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The downfall of Mother Bank - Public domain  drawing

The downfall of Mother Bank - Public domain drawing

A pro-Jackson satire applauding the President's September 1833 order for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States. The combined opposition to this move from Bank president Nicholas Bid... More

Set to between Old Hickory and Bully Nick

Set to between Old Hickory and Bully Nick

Satire on the public conflict between Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle over the future of the Bank of the United States, and the former's campaign to destroy it. The print is sympathetic to Jackson, portrayi... More

Whig bazaar - Political cartoon, public domain image

Whig bazaar - Political cartoon, public domain image

Publd. by H.R. Robinson, 52 Cortlandt St. N-York. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837 by H.R. Robinson, in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern Distr... More

Progress of reform!!! No. 1 - Political cartoon, public domain image

Progress of reform!!! No. 1 - Political cartoon, public domain image

A scene in New York, outside the gates of City Hall Park. Two well-dressed men with top hats overturn the table of two apple-women. One of the men (from all appearances a Loco Foco radical Democrat) shouts at t... More

The Democratic funeral of 1848 - Political cartoon, public domain image

The Democratic funeral of 1848 - Political cartoon, public domain imag...

Foreseeing political death for the Democrats in the election, the artist imagines a funeral of the party's standard-bearers with a procession of the faithful. Democratic senators (left to right) Sam Houston of ... More

Scene in a New Hampshire court.--General Pierce examining a witness. Scene in a New Hampshire village.--Pierce the good Samaritan

Scene in a New Hampshire court.--General Pierce examining a witness. S...

Two humorous incidents supposedly from the life of Franklin Pierce. On the left, a repartee wherein Pierce, the distinguished trial lawyer, is embarrassed by an ignorant witness. Armed with pages of notes, Pie... More

Loco Foco hunters treeing a candidate

Loco Foco hunters treeing a candidate

A satire on the Democrats' or "Loco Focos'" 1852 pursuit of Franklin Pierce for the presidential nomination. At the foot of the White Mountains in the "Dismal Swamp," an immense, swampy region of North Carolina... More

Jeff Davis on the right platform, or the last "act of secession"

Jeff Davis on the right platform, or the last "act of secession"

A caricature of Jefferson Davis, probably issued not long after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, but certainly postdating his February 1861 election as president of the Confederacy. Davis is shown standing on a ... More

The Southern Confederacy a fact!!! Acknowledged by a might prince and faithful ally

The Southern Confederacy a fact!!! Acknowledged by a might prince and ...

A biting vilification of the Confederacy, representing it as a government in league with Satan. From left to right are: "Mr. Mob Law Chief Justice," a well-armed ruffian carrying a pot of tar; Secretary of Stat... More

The old general ready for a "movement"

The old general ready for a "movement"

Confident Union propaganda from the summer of 1861, claiming dominance over Confederate troops led by generals P. G. T. Beauregard and Gideon Pillow. Union commander Winfield Scott sits on a mound in the cente... More

Rising of the people. "The drum-tap rattles through the land"

Rising of the people. "The drum-tap rattles through the land"

A patriotic scene on the cover of a music sheet for a song written by N. P. Beers and composed by M. Colburn. In a middle-class domestic interior a young soldier (center) prepares to go off to war for the Union... More

Joseph E. Baker - How free ballot is protected!

Joseph E. Baker - How free ballot is protected!

The artist charges the Republicans with electoral corruption and extremism in their efforts to defeat Democratic presidential nominee George B. McClellan. Oblique reference is also made to Lincoln's supposed a... More

No more elbow room in Missouri! : Kein Ellbogen Raum mehr in Missouri

No more elbow room in Missouri! : Kein Ellbogen Raum mehr in Missouri

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1866, by Peter M. Pain in the Clerk's office of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Title appears as it is written on the item. Forms p... More

To the friends of Greeley and Brown

To the friends of Greeley and Brown

An illustrated cover for a collection of Democratic campaign songs. Liberal Republican presidential candidate Horace Greeley and running mate Benjamin Gratz Brown appear in oval bust portraits framed by ivy. Ab... More

Roll along, roll along, shout the campaign battle song

Roll along, roll along, shout the campaign battle song

An illustrated sheet music cover for a song composed in honor of Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes. Uncle Sam sits atop a hay wain labeled "Hayes." A large American flag with a liberty cap a... More

The Presidential fishing party of 1848

The Presidential fishing party of 1848

The cartoonist takes a dim view of all but Zachary Taylor's chances for the presidency in his commentary on the election campaign of 1848. The candidates fish from opposing banks of a river filled with fish bea... More

