Thrones

Postcard showing the interior of the House of Lords in London, England. Charles C. Myers comments on the dimensions of the room and furnishings, including the royal throne.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “Here is one of the interior views in the Parlament [sic] Bldg. Hall of the House of Lords, sometimes called the House of peers. This hall is 90 ft long, 45 ft wide and 45 ft high. It has benches upholstered in red leather to seat the 550 members. As you see in the farther end of the hall within the golden covered canopy is the magnificent throne of the king while on either side of the Throne are seats for foreign embassadors [sic] and other distinguished guesta [sic] of Parlament [sic].

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Postcard showing the royal thrones in the House of Lords in London, England.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “Here is another and closer view of the Throne in the House of Lords.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

The child king Alfonso XIII, as a wooden puppet, is slumped over on the “Throne of Spain” with a clergyman standing next to him. On the walls to the right are portrait paintings of “Charles V, Ferdinand and Isabella, [and] Philip II.” On the left, an arm labeled “Home Riots” reaches through the curtains with a torch to ignite a bomb labeled “Anarchy” next to the throne.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-06-08

Queen Victoria stands on her throne labeled “England” at the edge of the sea, holding a broom labeled “My Prerogative,” and sweeping against ocean waves labeled “Home Rule” and “Democracy” that show the faces of Charles S. Parnell, William E. Gladstone, and Robert Cecil Salisbury. Her crown is perched on the back of her throne. Caption: A poor old broom against the new flood.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1886-02-10

The ghost of Winfield Scott Hancock sits on a throne in a banquet hall. Samuel J. Tilden pushes a frightened Charles A. Dana, as Macbeth, toward Hancock. Dana makes wild statements while waving around a note for $5000.00. A chalice has fallen to the floor, spilling “Harmony.” Samuel S. Cox, as a court jester, sits on the floor next to the throne with “S.S. Cox’s Joke Book” at his knee. The room is filled with courtiers, among them Thomas A. Hendricks, Grover Cleveland who has fallen backwards onto John Kelly, Thomas F. Bayard, Samuel J. Randall, David Davis, Henry Watterson, Abram S. Hewitt, Hubert O. Thompson, George Hoadly, and Benjamin F. Butler. All seem to be sitting in judgment of Dana. Caption: MacBeth-Dana–“Never shake thy gory locks at me! I’ll bet you Five Thousand Dollars thou canst not say I did it!!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-08-29

Theodore Roosevelt, as “Pope Theo the first,” sits on a throne, wearing the Papal tiara, as a man labeled “The Senate” bows down before him.

Comments and Context

Puck magazine’s first cartoon of 1907 portrays a new situation that followed a year crowded with political wrangling and a passel of legislative victories for President Roosevelt’s Republican Party — often at the expense of Republican bosses of the Senate. That irony bespeaks the acumen and resourcefulness of Roosevelt, as well as the changing political temper of the country.

The Old Guard of the Senate was led by Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island and a coterie of (very) senior senators, often representing specific corporate interests, and collectively champions of a “Stand Pat” policy. The Republican-majority House of Representatives, led by Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon of Illinois, had a similar background and makeup. But a wave of insurgency — determined reformers, independence-minded firebrands — were making themselves felt in each chamber; the House especially.