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Letter from Edwin B. Haskell to Theodore Roosevelt

Letter from Edwin B. Haskell to Theodore Roosevelt

Edwin B. Haskell, former co-owner of the Boston Herald, writes to President Roosevelt. Haskell explains that the false article which has annoyed Roosevelt was approved for publication by an inexperienced employee. Haskell tries to persuade Roosevelt not to punish the newspaper. The falsified article claimed Roosevelt’s children had chased and tormented a turkey on the White House grounds. Roosevelt was more than annoyed by the incident. Boston Herald reporters were banned from the White House.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-09

Roosevelt: I don’t see what more I can do to it

Roosevelt: I don’t see what more I can do to it

President Roosevelt cuts off the head of a “third term” turkey. Caption: Roosevelt: I don’t see what more I can do to it.

comments and context

Comments and Context

An unsettling cartoon image to contemporary readers, perhaps, and certainly not a Thanksgiving-turkey context, Jay N. “Ding” Darling’s cartoon nevertheless uniquely reflected the frustration of President Roosevelt over America’s incessant talk of another term in the White House.

The nation’s chef

The nation’s chef

President Roosevelt holds “relief sauce” in his right hand and wears a belt with a buckle that says, “In God we trust.” Behind him is “confidence pudding” with steam that says, “for everybody.” In the background is a turkey labeled “bank deposits” that says, “saved.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Joseph Harry Cunningham utilized the Thanksgiving holiday to find a theme for a political cartoon, and a vehicle for an entire menu of attacks on President Roosevelt. Besides the Thanksgiving holiday, in 1907 this was a season of economic distress and uncertainty — even panic, as the Wall Street bank failures and stock-market losses collectively were called.

A Christmas joke with a point to it

A Christmas joke with a point to it

In the interior of a frontier cabin, a long table is set for a Christmas turkey dinner. Around the table are seated several people, some of whom are surprised to discover an arrow stuck in the turkey, shot by a Native standing outside the open door of the cabin.

comments and context

Comments and Context

In Puck Magazine’s holiday issues — Easter, Midsummer, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas — the publishers generally yielded space routinely reserved for political cartoons to thematic, seasonal, or purely humorous subjects.

Puck Thanksgiving 1905

Puck Thanksgiving 1905

A domestic servant carries a large platter with a roast turkey raised above her shoulders to keep it away from a dog anxious for a taste.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The relative newcomer on Puck‘s artistic staff in 1905 was Carl Hassmann, who by this date, Thanksgiving of 1905, had established himself as a cartooning Grim Reaper, usually drawing realistic portrayals of dirty corruption or impending disasters. So this holiday cover — a placement lately reserved for Rose O’Neill, Frank Nankivell, or Louis M. Glackens — proved his versatility. As with many magazines of the day, an Art Nouveau “poster look” addressed readers; a pleasant design (of course non -political at holidays) and featuring the era’s inevitable version of a Gibson Girl.

The gobbler’s dream

The gobbler’s dream

A turkey sits on a tree branch, dreaming of a “Vegetarian Pledge” and countless people lining up to sign their names. All the wild and domestic animals laugh. In the lower right corner, an old man with an axe waits for the turkey.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The major cartoon weeklies of the time had virtual designees as specialists in animal cartoons. Anthropomorphic creatures were a staple of American humor at the time — in fact, since Aesop — but cartoonists joined the ranks at this time. J. S. Pughe was the most prominent of Puck’s animal cartoonists.

Puck Thanksgiving 1904

Puck Thanksgiving 1904

A young woman with a shotgun over her left shoulder carries a dead turkey.

comments and context

Comments and Context

By 1904, the cartoonist L. M. Glackens (brother of prominent American Impressionist painter Louis Glackens, one of “the Eight”) executed many of the magazine’s holiday and seasonal covers in the era’s best poster-like traditions.

Puck Thanksgiving 1903

Puck Thanksgiving 1903

In a kitchen, a young woman prepares a pie while four young children watch. A dead turkey lies on a table and a large pumpkin stands on the floor.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Increasingly during the first decade of the twentieth century, Puck devoted more issues to holidays and seasonal observances, as with this Thanksgiving-themed issue. And increasingly the magazine devoted more attention to decorative covers. Rose O’Neill, Frank Nankivell, and L. M. Glackens were most often assigned these covers and spreads; and memorable reflections of the spirit of the times, like this happy drawing, tenderly colored, resulted.

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Edwin B. Haskell

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Edwin B. Haskell

President Roosevelt explains his frustrations with the Boston Herald to Edwin B. Haskell, noting that Otto Carmichael’s story about the “alleged cruelty to the turkey” is a malicious invention. Had the dispatch not attacked Roosevelt’s children, he might not have paid it any more heed than the other false dispatches. However, the dispatch about the turkey was clearly a lie and involved his children. Therefore, Roosevelt will continue to ban Boston Herald reporters to the White House until the newspapers states “authoritatively” the story in question is “absolutely false.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-10