Tree of temperance - Print, Library of Congress collection

Tree of temperance - Print, Library of Congress collection

One of a pair of prints (see "Tree of Intemperance," no. 1855-3) issued by A.D. Fillmore in 1855 extolling the social and moral benefits of temperance and condemning the evils of alcohol. In the center of the c... More

A serviceable garment--or reverie of a bachelor

A serviceable garment--or reverie of a bachelor

Democratic presidential candidate James Buchanan is depicted as a poor bachelor in his squalid quarters. Though indeed a confirmed bachelor, Buchanan in reality was hardly needy. After serving as American minis... More

John Brown. Meeting the slave-mother and her child on the steps of Charlestown jail on his way to execution

John Brown. Meeting the slave-mother and her child on the steps of Cha...

Issued in the North during the Civil War, the melodramatic portrayal of an apocryphal incident from the life of John Brown must have had unmistakable propagandistic overtones. In actuality a violent antislavery... More

Jeff's last skedaddle off to the last ditch

Jeff's last skedaddle off to the last ditch

Signed in stone: F. Welcker. Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress) Exhibited: "The Civil War in America" at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 2012-2013.

For president John Bell. For vice president Edward Everett

For president John Bell. For vice president Edward Everett

Print shows a large campaign banner for Constitutional Union party presidential candidate John Bell and running mate Edward Everett. The banner consists of a printed, thirty-three star American flag pattern wit... More

Implements of torture, and their dangerous effects. Illustrated / By James Akin, no. 18 Prune Street, Philadelphia.

Implements of torture, and their dangerous effects. Illustrated / By J...

An impassioned attack on cruelty in Pennsylvania's Eastern Penitentiary. Akin presents a life-size, detailed rendering of an iron gag, "Locked upon Mathias Maccumsey, a Convict from Lancaster County, sentenced... More

A bad egg. Fuss and feathers - Political cartoon, public domain image

A bad egg. Fuss and feathers - Political cartoon, public domain image

Whig presidential candidate Winfield Scott is pictured as a fighting cock with human attributes. The cock wears fringed military epaulets, a sword, spurs, and a plumed hat. He is just emerged from an egg marked... More

In defence of the Union and the Constitution / C[hristian] Schussele, delt. ; on stone by [Caspar] Muringer.

In defence of the Union and the Constitution / C[hristian] Schussele, ...

A large certificate for a volunteer serving in the Union army to suppress the rebellion of 1861. In the center stands a woman, probably Columbia, holding two laurel wreaths and the Constitution. She extends her... More

Arms of ye Confederacie, Confederate States of America.

Arms of ye Confederacie, Confederate States of America.

A small card bearing a vitriolic indictment of the Confederacy. The artist particularly attacks the the institution of slavery, the foundation of Southern economy. A large shield is flanked by two figures: a pl... More

"The impending crisis"--Or caught in the act

"The impending crisis"--Or caught in the act

The print's title derives from the name of Hinton Rowan Helper's 1857 pamphlet "The Impending Crisis," an influential document in antislavery literature. Here the crisis is that of New York senator William H. S... More

The great footrace for the presidential purse (100,000 and picking) over the Union Course 1852

The great footrace for the presidential purse (100,000 and picking) ov...

Satire on the presidential election of 1852, showing Winfield Scott, Daniel Webster, and Franklin Pierce competing in a footrace before a crowd of onlookers for a $100,000 prize (the four-year salary for a pres... More

Col. John C. Fremont, Republican candidate for the President of the United States

Col. John C. Fremont, Republican candidate for the President of the Un...

Proof for a large woodcut banner or poster for Republican presidential candidate John C. Fremont. Fremont, a distinguished soldier and explorer, is mounted on a rearing horse in a mountain setting. Dressed in b... More

National Union Republican candidates / lith. of Kellogg & Bulkeley, Hartford, Conn.

National Union Republican candidates / lith. of Kellogg & Bulkeley, Ha...

Print shows a campaign banner for the 1868 Republican presidential and vice presidential ticket. Presidential nominee Ulysses S. Grant and his running mate, former speaker of the house Schuyler Colfax, are show... More

For president, Henry Clay. For vice president, Theodore Frelinghuysen

For president, Henry Clay. For vice president, Theodore Frelinghuysen

A Whig campaign badge for the election of 1844, very similar to number 1844-4, but also including a portrait of the vice-presidential nominee. Title appears as written on the print. Published in: American polit... More

The emblem of the free / B. Day, del.

The emblem of the free / B. Day, del.

Number three in a series of illustrated song-sheets published in New York by Samuel Canty. This example includes the words of a song by Canty entitled "The Emblem of the Free" and alternately "The Traitor's Dre... More

Rebel barbarities in Texas--from sketches by Fred. Sumner / Harley, del.

