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Sheet music and lyrics for “Triplicity,” a Progressive Party campaign song from the 1912 election. Cover features an illustration of a donkey, moose, and elephant, the symbolic mascots of the Democratic Party, Progressive Party, and Republican Party.
1912
President William H. Taft sits on a tree branch labeled “Cost of Living,” which bends lower under his weight, above a smiling man labeled “Consumer” lying on the ground dreaming of the commercial products that soon will be within his reach.
By 1909 the covers, and most of the color and black-and-white artwork, in Puck was of a higher level than in immediately preceding years. Udo J. Keppler, chief cartoonist and son of the magazine’s founder, improved in conception and execution. The emergence and stylistic maturity of L. M. Glackens contributed to the improvements; and the work of of new artists like Carl Hassmann (a brief stint), Will Crawford, Gordon Grant, Albert Levering, and Art Young made the period one of Puck‘s brightest.
Black ink cartoon of President Roosevelt returning from a hunt with animal skins on his back. He is looking at a steam vent labeled “Washington” which has popped its lid because of the pressure. Men are struggling in the vent with steam bursts labeled “Loomis-Bowen Scandal,” “Santa Fe Rebate Suits,” “Panama R.R. Rates,” and “Castro’s Defiance.” Seated on top of the lid is Secretary of War Taft with devil’s horns.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1905-05-13
President Taft, dressed in nightcap and gown, is leaning out the second story window of a building, holding an American flag. Below in the street is Theodore Roosevelt, wearing his Rough Rider uniform and riding a moose, pointing at the President.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1912-11-02
Political cartoon of Theodore Roosevelt, in his Rough Rider uniform, with his back pressed up to a wall and a brick in his hand. Above his head is a sign “To The Republican Convention.” President Taft is about to emerge from around the corner.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1912
This cartoon depicts a race between the three candidates of the 1912 presidential election sitting astride animals symbolizing their respective parties: Wilson riding a donkey, Taft riding an elephant, and Roosevelt riding a moose. The White House sits in the background as the ultimate finish line. Taft and Wilson are neck and neck, while Roosevelt’s moose bites at Taft’s elephant, seemingly distracting it and slowing it down.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1912
William H. Taft and Theodore Roosevelt sit next to a small pond, with a sign naming it the “contested delegate pool.” Roosevelt stands on the left bank and brandishes a fish with the number one on it, and says to Taft, “Guess you thought you’d get ’em all.” Taft sits on the right bank with his rod in the water while all the remaining fish in the pond flock to several strings running down into the water with the label “Taft string” tied on. The cartoon is referring to Roosevelt’s bid for the presidential nomination of 1912, where although he was able to win a portion of the contested delegates, the vast majority went to Taft as the incumbent president.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1912-06-12
William H. Moody addresses Joseph Cannon, William H. Taft, William Jennings Bryan, and other lawmakers. Standing at the end of a trail of footsteps leading from Oyster Bay, he tells them, “It would pain Mr. Roosevelt to run for president again.” Rejected title is crossed out at the top: “A few others would be pained, too.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1908
Poles labeled “Wilson Wins” blow in the wind, knocking over Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1916
Theodore Roosevelt departs from the White House, leaving an infant labeled “My Policies,” wearing the same spectacles as Roosevelt and holding a small stick, in the care of William H. Taft as the maid. William Loeb, as the butler, is carrying Roosevelt’s big stick.
Cartoonist S. D. Ehrhart commemorated Theodore Roosevelt’s retirement from the presidency, and William H. Taft’s assumption of duties, with an accurate but somehow jaundiced view of the situation, for instance the depiction of President Taft as a mere nanny.
In the center of a circus ring are nine rotund figures representing trusts, high tariffs, and political graft, who are balancing on the shoulders of one consumer. A tenth figure, the “coal strike,” prepares to join in. President Taft watches, seated beside a giant sheep labeled “Schedule K.” New York Senator Elihu Root watches from the other side of the ring. In the foreground, Theodore Roosevelt leads a procession of six supporters, while “Gov. Osborn” has just left the queue and is climbing on the “Taft Band Wagon.” Inscribed below is the line, “7 little governors all in a mix one got cold feet and then there were six.”
