Torture

An allegorical female figure labeled “San Francisco” is being tortured “on the rack” by a cast of medieval-looking executioners labeled “Cement Dealer, Lumber Dealer, Iron Workers’ Union, Steel Trust, Bricklayers Union, Building Materials, [and the central figure] Greed” in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed much of San Francisco. Caption: “Generosity” is easy when you can get your money back with interest.

comments and context

Comments and Context

There are many possible subtexts to Carl Hassmann’s brutal and explicit allegory of systemic political corruption in San Francisco. Or it might a “simple” indictment of the current administration’s mismanagement there, spectacular as it was.

Prisoners engage in various recreations while incarcerated at Sing Sing for white collar crime. Caption: For the benefit of our grafting financiers whose health breaks down from exposure.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon by J. S. Pughe was not inspired by the coddling of prisoners, a putative situation that is charged, or confirmed, in cycles. Sing Sing Prison was a periodic site that, perhaps due to its 40-mile proximity up the Hudson River from the media center New York City, was alternately scorned or praised by reformers for its conditions.

A man dreams about enforcing the blue laws by punishing young men for playing baseball, a young woman for playing golf, even a young girl for picking flowers. He imagines them imploring him to allow them their particular Sunday pursuits.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Since its inception in 1876, Puck Magazine was consistently skeptical on matters of faith and the practices of organized religion. Cartoons that addressed the general subjects included questions of science and evolution; putative hypocrisy of clerics; corruption among the clergy; financial, sex and other scandals of prominent divines; and churches’ support of “blue laws,” Prohibition, and Sunday closings.

Illustration showing an African American family on a small farm. In the background, a group of men, carrying rifles and a length of rope, are heading into a wooded area. Caption: Pete. — Am dis much bettah dan de ole slav’ry days, Uncle Tom? Uncle Tom. — I dunno, zac’ly. In dem times we wuz too valy’ble to be lynched!

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon is notable for several reasons. It is a powerful statement in a national humor magazine when opposition to lynching was controversial, even in many Northern areas. Moreover, the cartoonist Rose O’Neill, a pioneer female cartoonist, was chiefly known for humorous drawings of children and, eventually, her elfin “Kewpies,” cherubic beings who populated books and poems and strips, and spawned an industry of ceramic and plush toys — “Kewpie dolls.”

President Roosevelt, dressed as a Rough Rider, walks towards a panicking soldier with a bucket of water he has gotten from a casket labeled “Investigation.” Cartoon is regarding the investigation of the use of the “water cure” in Philippines.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-04-22

At the Emperor’s request, President Roosevelt will be sending several officers to the German military maneuvers. Roosevelt addresses at length the reports of brutality and torture by the Army in the Philippines. Roosevelt does not support torture or “needless brutality” and understands that the Army has acted improperly on numerous occasions. However, he believes that on the whole the soldiers have been “exceedingly merciful.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-07-19

After reviewing the case against Lieutenant Arnold, President Roosevelt does not believe that there is grounds for a court-martial but Arnold merits severe censure. There has been accusations that Arnold’s men committed torture in the Philippines.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-07-10

President Roosevelt will be active in stopping cruelties in the Philippines, including the “water-cure.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-05-03

Three men are trapped in a small cage hanging outside the “Democratic National Headquarters.” The cage is labeled “Gorman Brice Smith, Jr. – Exposed Here – As a Warning, For All Time – These Traitors to Democratic Principles and Satraps of Trust and Monopoly.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-11-21

Newspaper article defending the use of the “water-cure” by American soldiers in the Philippines.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-05

Bishop Lawrence writes on behalf of the Annual Meeting of the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church which is concerned about the poor treatment of the Filipinos by the US Army. He encloses a portion of a speech given at the annual meeting by the himself, Bishop of Massachusetts, regarding the poor treatment of Filipinos. He encourages an investigation, arguing that it is important for the standing of the army in America and the Philippines. He points out that this treatment is a black mark against the government, in spite of much good that is being done.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-05-01