Rebel barbarities in Texas--from sketches by Fred. Sumner / Harley, de...

The print was published with the following text (trimmed from the Library's impression): Our series of views, illustrating the barbarities of the Confederates in Texas, are from sketches by Mr. Frederick Sumner... More

Satan tempting Booth to the murder of the President

Satan tempting Booth to the murder of the President

Lincoln's assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth, is goaded by a hideous Mephistophelian figure to shoot the unsuspecting President, who is visible in a theater box beyond. Booth stands erect, his left arm behind hi... More

Passmore Williamson, in Moyamensing Prison for alledged contempt of court / on stone by E[mil] Luders ; lith. of A[ugust] Kollner, Philadelphia.

Passmore Williamson, in Moyamensing Prison for alledged contempt of co...

An unusual informal portrait of the secretary of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, seated in a prison cell. Williamson was sentenced on July 22, 1855, to imprisonment for his "false return" (i.e., evasive tes... More

Abraham's dream!--"Coming events cast their shadows before"

Abraham's dream!--"Coming events cast their shadows before"

The artist portrays a President tormented by nightmares of defeat in the election of 1864. The print probably appeared late in the campaign. (The Library's copy was deposited for copyright on September 22.) Lin... More

Henry Clay / Ino. Neagle, pinxit, 1843 ; engraved by John Sartain from the original picture ...

Henry Clay / Ino. Neagle, pinxit, 1843 ; engraved by John Sartain from...

A formal campaign portrait of Whig presidential candidate Henry Clay, after the painting by John Neagle done at Ashland, Clay's estate in Kentucky. As this print's legend states, the original was painted "by th... More

Wanted a substitute - Public domain  print

Wanted a substitute - Public domain print

An illustrated sheet music cover, which protests the inequities of the draft or proscription system enacted under the Enrollment Act of 1863. The act allowed drafted men to purchase an exemption or to furnish a... More

The result of the Fifteenth Amendment, and the rise and progress of the African race in America and its final accomplishment, and celebration on May 19th, A.D., 1870

The result of the Fifteenth Amendment, and the rise and progress of th...

One of several large commemorative prints marking the enactment on March 30, 1870, of the Fifteenth Amendment, and showing the parade celebrating it which was held in Baltimore on May 19 the same year. The amen... More

The people's line--Take care of the locomotive

The people's line--Take care of the locomotive

Incumbent President Martin Van Buren drives "Uncle Sam's Cab," a carriage pulled by a blindered horse, which wrecks on a pile of "Clay." The carriage founders in the path of a locomotive, really an assemblage o... More

Social qualities of our candidate, Political Cartoon

Social qualities of our candidate, Political Cartoon

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 measur... More

Letting the cat out of the bag!!

Letting the cat out of the bag!!

A figurative portrayal of the rift within the Republican party resulting from the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for the presidency in 1860. Here New York senator and would-be nominee William H. Seward watches a... More

Practical illustration of the Fugitive Slave Law / E.C. del.

Practical illustration of the Fugitive Slave Law / E.C. del.

A satire on the antagonism between Northern abolitionists on the one hand, and Secretary of State Daniel Webster and other supporters of enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Here abolitionist William ... More

Managing a candidate - Print, Library of Congress collection

Managing a candidate - Print, Library of Congress collection

A caustic portrayal of the abolitionist Whigs' manipulation of Winfield Scott during the 1852 campaign. Influential Whigs (left to right) New York "Times" editor Henry J. Raymond, "Tribune" editor Horace Greele... More

America / E.W.C. - Print, Library of Congress collection

America / E.W.C. - Print, Library of Congress collection

Print shows an idealized portrayal of American slavery and the conditions of blacks under this system in 1841. The Library's impression of the print is a fragment--the left panel only--of a larger print entitle... More

"The government." No. 1, [Eye] take the responsibility

"The government." No. 1, [Eye] take the responsibility

A satire on Andrew Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet," the pejorative name given his informal circle of close advisors. The print appeared during the heated controversy incited by Jackson's discontinuation of federal ... More

Executive mercy/Marcy and the Bambers

Executive mercy/Marcy and the Bambers

An attack on New York governor William L. Marcy's controversial decision to surrender Irish fugitives John Bamber, Sr., and his son James to the British consul after their detention in New York. The Bambers, wa... More

Ornithology - Engraving, Public domain image, Political Cartoon

Ornithology - Engraving, Public domain image, Political Cartoon

A mild election-year cartoon portraying Whig presidential candidate Winfield Scott (left) as a turkey and Democrat Franklin Pierce (right) as a gamecock. The two face each other from opposite sides of "Mason &... More

Our land a national song - A black and white image of a woman holding a sword

Our land a national song - A black and white image of a woman holding ...

