Storms

Postcard showing the tops of the U.S.S. Rhode Island’s masts above the stormy waves of the China Sea.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “Another one showing the Rhode Island beyond the mountain. Sometimes accidents occur in these storms and men are swept overboard by the mighty waves coming over the ship. One accident which ended remarkably fortunate and like no other case on record was when a man fell overboard during this storm, from one of the battleships and the waves carried him back and threw him on board the ship behind, he was saved and uninjured.

This storm lasted three days and then began to quiet down so that the last day of our trip to Japan was an enjoyable day and our visit to Japan was indeed one of pleasure. The Japanese as you see them in their home country are as hospitable and courteous people as you will find in the whole world and the welcome that they gave the American Fleet in 1908 has never been surpassed. We were treated with respect and courtesy and a welcome as if we were to be President the next day. Their homes were open to us and they spared no pains to make us feel welcome and enjoy our visit to their country.”

Postcard showing the bow of the U.S.S. Georgia being assaulted by waves and spray in a heavy storm.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words [annotation continued from previous post card] “…like this. It will appear as if the ship was plunging right into the mountain side and the front end of the ship will be completely under water before the ship can gradually rise up and be on top again.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Postcard showing the very top of the battleship U.S.S. Nebraska above the stormy waves of the China Sea.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “The masts on these battleships are 100ft high. Now you see here is one of the ocean waves between here and the Battleship Nebraska, so high that you can only see the top of the masts.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Postcard showing the U.S.S. Louisiana among the waves of the China Sea.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “This shows another one of the battleships as it is riding on the side of one of the swells of the ocean.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

The angry countenance of Father Knickerbocker looks down from storm clouds on a flood that has broken up “Tammany Hall” with the Tammany Tiger sitting on a partial building labeled “Tammany” and a group of Natives sitting on a ladder resting against the other half of the building labeled “Hall.” Other Natives are treading water. A bolt of lightning is labeled “Popular Condemnation.” Among those depicted as Natives are Richard Croker, Roswell P. Flower, William B. Cockran, James J. Martin, and Hugh J. Grant. Also shown are Charles A. Dana, Edward Murphy Jr., and George B. McClellan, and the top hat of John J. Scannell.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-05-09

A woman labeled “Democratic Party” peers through an opening labeled “Jeffersonian Principles” in an underground shelter, while a tornado rages overhead with dark clouds labeled “Indignation, Dissatisfaction, Defeat, [and] Hard Times.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-05-02

A wave labeled “Republican Voters’ Revolt” crashes into the dining room of a ship where “Cannon, Payne, Taft, Knox, Sherman, Root, Aldrich, Woodruff, Dalzell, Crane, Wickersham, Lodge, Parsons, Hitchcock, Depew, Hale, Elkins, Ballinger, Smoot, Penrose, [and] Cox” are dining, and upsets a dish of “Party Plums,” as well as a bottle of “Stalwart Grog.” Caption: “We were crowded in the cabin, / Not a soul would dare to sleep; / It was midnight o’er the waters, / And a storm was on the deep.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-04-20

A ship labeled “Republican Machine,” with Nelson W. Aldrich at the helm and Henry C. Lodge, Joseph G. Cannon, Boies Penrose, James S. Sherman and Chauncey M. Depew hanging on, is starting to tip over in advance of a huge wave labeled “The Ultimate Consumer.” Riding the crest of the wave is a ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman, with Theodore Roosevelt standing at the bow or forecastle. Caption: At the height of the storm, an added terror.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-03-02

Eros (or Cupid) labeled “Arbitration” and Psyche labeled “Peace” cover their heads with a cloth labeled “Peace Congress” and flee from a storm labeled “War.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-11-22

William Jennings Bryan and Samuel Gompers, looking worried, fly in a hot air balloon labeled “Labor Vote.” They are caught in an electrical storm with lightning labeled “Revolt” and are being driven by winds to an uncertain fate.

