Tammany Hall

John Kelly tries to bring Tammany Hall back to life by turning an electrical apparatus labeled “Deal with the Republicans” connected first to an “Anti-Monopoly” device, then with wires spelling “Patronage” to a rod held by a man dressed as a Native American lying in a coffin labeled “Tammany Died 1880.” The jolt of electricity knocks the moccasins off his feet.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-05-31

Print shows the Republican Party, led by Chester A. Arthur, laying down their arms, with George M. Robeson, James G. Blaine, Roscoe Conkling, Whitelaw Reid, Carl Schurz, John Sherman, Charles J. Folger, Robert T. Lincoln, John A. Logan, Ulysses S. Grant, James D. Cameron, George F. Hoar, George F. Edmunds, and Henry Ward Beecher, exiting a citadel in the background. They are surrendering the presidency to the Democratic Party, led by newspaper editors Joseph Pulitzer of the N.Y. World, Charles A. Dana, and Henry Watterson. Samuel J. Tilden “Old Ticket,” Benjamin F. Butler, Grover Cleveland, Thomas Hendricks, Winfield Scott Hancock, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Thomas F. Bayard are on horseback, and Tammany Hall, led by John Kelly, marches under the banner “To the Victors Belong the Spoils.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-11-21

Print shows the interior of a barn crowded with horses and even more trying to get in. On the left in the back, George M. Robeson, George F. Hoar, Rutherford B. Hayes, William Mahone, and Thomas Collier Platt are trying to enter; but Uncle Sam, holding a “Rejected” sign, stops them at the door. At center is Benjamin F. Butler leading a horse that looks like himself, followed by Puck’s “Independent” Party figure leading two horses identified as “Cleveland” and “Mayor Low.” Puck, holding a lithograph pencil and a sign that states “Supreme Judge,” is standing with newspaper editors Whitelaw Reid, Carl Schurz, James Gordon Bennett, Joseph Pulitzer, and Murat Halstead. Among the horses waiting in the barn are Chester A. Arthur “Present Holder of First Prize,” Samuel J. Tilden being groomed by Henry Watterson, Thomas Hendricks, Roscoe Conkling, James G. Blaine, Ulysses S. Grant, Winfield Scott Hancock, David Davis, John A. Logan, James D. Cameron(?), Hubert O. Thompson, George Hoadly, Samuel S. Cox, Allen G. Thurman, Thomas F. Bayard, Frederick Edson, Abram S. Hewitt, William S. Holman getting a “Sun Mixture” from Charles A. Dana, John Sherman, and John Kelly as a mule labeled “Tammany” with its owner the “Irish Vote.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-10-24

A group of Democrats sit on a log raft that is breaking up within sight of land, with two logs labeled “New Jersey [and] New York” coming loose and drifting away. A small sail on the raft is labeled “Democra[…] Record.” Some are fighting amongst themselves. Allen G. Thurman is about to hit George Hoadly who is holding a paper labeled “Dem. Nomination for Gov. Ohio Hoadly”; John Kelly is fighting with Hubert O. Thompson who is holding a knife labeled “County Dem”; and behind them is Alexander V. Davidson labeled “Irving Hall” and holding a knife. Others seem on the brink of despair, including Abram S. Hewitt gnawing on a bone labeled “Tariff,” Charles A. Dana defiant of fate, Thomas F. Bayard sitting with his elbows on his knees, Winfield Scott Hancock who appears to have succumbed, Thomas Hendricks chewing on his fingers, an unidentified man searching the horizon, Henry Watterson, and Samuel J. Tilden. Only Benjamin F. Butler shows any sign of hope as he points toward shore and the U.S. Capitol labeled “1884.” Caption: The Democrats have their regular shindy just as they come in sight of land.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-09-26

Puck stands with lithographic pen and a long banner with scenes from cartoons that appeared in Puck Magazine during 1884, including the British Lion and “El Mahdi” in Egypt and Sudan, James G. Blaine’s presidential hopes, the rise of Chester A. Arthur, a downtrodden Tammany tiger, John Kelly and Benjamin Butler as entertainers, the French and the Chinese in “Tonquin,” the figure for the Independent Vote and Grover Cleveland joining forces, and millionaires Jay Gould and William H. Vanderbilt.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-12-31

President Cleveland, as a pig farmer, gets tangled in leashes attached to the hind legs of several hogs, each with a distinctive brand, labeled “Hugh McLaughlin, H. O. Thompson, Higgins, Beattie,” and one labeled “Tammany Hall” that looks like John Kelly. One hog labeled “Hedden” has broken free and is headed for the “Spoils Hog Pen” in the background. Standing on the left, observing, are Benjamin F. Butler, an unidentified man, Joseph C. S. Blackburn, and John R. McLean. Road signs state “Road to Spoils,” “National X Roads,” and “Cleveland Civil Service Reform Road.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-09-30

Benjamin F. Butler is a shoe shiner with his kit, stooping to pick up a smoldering cigar butt labeled “Grady” that John Kelly, on the left, has discarded. They are on a sidewalk in front of the “Tamma[ny] Ciga[r] Stor[e]” where there is a sign posted on the building that states “Cleveland Cigars – New and Popular Brand” with a cigar store Indian figure at the door.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-09-24