Cartoonist Thomas E. Powers was attacking the Republican administration’s alleged loyalty to trusts in general, and to “Schedule K” of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff, a controversial provision that was generous to the American wool industry. The context of this cartoon, syndicated throughout the Hearst newspaper chain, was the Republicans’ traditional “protection” of American industries through a series of tariff regulations through the decades beginning in 1890. In fact, President Taft’s administration prosecuted more monopolies in four years than President Roosevelt’s did in seven and a half years. “Schedule K” of the 1910 Payne-Aldrich Act was viewed as a showcase of schedules against the importation of wool and wool products, noxious in the eyes of free-trade advocates and Democrats generally. Governor Chase Osborn, Republican of Michigan, jumps on the “Taft Band Wagon,” deserting his troops. He was one of the “Seven Governors,” Republicans who urged Roosevelt to run against President Taft for the 1912 nomination. Powers assumed too much, because Osborn, although he was publicly concerned that party disunity was counterproductive, and even was tempted to support Democrat Woodrow Wilson, ultimately campaigned for the Progressive ticket in the general election.
William H. Taft stands in a large room at the White House looking shocked. All the furnishings, from animal skin rugs to lamp shades, andirons to woodcarvings and the faces in paintings, wall trim and moldings to embroidered chairs, show the countenance of Theodore Roosevelt.
The Executive Mansion (first formally called the White House under President Roosevelt) underwent many expansions and renovations through the years, especially after invading British troops burned it during the War of 1812. Major alterations were ordered by Roosevelt shortly after he assumed the presidency. Modernizations included the trappings of Victorian furnishing and decoration of that era, especially ordered by Chester A. Arthur; and expansion was designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White, as the West Wing.
Theodore Roosevelt holds a large bottle of champagne labeled “My Policies.” Roosevelt looks like he is about to christen a ship depicted as the face of William H. Taft.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-03-03
William H. Taft, as Dido, weeps as the ship of Aeneas labeled “T. R.” sails away toward the horizon.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-03-10
President William H. Taft, as Saint Patrick, wears a miter with the spectacles and grin of Theodore Roosevelt on it. Carrying Roosevelt’s big stick wrapped in “His Policies,” he strides ashore toward lizards, snakes, and frogs labeled “Aldrich, Cannon, Rockefeller, Harriman, Land Grafter, Ship Subsidy, Beef Trust, [and] ‘Preserved’ Food.”
Barely weeks into his Administration, President William H. Taft is in Puck Magazine’s honeymoon phase, depicted in the cover cartoon by L. M. Glackens as a Saint Patrick who legendarily drove snakes from Ireland. Taft, caricatured as almost thin — anyway, not of the roly-poly corpulence in campaign cartoons — and earnestly about good deeds.
Uncle Sam is pictured as a cadaver labeled “The Body Politic” that President William H. Taft, as Dr. Tulp, is using to instruct his cabinet members in the anatomy of the “body politic” based on “His Policies.”
Still in a honeymoon mode — albeit in the first month of the new Administration — Puck Magazine’s chief political cartoonist Udo J. Keppler presents a dignified portrait of William H. Taft and his cabinet. Such drawings, sometimes allegorical but invariably neutral in tone, accompanied the advent of every presidential team.
Acting Secretary of the Navy Converse informs President Roosevelt which ships are en route. Additionally, Acting Secretary of State Robert Bacon and Secretary of War William H. Taft have dispatched USS Dixie to Cienfuegos, Cuba.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-16
Theodore P. Shonts, chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission has reviewed the documents chief engineer John F. Stevens sent regarding proposals to complete construction on the Panama Canal. In addition to his more detailed written response, Shonts telegrammed Stevens concerning several points primarily concerning contractor duties.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-18
President Roosevelt is unable to accept George F. Seward’s invitation but will send Secretary of War Taft instead.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06-03
Theodore Roosevelt sends Elihu Root the answer that Senator Philander C. Knox wrote to Alton B. Parker about the common law. Roosevelt would like to see Root take this issue up in one of his New York speeches. If Roosevelt’s opponents in the election continue to keep “Odellism” as the main issue, then Roosevelt will lose.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-03