Comments and Context

Samuel Gompers, the immigrant cigar maker who formed the American Federation of Labor and guided the organized-movement for decades, stamped his personality and views on the role of unions in American life. He generally was conservative, at least beating back, often, radicalism within and without his AFL “large tent.” He sometimes supported Republicans, and Democrats, and usually kept his union non-partisan. He supported the Spanish-American War and immigrant-exclusion acts and American intervention into World War I when many unionists were Socialists and opposed intervention.

In 1908, however, he began the AFL’s drift to be a reliable supporter of the Democratic Party. Partly this was due to the strong platform plank, pushed by candidate William Jennings Bryan, against the injunction in labor disputes. Gompers and his union endorsed a presidential candidate for the first, and not last, time.

Theodore Roosevelt writes to his sister Anna Roosevelt about his wife Edith’s miscarriage. He blames it on the stress that his fall in a recent polo match caused Edith. Because of this, Roosevelt is delaying, or may even cancel, his trip West. A storm took the roof of the bathing houses.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1888-08-08

A ship labeled “Republic,” flying a banner labeled “U.S.A.,” navigates storm-tossed seas with a whirlpool labeled “Socialism” and cliffs labeled “Plutocracy” nearby.

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Udo J. Keppler depicts a loose version of the Scylla and Charybdis of Greek mythology. Its usual application meaning is an intractable dilemma, the “lesser of two evils,” a Hobson’s Choice, or, most recently a catch-22. In mythology it was the unavoidable course between a whirlpool and rough cliffs or a rationalized monster in the stones.

People cling to a large rock in a stormy sea. Some are royalty and some are terrorists. In a flash of lightning in the background appears the word “Revolt.”

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Carl Hassmann’s evident specialty, the depiction of apocalyptic threats and figures in crisis situations, is what he needed to delineated the situation of Imperial Russia at the end of 1905.

President Roosevelt’s mediation of the Russo-Japanese War probably brought the regime time as the country crumbled. It faced bloody riots by peasants, a rising bourgeoisie, and ethnic groups, most prominently Jews, the failed military campaign in the Far East, independence revolts in the nations and regions it had controlled around its borders, especially in the Balkans, and intemperate responses of soldiers and police — slaughters of peaceful petitioners — all combined to put the regime of Czar Nicholas in severe jeopardy. His attempted reforms — like ending serfdom and creating a Duma (representative assembly) — failed to stem the threatening storms. Socialists, Bolsheviks, and anarchists nipped at the Court’s heels.

President Roosevelt fires a cannon to send a lifeline to a ship in distress on rough seas with dark clouds labeled “Prejudice” forming overhead. The rope spells out the word “Tolerance.” A rainbow shines on the left with the word “Liberty.” In the lower right corner is a quotation from “The President’s Reference to Immigrants.”

Comments and Context

President Roosevelt’s “reference” to immigrants, and a welcoming, reasonable, national policy, was contained in a note to Secretary of State John Hay, not identified by depicted in this bold cartoon.

The era of Roosevelt’s presidency — that is, the first decade of the Twentieth Century — was to that time the high-water mark of immigration to America. Unlike previous “waves” of English, Irish, Scots-Irish, Scandinavians, and Germans, this decade saw many immigrants arriving from Italy, Poland, and Russia. And unlike earlier influxes many of these newcomers settled in urban areas. (1910 was also the first census year when urban Americans outnumbered rural Americans.)

Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte assures President Roosevelt that he is consulting with the Department of State regarding actions in Cuba. Bonaparte made transportation arrangements for Secretary of War Taft and Acting Secretary of State Bacon to travel to Havana by way of Key West, but they decided to go via Tampa instead. Bonaparte believes Taft should command the Navy in Cuban waters during an emergency and urges Roosevelt to send instructions to that effect. On another matter, Bonaparte encloses a letter from Philllips Lee Goldsborough inquiring whether he may serve as chairman of William H. Jackson’s congressional campaign. Bonaparte believes that allowing Goldsborough to do so would benefit Roosevelt politically. Having Jackson in Congress will offset losses elsewhere.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-18