An illustrated sheet music cover for a song by George W. Babcock (Thomas Comer, composer) and dedicated to Samuel R. Spinney, Esq. The design shows Columbia or American Liberty (center) wearing a gorgon's head... More

Prize banner polka - Lithograph, public domain, Library of Congress

Prize banner polka - Lithograph, public domain, Library of Congress

Patently militaristic propaganda for the Union cause in the form of a sheet music cover illustration. Columbia or Liberty stands on the ramparts of a fortress near a cannon pointed across a harbor toward a moun... More

Union march - Public domain music sheet scan

Union march - Public domain music sheet scan

An illustrated sheet music cover for a Unionist song by Hans Krummacher, dedicated to Maryland Democratic senator James Alfred Pearce. The cover is adorned with a drawing of the goddess Hebe, the mythological G... More

The folly of secession, Confederate States of America.

The folly of secession, Confederate States of America.

South Carolina struggles against the outgoing Buchanan administration in an attempt to "smash the Union up!" The artist uses the age-old pictorial conceit of two parties pulling on the different ends of a cow, ... More

View of transparency in front of headquarters of Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments . . .

View of transparency in front of headquarters of Supervisory Committee...

A representation of an enormous illuminated transparency displayed on thefacade of the federal recruiting office for Negro troops on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia on November 1, 1864. The display celebrated t... More

The Chicago platform / Th. Nast., Confederate States of America.

The Chicago platform / Th. Nast., Confederate States of America.

A deceptive broadside, ostensibly a pro-McClellan campaign piece but actually a piercing attack on the Democratic platform. In the center is a portrait of Democratic presidential candidate George B. McClellan... More

Total destruction of the Democratic platform / terrible shipwreck and loss of life in Salt River

Total destruction of the Democratic platform / terrible shipwreck and ...

Title appears as it is written on the item. Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)

Major Jack Downing! / from the Painting by J[oseph] T. Harris ; Lith of Endicott & Sons [New York].

Major Jack Downing! / from the Painting by J[oseph] T. Harris ; Lith o...

A portrait of a popular fictional political commentator of the 1830s, created by Seba Smith who wrote humorous essays and letters under his name. Smith's book "The Life and Writings of Major Jack Downing of Dow... More

This certifies that [blank] is a member of the Native American Republican Association of Philadelphia / engraved & published by W.L. Germon, no. 80 1/2 Walnut St., Philadelphia.

This certifies that [blank] is a member of the Native American Republi...

A large ornamented membership certificate for a Philadelphia nativist organization. The motto "Beware of Foreign Influence" appears on a streamer above a bust portrait of George Washington. The Washington portr... More

Breaking that "backbone", Confederate States of America.

Breaking that "backbone", Confederate States of America.

A figurative commentary on Northern efforts to end the rebellion during the early years of the Civil War. Confederate President Jefferson Davis (far left) displays "the Great Southern Gyascutis," a dog-like mon... More

National picture. Behold oh! America, your sons. The greatest among men / L. Kurz ; lith. by Chas. Shober, Chicago.

National picture. Behold oh! America, your sons. The greatest among me...

A smaller version of no. 1865-7, issued later the same year and printed from one rather than two lithographic stones. In this version the figure of Lincoln is more convincingly drawn, but the continent is cropp... More

The Radical Party on a heavy grade / J.M. Ives, del. ; on stone by Cameron.

The Radical Party on a heavy grade / J.M. Ives, del. ; on stone by Cam...

An election-year cartoon, predicting the victory of former New York governor Horatio Seymour in the presidential race. Here, Seymour's head hovers, glowing, above the White House, complacently watching a group ... More

Grand National Whig prize banner badge / lith. by Edward Weber & Co., Baltimore, Md.

Grand National Whig prize banner badge / lith. by Edward Weber & Co., ...

A representation of a banner commissioned by the Whigs of Baltimore for the Whig National Convention in May 1844. The banner was made by John Gade and painted by William Curlett. As noted on the lithograph, the... More

Grand National Whig prize banner badge / lith. by Edward Weber & Co., Baltimore, Md.

Grand National Whig prize banner badge / lith. by Edward Weber & Co., ...

A representation of a banner commissioned by the Whigs of Baltimore for the Whig National Convention in May 1844. The banner was made by John Gade and painted by William Curlett. As noted on the lithograph, the... More

Martial law / engraved by John Sartain.

Martial law / engraved by John Sartain.

