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During an intermission or after a “Comic Opera at Mrs. Van Varick-Shadd’s,” a large crowd of men and women wearing formal evening clothes look with chagrin at three women wearing short red dresses, who have secured the attentions of several young men. A painted scene in the background shows nude women cavorting at the seaside.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1905-04-26
A large crowd of men and women, all wearing formal evening clothes, and the women draped with stunningly sparkling jewels, are at a ball given by “Mrs. Gaster.” Caption: Central office at Mrs. Gaster’s Ball.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1905-03-22
A high society auction is being conducted in a circus-like atmosphere where spouses are unloading their unwanted partners for various reasons to the highest bidder. On the left, a lecherous old man, wearing top hat and tails, is peering at a young woman and her daughter. The woman wears a leash which is held by her smug, well-dressed owner. On the right, in a small crowd, a man appears to be offering a bid. Other commodities are available for inspection in little stalls in the background. Caption: The matrimonial mart.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1905-01-04
A haughty, well-dressed woman sits in the middle of a ballroom, holding a paper that states “Society hence-forth will strive to attract brains, not mere vulgar wealth. –A leader of Alleged Society.” Around her are animal acts, gambling tables, men eating on horseback, people with small animals, and a monkey, wearing clothing, squatting on the floor eating off china. Caption: Puck — Madam, you can attract neither brains nor decency to society with this miserable outfit.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1903-11-18
In a series of vignettes, a rural family arrives in the city to stay at the “Walledoff,” a fashionable hotel [the unsophisticated rural man’s pronunciation of “Waldorf”]. The patriarch of the family repeatedly mistakes each encounter for something grander than its appearance.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1901-01-30
Two tramps dressed in cast-off and ill-fitting clothes discuss how to kill the “Trusts” through “Social Ostracism.” On the left is a well-dressed matronly woman wearing a robe labeled “The 400” and sitting on a throne. On the right is a man labeled “Trusts,” holding strings attached to businesses, as well as ships and railroads, in which the “Trusts” hold controlling interests. Caption: The Trusts have got to be ostracised, but who [is goin]g to do it? Society won[‘t and] Capital won’t, so there’s nobody to do it but us!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1900-03-07
Two upper class men are talking in the street in London, while a coach labeled “Picadilly Circus” is waiting in the background. Caption: Englishman–You have some pretty high buildings in Chicago, haven’t you? Chicagoan (in London)–Well, I should remark! Why, the tops of some of them are covered with snow the year around!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1900-01-31
Ambassador Reid writes President Roosevelt about a number of issues, both political and social. He adds more information about Lord Edward Marjoribanks Tweedmouth’s mental breakdown and discusses the man who will replace him. Reid also relays an indignant letter he got from Clarise S. Ramsay, an American who wrongly felt she should have been invited to a royal ball. Roosevelt’s plan to go on a safari in Africa after leaving office is, Reid thinks, a very good one, and Roosevelt should not need to worry about receiving proper treatment and courtesies from British officials there. On a personal note, Reid thanks Roosevelt for his kind wishes at the news of his daughter Jean’s engagement to John H. Ward. He discusses his future son-in-law and the couple’s plans following their marriage.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-06-04
The American upper class on the left and the European nobility on the right stand beneath their family trees, with such ancestors as, on the left, “Skin Trader, Money Lender, Slave Trader, Squatter, [and] Tavern Keeper,” and on the right, “Marauding Knight, Robber Baron, King’s Favorite, Plundering Viking, [and] Rapacious Seigneur.” Caption: Puck–What fools these mortals be!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1893-10-04
At center is a place for Republicans to go to commiserate while awaiting the next election. Such stalwart Republicans as George F. Edmunds, John Sherman, William M. Evarts, George F. Hoar, and Thomas B. Reed wait there. Surrounding vignettes show a prominent citizen being escorted by two “Bureau of Public Comfort” guards who keep the press at bay, a sewing station for women’s clothing after a round of bargain shopping, a room where anarchists can blow off some steam “without disturbing anybody,” an educational facility to help orient newcomers to the ways of the city, and a hypnotist who attempts to convince servants to work in the country. Caption: Some of the useful purposes it might serve.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1893-10-25
