C.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-01-21
This fragment is from New York Representative Robert Baker’s resolution in the United States House of Representatives to discuss the “smoke nuisance” in Washington, D.C., which President Roosevelt has currently taken up with his cabinet members. The resolution suggests, however, that the industrial trusts are of greater concern than the smoke situation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01-04
President Cleveland pulls on a rope labeled, “Cleveland’s letter to Citizens of Chicago,” and rings a bell labeled “Sound Money Alarm” to warn them that dark smoke labeled “Free Silver Coinage” from a raging fire is bearing down upon them.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1895-05-08
Puck reclines before a table covered with alcoholic beverages, some labeled “V. H. Dusenbury’s P.P. Brandy” and “Puck Punch [No London Punch],” smoking and blowing smoke rings. Among the figures appearing in Puck’s smoke cloud are Chester Alan Arthur labeled “For a Good Veto” and fishing for “Popularity”; George M. Robeson at the helm of a boat carrying a large money bag labeled “Appropriation”; Jay Gould, Russell Sage, and William H. Vanderbilt sailing on a boat labeled “Monopoly”; Susan B. Anthony and another woman, George William Curtis labeled “Civil Service Reform,” Roscoe Conkling, Jay A. Hubbell labeled “Deform,” Ulysses S. Grant labeled “No Third Term,” David Davis, Robert Green Ingersoll boxing with Thomas De Witt Talmage, James Gordon Bennett, “Old Rossa” with “Dynamite,” Cyrus W. Field trying to net a “Coronet,” John Kelly and Samuel J. Tilden on a seesaw, William Russell Grace standing on a rock labeled “Public Esteem” with Seth Low trying to climb up, and James Russell Lowell on a “British Mission.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1882-08-09
The Statue of Liberty, her torch spewing the smoke of “Lawlessness” and her tablet stating “The Unwritten Law,” is holding a handgun and a rope labeled “Lynching.”
Puck Magazine occasionally took aim at lynching — still not uncommon in the United States — and frequently condemned bigotry and prejudice in America, and pogroms and ethnic massacres overseas.
A lonely man with arms crossed and chin on his chest sits in a chair next to a small table with a shelf of books and his dog at his feet. On the table rests a tobacco pipe billowing smoke showing the faces of five beautiful young women that are just pipe dreams. Includes lyrics by Breton Braley about a man who does not know how to begin attracting a girlfriend.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1911-02-15
Ervin Wardman of the New York Press comments on the contents of the enclosed document. He writes, “There seems to be a good deal of smoke here…and there is always I think some fire.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-10-19