Tammany Hall

Condemned to die

David B. Hill labeled “Hill-ism,” Richard Croker as the Tammany Tiger labeled “Croker-ism,” and Roswell P. Flower, wearing a tall stove-pipe hat, labeled “Flower-ism,” stand on “Condemned Row” in the “Prison of Public Condemnation.” They are watching a group of men, on the left, construct a guillotine labeled “Reform Movement.” Puck is standing on the left with “Parkhurst, Grace, Lexow, Godkin, Ottendorfer, [and] Goff,” who is posting a notice on the wall of the prison that states, “Notice! On Election Day, Nov. 6th 1894. Execution of Hill-ism, Croker-ism, and Flower-ism. By Order of the People.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-06-13

The extermination of Tammany with a straight Republican ticket

A tableau painting, with Whitelaw Reid subduing the Tammany Tiger with a broken knife labeled “Straight Rep. Ticket,” is being displayed on a stage. Thomas Collier Platt, standing on the left, is admiring the painting. Caption: Platt’s “living picture” – an awful fake.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-06-27

Puck’s political weather forecast for Fourteenth Street and vicinity

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

The old guard to the front

Richard Croker as the Tammany Tiger holds a measuring tape up to Charles A. Dana, Oswald Ottendorfer, and A. Oakey Hall. Caption: Tammany ought to seek among its oldest and staunchest supporters for a mayoralty candidate who will come up to Seth Low’s measurements.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-09-29

He shouldn’t have any trouble in choosing

Father Knickerbocker, labeled “Greater New York” with a “Vote” in his pocket, is deciding between the “Tammany” Tiger on the left, representing “Spoils Gov’t” and kneeling on its “Record” of “Tweedism, Crokerism, Sheehanism, [and] Free Silverism,” and Seth Low, on the right, representing “Non-Partisan Gov’t,” standing on his record of an “Upright Public and Private Career.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-10-13

Driving the same old bargain

Thomas Collier Platt stands next to a sign labeled “N.Y. State” and holding “N.Y. City Offices” under his arm, which he is planning to swap with Richard Croker, who is standing next to a sign labeled “N.Y. City” and is holding “N.Y. Legislature” in his left hand. Caption: Boss Platt is getting ready to swap the city for the state.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-10-20

Back to back in a hard storm

Thomas Collier Platt kneels on the right, praying, as a bolt of lightning labeled “Citizens Union” strikes at his feet from a storm cloud showing the face of Seth Low. He is back to back with Richard Croker, on the left, who is struck by a bolt of lightning labeled “Henry George Party” coming from a dark cloud showing the face of Henry George. The jolt knocks off Croker’s hat.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-10-27

The Tammany alliance

The Tammany tiger, well-dressed and sitting on top of a scale model of a building labeled “Tammany Hall,” has made a puppet by tying a stick labeled “Platt’s Dummy,” with the head of Benjamin F. Tracy, to the end of its tail.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-11-03

Arising from the turbulent sea of politics

A fashionably dressed young woman with long ribbons labeled “Greater New York” stands on a floating shell on “Political Waters” with Thomas Collier Platt and Richard Croker as mermen.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-11-10

Waiting for scraps from the Thanksgiving table

Richard Croker sits at a table, sharpening a large knife. On the table is a large turkey labeled “Patronage of Greater N.Y.” on a platter. A small dog labeled “Platt,” sitting on a hassock next to the table, is begging for scraps. A portrait of Mayor Van Wyck hangs on the wall behind Croker.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-11-24

In dire distress

The Tammany Tiger, wearing tattered clothing and a patch over the left eye, sits on the steps outside the entry to “Tammany Hall.” A sign on his lap states, “Please Help a Poor Tiger Until This Reform Wave Subsides,” and he holds a string attached to a small dog with the face of Charles A. Dana who has a small cup attached to his collar. A notice on the side of the building states, “Notice. Tammany Treasury Empty!!! Funds Badly Needed!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-09-11

A nice attitude for a United States Senator!

Senator David B. Hill, on his knees, begs Richard Croker, the “Boss of New York,” and Hugh McLaughlin, the “Boss of Brooklyn,” to use their influence to “Please nominate my friend Maynard for Judge of the Court of Appeals.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-08-30

Wed!

