Thanksgiving Day

A disheveled Uncle Sam sits at a messy table in a restaurant after a wild party where too much alcohol has been consumed. There are overturned chairs, and a man labeled “Capital” lies on the floor beneath one end of the table. An overturned bottle labeled “Overspeculation” spills contents labeled “Overissue of Securities.” Another bottle is labeled “Overbuilding.” Bottles on the floor are labeled “Waste” and “Overproduction,” and a spill is labeled “Overestimation of Natural Resources.” Wax from a candle on the table is labeled “Overconfidence” and a bottle next to Uncle Sam is labeled “Overcapitalization.” Lying on the floor at the other end of the table, among overturned chairs, is a man labeled “Labor.” On the table above him is a spill labeled “Overspending,” and a box of cigars labeled “Overbuying” is spilling its contents on the floor. In a broken mirror on the back wall are the words “National Vanity,” and printed on a window is “Rationalism.” Caption: Uncle Sam — “And this is Thanksgiving Day!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-11-23

A young boy sharpens a knife as he stands before a large turkey with its feet in stocks labeled 1910; the turkey is perspiring.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-11-23

Uncle Sam, John Bull, and Puck gather around a table raising glasses in a toast to friendship, or alliance. Also seated at the table is a female figure, possibly representing Germany, who may be participating in the toast as well. At far left, a man enters with a large turkey on a platter; and on the right, “Russia” and “France”, uninvited, peer around columns. Caption: Puck–Let us give thanks for the friendly understanding among the Saxon nations. It is more potent for peace than any Peace Congress!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-12-06

Print shows William Jennings Bryan chasing a turkey labeled “Nov. Election.” The tail feathers of the turkey are labeled with the states of the union, and Bryan has managed to pull out the one labeled “Nebraska.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-12-06

Uncle Sam, Columbia, and Puck sit at a table, ready to enjoy a Thanksgiving turkey dinner in a gallery with paintings on the wall in the background. Uncle Sam is gesturing toward these paintings, which depict Irish uprisings and unrest in England, volcanoes in Java, earthquakes in Italy, “Cholera” as the grim reaper in Egypt, French colonialism, anarchy in Spain, German militarism, and Alexander III, Emperor of Russia, standing on the body of a peasant in a painting titled “Russian Reform.” On the far right, at a dock labeled “U.S. Navy,” a ship in disrepair leans to one side. A bulldog gnaws on a bone labeled “New York” beneath a bench on the left. Caption: Uncle Sam – “Well, we seem to be getting along a little better than the rest of the world, and if we can’t be thankful for all that we have, we may at least be thankful that there are some things we haven’t.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-11-28

President Cleveland stands at the head of a table with his cabinet officers around the table at placemats labeled “Bayard, Manning, Garland, Whitney, Lamar, Endicott, [and] Vilas,” as Puck delivers a large turkey on a platter labeled “With Compliments of all Good Citizens.” A notice on the wall in the background states “Public Office is a Public Trust.” The centerpiece on the table is labeled “Prosperity.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-11-25

A glum Thanksgiving Day feast is occurring with the downtrodden Republican presidential candidate James G. Blaine and his supporters “W.W. Phelps, [Roscoe Conkling at an open door], William Mahone, Cabot Lodge, [John Logan], Robeson, Dorsey, [W. Reid, Benjamin F. Butler], Elkins, Platt, [Cyrus W. Field, and] C.A. Dana” gathered around a table, and with John Kelly as a dog next to a plate with a small bird labeled “Compliments of N.Y. Citizens.” Reid is removing the top of a platter labeled “Campaign” where there is a “Crow” that is “Compliments of the People.” Through a window, where Puck is looking in, can be seen Grover Cleveland carrying a large turkey labeled “Presidency” over his shoulder, and across the street is Jay Gould offering his “Congratulations.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-11-26

A horde of lawyers uses various cutting implements to carve a large turkey labeled “Income Tax Litigation” and hauls away pieces for themselves.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-11-19

A sleeping, bloated man labeled “Protected Monopolist” shies away from a turkey labeled “Income Tax” that appears to have risen from the remains of the Thanksgiving Day dinner labeled “High Tariff Plunder.” Caption: A natural result of gluttony.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-11-17

A large turkey, a jug of alcohol, and a pie have their feet locked in stocks, while a long line of pilgrims dances around them.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-11-19

Full color cartoon with a large turkey in the middle. Interspersed on and around the turkey are cartoons about world and national politics, each using a turkey or a reference to a turkey. In the top center is Theodore Roosevelt riding a turkey with a sword and “Popularity” sash.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

Creation Date

1903-11

Theodore Roosevelt will spend Thanksgiving with the family but will have to leave Friday morning due to exams. He has been in good health and only felt a little homesick during an illness. Roosevelt traveled to New Haven, Connecticut to watch the football team. Harvard lost as Yale “played very foul.” He is glad he is not a Yale freshman due to the hazing and the “scrubby” look of the students.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1876-11-19

Theodore Roosevelt has been anxiously expecting a letter from Alice Lee and Rose Saltonstall. He has been avoiding making any engagements for Saturday. Roosevelt would like Saltonstall to know that he enjoyed the pleasant Thanksgiving at her home. From the accounts he has heard, Lee’s dress must have been a success at the New Bedford party.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1878-12-06

Theodore Roosevelt wields an ax and is about to chop the head off a turkey labeled “Flim-Flam Finance” on the chopping block. The turkey’s feathers are labeled “Worthless Collateral, Wild Cat Bank, Fake Bonds, Worthless Securities, [and] Fake Stocks.” A diminutive man labeled “Small Investor” is standing in front of the chopping block, also holding an axe. Caption: For what he is about to receive, let us be truly thankful.

comments and context

Comments and Context

“Flim Flam” was not a new term in 1907, but it might have been Puck magazine’s attempt to add a term to the political lexicon, perhaps a cartoon and commentary journal’s version of “Frenzied Finance,” the title of Thomas W. Lawson’s muckraking expose of the upper echelons of corporate America. Puck repeatedly used the term in cartoons and editorials, but it not stick.

On the left is a pile of over-sized items that are used to fill leisure time, such as golf clubs, a shotgun, a football, a riding crop, a theater mask, and a horn, and also a large turkey, celery, cranberries, and a pumpkin. On the right, in the shadow of these material goods, is a diminutive church, dark and possibly empty.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-11-20

Uncle Sam offers a bunch of celery as a bouquet to a turkey, wearing a woman’s dance costume, dancing on a stage.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-11-20

A man labeled “Trusts” sits at a table spread with large dishes of food for a Thanksgiving Day feast, including a large turkey labeled “Restraint of Trade” and a bowl of soup, from which he is eating, labeled “Competition.” The soup sits on a note signed by “Taft, M.D.” advising the man that he “must go on a strict diet [and] cut out all rich food.” Thanksgiving Number.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-11-22

President Roosevelt gives an address in commemoration of the Thanksgiving holiday, and calls for appreciation of national and individual liberties.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1906-10-22

Silas McBee sends President Roosevelt three editorials from The Churchman on the topics of Thanksgiving, citizenship, and a movement against lynching. McBee refers to Archbishop Enos Nuttall of the West Indies and Archbishop Alfred M. Randolph of southern Virginia, both of whom reflect on the African American population. McBee includes the article “Chronicle and Comment” that shares opinions regarding the Panama Revolution.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-11-18

Toasts and speeches were given by members of the American Society of London during their annual Thanksgiving Day banquet. American Ambassador Choate’s speech was recorded with him joking with the English guests and praising President Roosevelt’s accomplishments.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-12-15