Washington Monument (Washington, D.C.)

President Roosevelt fills out papers on his desk, his suitcase with tags reading, “Oyster Bay” and “Washington.” Uncle Sam says to Roosevelt, “Bid me ‘howdy’ before you go.” Presidential secretary William Loeb has a bag over his shoulder and reads a paper, “R.R. Time Table: Next train (presidential) leaves Oct.” A teddy bear reads “23 Jingles”: “In again, out again, presidential train!” In the background is the Washington Monument.

comments and context

Comments and Context

President Roosevelt, as pictured in this drawing by Clifford Kennedy Berryman, was set to embark on one of the longest trips of his presidency. As depicted in this cartoon, published on September 25, 1907, Roosevelt’s plans would take him to Ohio (for the funeral of President William McKinley’s widow), Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Tennessee, to deliver speeches. Then he planned speeches and a two-week bear hunt in the canebrakes of Louisiana, followed by speeches and appearances in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia, before returning to Washington.

In the first vignette, a Japanese man holding a camera sees the Washington Monument and says, “I’ll snap this shot tower” while another Japanese man takes a picture of German Emperor William II saying, “Ah, a snap!” In the second vignette, a Japanese man takes a picture of the White House, “This may come in handy.” In the third vignette, a Japanese man draws a picture of a trolley car and says, “Hist!” In the fourth vignette, a Japanese man takes a picture of President Roosevelt as he pushes a plow, “Ha! A new engine of war!” In the fifth vignette, a Japanese man draws a picture of a trolley and a car on a torn up road, “I never saw such a sight before! Some new method of blocking a forward movement I suppose.” In the middle of the cartoon, a man labeled “American jingo” reads the “yellow journal” with the headline, “Japs posed for war! Spies everywhere!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

In this commentary-cartoon by Clifford Kennedy Berryman, the focus is not on suspicious activities by Japanese immigrants and visitors, but mocking the paranoia of nativists at the time and, specifically, the frenzy whipped up by the “Yellow Press” (a name applied to sensationalist newspapers, nothing related to racial stereotypes).

President Roosevelt flies down the road driving an automobile with William H. Taft in the backseat. To the left side of the car the Republican elephant tries to keep up. There is a sign, “the presidential Glen Echo,” in the foreground and the White House and the Washington Monument in the background. Senator Joseph Benson Foraker holds up a watch and cries, “In the name of the speed limit, slack up.” Caption: Town Marshal Foraker: “Stop! in the name of the law.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Contemporary news stories, and even local geography, inform this cartoon by Jack Smith of the staunchly Republican journal, the Washington Herald.

President Roosevelt smiles as Joseph Benson Foraker grabs onto his coat, which rips off and he falls into a deep hole. The U.S. Capitol building and Washington monument are in the background.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The idea of this cartoon is to represent the end of the controversy between President Roosevelt and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker over the matter of a regiment of black troops being cashiered (not honorably discharged) after a melee near their barracks in Brownsville, Texas, left one man dead and another wounded. The accusations, defenses, and insults were the stuff of national interest for months.

President Roosevelt hangs from a hot air balloon “The 25th Regiment Affair” and holds onto a big stick labeled, “Prestige.” The U.S. Capitol building and Washington Monument can be seen on the ground. Caption: I’d let go of this Blamed thing, but I might break my “Big Stick.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist G. T. Hayward, in an awkward amalgam of icons and symbols, portrays the famed “Big Stick” of President Roosevelt as a cartoon prop signifying prestige rather than the routine attributes of power and persuasion.

Construction site for the south end overlook on Theodore Roosevelt Island. The Washington Monument can be seen rising above the tree line in the background.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial

Creation Date

1953

View from upstream of the Alexandria Aqueduct Bridge in its first incarnation as a canal boat bridge. Mason’s Island, later called Theodore Roosevelt Island, can be seen in the distance. The Washington Monument is visible on the left. Canal boats traveling on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal can be seen in the foreground.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial

Creation Date

1865

Harvey S. Bomberger introduces Theodore Roosevelt to the restoration projects of the Washington Monument and sends over photographs, sketches, and clippings from the Baltimore News. The project community hopes the government is able to provide aid and David J. Lewis has promised to present the project to the next congress. Bomberger hopes Roosevelt can offer his sympathy to the matter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-20

William S. Cowles loved President Roosevelt’s letter about William H. Taft and has recently heard that Roosevelt will likely help Taft win Kentucky. He is intently watching the aeroplane and makes suggestions for utilizing the the Washington Monument to speed up the process of building the new station in Washington, D.C.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-09-14

Colorized postcard showing a large neoclassical building, the United States Treasury Building, with the Washington Memorial visible in the background. A street with railcars, automobiles, and pedestrians in the foreground. Text on the reverse of the postcard describes the building. The number designation on the front indicates the postcard is part of a series.

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Creation Date

Unknown

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Creation Date

Unknown

Creator(s)

B.S. Reynolds Co.

Language

English

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Creation Date

Unknown

Creator(s)

B.S. Reynolds Co.

Language

English

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Creation Date

Unknown

Creator(s)

B.S. Reynolds Co.

Language

English

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Creation Date

Unknown

Creator(s)

B.S. Reynolds Co.

Language

English

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Creation Date

Unknown

Creator(s)

I. & M. Ottenheimer Publishers

Language

English

Alan R. Havig examines the effort of the Roosevelt Memorial Association (RMA) to secure a site on the Washington, D.C., mall to erect a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt. Havig argues that it was not the grandiose design by architect John Russell Pope that doomed the proposal, but that many in and out of Congress felt that constructing a memorial to Roosevelt in the 1920s was too soon after his death. Other critics argued that Roosevelt had not yet earned a place among the memorials to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Havig notes that Roosevelt, while denied a monument in the nation’s capital, would gain a memorial on Theodore Roosevelt Island in 1967, and he would earn a place on South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore among the figures that he was deemed unworthy of joining in the 1920s. 

Four illustrations, three photographs of memorials to Roosevelt, and the logo of the Theodore Roosevelt Association populate the essay. 

View of a party on the grounds of the White House with the Washington Monument visible in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905

Uncle Sam dances as he watches President Roosevelt and South Carolina Senator Benjamin R. Tillman fight each other with a big stick and pitchfork respectively. The United States Capitol building and the Washington monument are in the background. Two other men are on the ground.

comments and context

Comments and Context

When scholars and researchers refer to vintage commentary like political cartoons, it frequently is necessary to consider the source — not a cliché, but a reminder that one studies reactions and not events themselves. Of course it is a valid pursuit as well. This cartoon by Robert Carter, a staff member of William Randolph Hearst’s editorial and opinion sections, reflects the viewpoints of Hearts and his editor Arthur Brisbane. As such it says more about the newspaper mogul than about the principals in the cartoon, President Roosevelt and South Carolina Senator “Pitchfork” Benjamin R. Tillman.

President Roosevelt’s head is on a spider’s body that sits near the center of a web with the United States Capitol building. Off to the left in the Washington Monument and a democratic donkey fly that says, “You haven’t got me yet!” The “G. O. P.” elephant fly is close to the center and says, “I give up!!” Caption: Washington is laid out like a cart wheel, or it is a spider’s web?

comments and context

Comments and Context

James Calvert Smith’s political cartoon was drawn in the era when the only web associated with political commentary was a spider’s web like he pictured in this cartoon. It is possible that the Democrat’s point of view as more cynical than history would confirm, even in the next few years.