Members of the upper class are making efforts to cut back during the business panic of 1893. Vignettes show a clothing auction of dresses worn by socialites, former streetcar-horses finding a second life as polo ponies, club men drinking from the “growler,” and theatergoers abandoning the orchestra pit for upper-level boxes. Others depict the upper class opening up their yachts for “sailing parties of the plain people” and hopping freight cars in the absence of “local express trains.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1893-08-30
The father of an upwardly mobile family is forced to keep pace financially with his wife’s ambitions. The main vignette shows the father perspiring as he works harder, using a large pump labeled “Business” to pour more money into “Paterfamilias’ Pocket Book” to which a queue of tradesmen labeled “Caterer, Chef, Modiste, Carriage dealer, Milliner, Decorator, Furniture dealer, Florist, Jeweler, [and] Wine dealer” help themselves. The surrounding vignettes depict lavish parties, artwork on the walls, more frequent purchases of clothing for the children, his wife’s new understanding of the term “cottage,” and the increase in the size of the servant staff.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1895-08-21
In this vignette cartoon is a man who firmly believes in observing the Sabbath, as he tells his friends. In the surrounding vignettes, he insists that his Sunday newspaper be delivered earlier, that the gardener put out flowers on the tables and in all the rooms, that the bootblack shine his shoes faster, that his driver be available for the entire day, and that the barber add more chairs so he will not have to wait so long for a haircut on Sunday. Caption: He wants everybody to rest on Sunday, except those who serve him personally.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1895-05-22
At center, “America’s Real Order of the Descendants of Kings” shows an African American laborer, a woman domestic, and an Irish hod carrier. The surrounding vignettes depict family members discussing their ancestral heritage, or lack of it, as well as shysters offering to provide ancestors to those lacking proper pedigree.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1898-03-16
An Irish American woman labeled “Walking Delegate” displays the “By-Laws of the Help Lady’s Union” during a dinner party hosted by an elderly woman sitting at a table with her guests. Women domestics are seen removing their aprons, as a man in the background orders the “Walking Delegate” to leave.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1899-02-08
This vignette cartoon chronicles the social and financial fortunes of the “Smallclip” family following Mrs. Smallclip’s interview with reporters and artists for the society pages of the newspaper. The society report leads to a dinner with “old friends” at their “modest home,” resulting in another notice in the society news where they are referred to as “leaders of fashion.” This causes Mrs. Smallclip to refurnish their home “on a scale in keeping with her new social status,” which places a financial strain on Mr. Smallclip. Mr. Smallclip is beset with bills as the cost of Mrs. Smallclip’s ascending social status begins to overwhelm him. The final vignette shows the Smallclip family a year later in humble housing, Mr. Smallclip having failed to meet the financial obligations of society leadership.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1896-04-01
High society women with big hats, dogs, a doll, and a chimpanzee, are startled at the prospect that one of their own would desire to become a mother. A young woman holding an infant is sitting at center in a rocking chair.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-12-21
A high society couple walks their tiny dog, which exhibits the same behavior as its owners.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-07-06
A well-dressed man labeled “Plutocracy,” wearing a top hat, holds a parrot labeled “State Legislature” on his right hand. He is trying to get the parrot to repeat a phrase after him, and he promises it “some nice crackers” in return for correctly learning to repeat the phrase. Caption: “We don’t want an Income-Tax Amendment! Say it, Polly! We don’t want an Income-Tax Amendment! Say it, Polly! Amendment! Amendment! We don’t want it!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-08-18
A beautiful young woman, fashionably dressed with large hat, stands before a group of wealthy men and looks over her right shoulder. An insert escutcheon shows an automobile, lobster, and alcoholic drinks. Easter Puck.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1912-04-03