Grover Cleveland is a lion with his paw on a monkey labeled “T. Grady” on top of a rock labeled “Civil Service Reform.” Nearby is a small fire in which are roasting chestnuts labeled “City Spoils, State Spoils, [and] National Spoils Chestnut.” Cleveland is looking over his right shoulder at a group of monkeys in a tree. Among them are John Kelly, Charles A. Dana, Benjamin F. Butler, Henry Ward Beecher, and three monkeys labeled “Dynamiter, Ward Boss, [and] N. Y. Alderman.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-09-03

Print shows John Kelly as the serpent labeled “Tammany” in the Garden of Eden offering an apple labeled “Harmony” from a tree labeled “Bossism” to “H.O. Thompson,” as Adam, labeled “County Democracy” and Alexander V. “Davidson,” as Eve, labeled “Irving Hall” who holds out his hand to take the apple.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-09-19

A large group of politicians, newspaper editors, Tammany Hall bosses, and others are dressed as Native Americans. One carries a banner that shows a crude drawing of the Tammany tiger labeled “Flathead Tribe.” The group is on a long march in opposition to President Cleveland’s civil service reform agenda. In the upper left corner is the “Blainiac Reservation” and in the opposite corner is Cleveland and his cabinet laying tracks for the “Reform R. R.,” keeping ahead of the “Administration Construction Train.” In the foreground, Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks is leading the Democratic donkey labeled “Bourbonism,” carrying two baskets, one with “Old Ideas” and the other labeled “The Perennial Pappooses” holding Charles A. Dana and Benjamin F. Butler. Standing just to the right is John Kelly carrying Philip H. Dugro in a cradleboard.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-08-12

Charles F. Murphy is proudly sitting on the bow of a ship with an albatross labeled “Tammany Rule,” its wings labeled “Graft” and “Patronage,” that he has shot with an arrow labeled “Murphyism.” Caption: And I had done a hellish thing, / And it would work ’em woe.–Coleridge “The Ancient Mariner.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-11-26

Whitelaw Reid, dressed as a woman holding a folding fan labeled “Tribune Windiphone,” stands on a beach with John Kelly who is wearing a swimsuit and bonnet. At his feet is a dead fish labeled “Magnetism.” In the background is a banner that states “Tammany Bathing Ground.” Caption: He (John Kelly) will again be drawn into the vortex of politics; and it is his nature to lead and not to follow. –New York Tribune.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-07-29

Print shows a coach labeled “Rural Democracy” filled with “Rural Regulars” carrying their farm tools, racing “To the State Convention”, driven by Samuel J. Tilden, with John Kelly representing “Tammany Hall” and John Fox representing “Irving Hall” hitching a ride, sitting on the rear step. The driver looks annoyed.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1881-09-14

Print shows John Kelly carrying a basket labeled “27,000 Votes For Sale,” accosting passengers on a “New York Train,” seeking buyers. Around the car, men are seated beneath windows labeled “Democratic Nomination Hewitt for Gov.,” “Cornell for Gov.,” “Folger for Gov.,” and “Wadsworth for Gov.” They are reading newspapers labeled “Half Breed,” “Greenback,” “Independent Puck,” “Stalwart,” and “Machine Paper.” Caption: John Kelly Here you are! I’ll sell to anybody else, except “blind pool men.” How much for the lot?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-08-30

Print shows John Kelly driving a wagon labeled “Tammany” overloaded with rowdy delegates to the New York state convention in Syracuse. The wagon is being pulled by the Tammany tiger. Several men are drinking alcoholic beverages, while one man plays a harp.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-08-23

A bear labeled “N.Y. Democracy” climbs a tree labeled “New York” and “N.Y. State Patronage Hive” to get at the honey. However, a block of wood labeled “Tammany Kelly” suspended by a rope labeled “60,000 voters” keeps getting in the bear’s way. Caption: Democratic Bear “If it wasn’t for that log, I’d have had that honey long ago, and the more I thrust it away the harder it hits me!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-08-16

A large, rotund male figure, as a pendulum labeled “Vox Populi,” swings between San Francisco on the left, labeled “Down with Reform” and “Good Government Defeat,” and New York City on the right, labeled “Down with Tammany” and “Good Government Victory.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-11-24

Father Knickerbocker, symbolic figure of New York City, uses a hose attached to a fire hydrant to wash the city streets clean of mud labeled “Mr. Mud, Mrs. Mud, Gaynor Mud, Hearst Mud, Ivins Mud, Tammany Mud, Fusion Mud, [and] Just Mud.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-11-03

Charles F. “Murphy” holds “Father Knickerbocker,” a symbolic figure for New York City, his hands bound behind his back, over a large tub labeled “City Hall,” his head underwater among “Plums” labeled “Good Things, Appointments, Contracts, [and] Jobs.” Edward E. “McCall,” kneeling next to the tub, has pulled out a plum labeled “Control” and is handing it to Murphy. Caption: Boss Murphy — Take your time, Ed, and get ’em all. His Knicklets here won’t bother you.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

A tiger labeled “Tammany” stands on the edge of a bluff overlooking New York City on the opposite side of a river, at night.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-09-17