The Tammany Tiger, with a shamrock on his hat, hugs a woman labeled “New York City” atop a bridge support tower with a view of the Statue of Liberty in the background. Caption: “Does oo love oo Tigy-Wigy?”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-11-01

The old, old story

Richard Croker as the Tammany Tiger clutches a large bag labeled “Spoils” and holds a whip labeled “Tammany” and, in his claws, a diminutive man who appears to be holding a paper that states “Robinson. Straight Republican Nomination 1893.” On the ground in front of the Tammany Tiger are bones labeled “1890, 1891, [and] 1892.” “Tom Platt” appears to have tossed Henry C. Robinson to the Tiger and is now fleeing to safety. Five men, one labeled “Republican,” are on the right and left, in the background, behind the safety of high walls. Among them, holding a long spear atop a palm tree, is Chauncey M. Depew. Caption: Rather than stand up and fight, they throw him a sop and run away.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-11-08

Twenty years in a bar-room

“Father Knickerbocker” stands at a bar at the “Tammany Inn,” drinking “Irish Whiskey,” with Richard Croker as the bartender, standing behind the bar, offering “Mixed Drinks Croker Style.” A weeping young boy labeled “Reform Movement” has a hold of Father Knickerbocker’s arm, trying to get him to leave the bar and come home. Caption: “Father, dear Father, come home with me now!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-11-29

Father Sandow Knickerbocker’s terrific feat

Father Knickerbocker struggles to hold aloft a dumbbell that is labeled on the left “Plattism,” showing Thomas Collier Platt with papers labeled “Jobs” and “Deals,” and on the right “Crokerism,” showing Richard Croker with papers labeled “Jobs” and “Deals.” Caption: He’s pretty strong; but the double-boss dumb-bell will prove too much for him.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-01-31

Puck’s valentines for 1894

At center, Uncle Sam and President Cleveland shake hands, with a portrait of Liliuokalani, Queen of Hawaii, in the background. The surrounding vignettes feature a cast of characters, identified or referred to in the text as “Croker,” “Parkhurst,” and “Tammany” reform, “Iago Manley” and “Othello Reed,” “Peffer, Lease, Dana, Pulitzer, [and] Depew,” Harrison sitting in his over-sized top hat, and Thomas Collier Platt turning a crank that manipulates George R. “Malby” as “Speaker” of the New York State Assembly, David B. Hill sitting in an over-sized “Senatorial Chair N.Y. State,” and “McKinley” dressed as Napoleon I, riding a “War Tariff” rocking horse. Each scene includes “Valentine” text, such as this for “Peffer” and “Lease,” each holding papers labeled “Speech”: “From bleeding Kansas’s wind-swept plains, / Where whiskers take the place of brains, / You come with all your verbose strength / Of speeches of unending length. / Here, take the hint Puck gives – resign! / Let Mary be your Valentine”; and this for McKinley: “McKinley Bill! McKinley Bill! / Why do you ride that hobby still? / The cause of pool, combine and trust, / And idle mill-wheels red with rust. / Mistaken Man! We’ll never pine / For you to be our Valentine.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-02-14

“In at the death”

Charles H. Parkhurst holds a sword labeled “Evidence Against Tammany” and waves the tail he has cut off the Tammany Tiger labeled “Lexow Investigation Exposures,” lying dead at his feet. In the background, holding rifles and spears and waving their hats, are Charles S. Fairchild, William R. Grace, Joseph Larocque, and Oswald Ottendorfer.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-11-07

“The independents fought nobly!”

In the aftermath of a battle, David B. Hill is draped over a cannon, while Charles A. Dana and many New York politicians, identified as “Croker, Grant, Hinckley, Sheehan, Gilroy, Murphy, McLaughlin, Smyth, [and] Divver,” as well as the Tammany Tiger, appear to have some wound or injury. Puck is standing on the right holding a military standard that states, “The Principles We Fought For. Free Raw Materials – Civil Service Reform – Honest Money – Economical Government.” Caption: Puck–It is for the benefit of any party to be purified of its baser elements!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-11-21

Beyond resuscitation

The Tammany Tiger lies on its back on a bed, apparently dead. A notice on the wall states, “The Tammany Tiger Executed by the People, November 6, 1894.” Archbishop Michael Corrigan kneels at the bedside, cranking “Corrigan’s Battery” which is connected to the front paws of the Tiger by wires that spell “Church Influence.” Thomas Collier Platt stands at the foot of the bed, cranking on a battery labeled “Headquarters of the Republican ‘Boys'” which is connected to electrodes in the back paws of the Tiger by wires that spell “Political Deals.” A bucket of water and a sponge lie on the floor at the foot of the bed, and the New York State Capitol at Albany is in the background. Caption: Despite the efforts of prelate and politician the cat will not come back.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-12-12