Political Cartoons

Satire on the presidential campaign of 1836, portraying the contest as a boxing match between Democratic candidate Martin Van Buren and Whig candidate William Henry Harrison. The artist clearly favors Harrison. The work is a variation on an 1834 cartoon which uses the boxing match as a metaphor for the struggle between Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle, president of the Bank of the United States. (See "Set To Between Old Hickory and Bully Nick," no. 1834-4). In a ring Van Buren and Harrison…

In a rare pro-Democrat cartoon presidential aspirant George Brinton McClellan is portrayed as the intermediary between Abraham Lincoln and Confederacy president Jefferson Davis. Gen. McClellan is in the center acting as a go-between in a tug-of-war over a "Map of the United States" engaged in by Lincoln (left) and Davis. He holds the two men by their lapels and asserts, "The Union must be preserved at all hazards!"

Reports of his alcoholism haunted Democratic candidate Franklin Pierce during the 1852 campaign. The matter is taken up here with mocking reference to the Maine Liquor Law of 1851, a landmark prohibition measure first passed in Maine and subsequently adopted in several other states. An obviously inebriated Pierce leans against ...

From the Presidential Election Campaign of 1872- Fight Political Corruption

Bryan- Print shows William Jennings Bryan riding a donkey labeled "Popocracy", holding a sword labeled "16 to 1" and a string attached to a small cannon labeled "Boy Orator", at the head of a small army of followers, among those identified are "Stewart, Watson, Coxey, Lease, Peffer, Tillman, [and] Altgeld", and possibly Joseph C.S. Blackburn. They are armed with farm tools, brooms, and a large sword labeled "Silver Syndicate" carried by Stewart. Their military standards state "Repudiation…

Woman symbolizing Justice(?) standing at door of building "State", as soldiers block steps to members of different religions. Contributor Names Nast, Thomas, 1840-1902, artist Created / Published 1871.

A crude nonpartisan satire, parodying all four candidates in the 1860 presidential election. A map of the United States hung on a wall is being torn apart by three of the candidates.

A pro-Whig cartoon showing rival candidates Winfield Scott and Franklin Pierce in a race for the presidency in 1852 before an audience of animated spectators. Scott, in uniform and looking uncharacteristically trim, rides a giant gamecock. He is clearly in the lead here, and tips his hat to Pierce, taunting, "What's the matter, Pierce? feel "Faint? " ha! ha! ha! lord what a "Goose!" don't you wish you had my "Cock?" well good bye, Pierce, good bye."

A satire on Franklin Pierce's alleged ineptness as an officer during the Mexican War. There are two scenes. In the left frame, in "New Hampshire," Pierce trains a band of volunteer militia, exhorting them, "Forward! my brave Compatriots preserve but that undaunted front, and victory is ours."

llustration shows a woman holding a baby that is crying out "I want my pa" as Grover Cleveland passes. Contributor Names Beard, Frank, 1842-1905, artist Created / Published 1884 September 27.

Harpers Weekly cartoon of the election of 1857

Cartoonist in 1912 celebrate Teddy Roosevelts announcement that he will run for President

The 1888 Presidential election- James Blaine and the Republicans

Two political cartoons on one sheet: cartoon on left by Clifford Berryman published in the Washington Star, April 28, 1907, shows Taft leaving a dog labeled "Politics" behind in Washington, D.C., as he travels to Ohio; cartoon on right by Charles Lewis Bartholomew published in the Minneapolis Journal, April 27, 1907, shows Taft as a stone rolling down a hill over Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama, and the Philippines but gathering no moss.