The Missouri painter George Caleb Bingham's eloquent but belated reprisal for, as the title continues, "the desolation of the border counties of Missouri, during the enforcement of military orders, issued by Br... More

Rebel barbarities in Texas--from sketches by Fred. Sumner / Harley, del.

Rebel barbarities in Texas--from sketches by Fred. Sumner / Harley, de...

The print was published with the following text (trimmed from the Library's impression): Our series of views, illustrating the barbarities of the Confederates in Texas, are from sketches by Mr. Frederick Sumner... More

The balls are rolling - clear the track

The balls are rolling - clear the track

A Republican boast, showing Fillmore (left) and Buchanan crushed by an electoral flood of giant balls inscribed with the names of northern and western states. Strewn on the ground around Fillmore and Buchanan a... More

National picture. Behold oh! American, your sons the greatest among men / O. Knirsch, Chgo. ; lith. by Chas. Shober, Chicago.

National picture. Behold oh! American, your sons the greatest among me...

One of the numerous patriotic apotheosis scenes produced in the months following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. (The Library's impression of "National Picture" was deposited for copyright on July 18, 186... More

A galvanized corpse - Public domain  drawing

A galvanized corpse - Public domain drawing

Jacksonian editor Francis Preston Blair rises from his coffin, revived by a primitive galvanic battery, as two demons look on. A man on the right throws up his hands as he is drawn toward Blair, saying: Had I n... More

Col. Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky. Born 1781 / painted and drawn on stone by A.A. Hoffay ; lith. of Dorival, 54 Ann St.

Col. Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky. Born 1781 / painted and drawn on ...

Full-length portrait of Kentucky Representative Richard M. Johnson, standing in a rhetorical pose and holding documents inscribed "Sunday Mail Reports" in his right hand. He points with his left hand to other d... More

Grand democratic free soil banner, engraving, Library of Congress

Grand democratic free soil banner, engraving, Library of Congress

Print shows a campaign banner for Free Soil Party candidates Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams in the presidential race of 1848. The two candidates, nominated at the third party's convention on August ... More

President Lincoln, writing the Proclamation of Freedom. January 1st, 1863 / painted by [David Gilmour] Blythe ; lithogr. and printed in colors by Ehrgott, Forbriger & Co. Cincinnati, O.

President Lincoln, writing the Proclamation of Freedom. January 1st, 1...

A print based on David Gilmour Blythe's fanciful painting of Lincoln writing the Emancipation Proclamation. Contrary to the title, the proclamation was issued in 1862 and went into effect in January 1863. In a ... More

The American flag, a new national lyric by Revd. J.B. Dickson of Scotland / Gilmour & Dean, litho.

The American flag, a new national lyric by Revd. J.B. Dickson of Scotl...

Woman dressed in red, white, and blue, with stars on skirt, holding sword and U.S. flag.

Anthony Burns / drawn by Barry from a daguereotype [sic] by Whipple & Black ; John Andrews, sc.

Anthony Burns / drawn by Barry from a daguereotype [sic] by Whipple & ...

Print shows a portrait of the fugitive slave Anthony Burns, whose arrest and trial under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 touched off riots and protests by abolitionists and citizens of Boston in the spring of 18... More

Grand, national, democratic banner. Press onward / lith. & pub. by N. Currier.

Grand, national, democratic banner. Press onward / lith. & pub. by N. ...

Print shows a campaign banner for Democratic candidates in the presidential election of 1848, Lewis Cass and running mate vice presidential nominee William O. Butler. The banner is very similar to Currier's 184... More

"I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest . . . where be your gibes now?--"Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 1"

"I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest . . . where be your gi...

McClellan, in the character of Hamlet stands near an open grave holding the head of Abraham Lincoln. He soliloquizes, "I knew him, Horatio: A fellow of infinite jest . . . Where be your gibes now?" The cartoon... More

Columbia teaching John Bull his new lesson / S[amuel] Kennedy, del. ; Wm Charles, Sculp.

Columbia teaching John Bull his new lesson / S[amuel] Kennedy, del. ; ...

A War of 1812 satire on Anglo-American and Franco-American relations. England's "lesson" is about the seriousness of American determination to maintain freedom on the high seas, while France is warned of Yanke... More

For President Horace Greeley of New York and for Vice President Benjn. Gratz. Brown ... / Henry Brueckner painted ; lith. by S[vobodin] Merinsky.

For President Horace Greeley of New York and for Vice President Benjn....

Print shows an unusually elaborate and imaginative campaign banner for Liberal Republican-Democratic presidential candidate Horace Greeley. The print contrasts scenes of war and mayhem from Ulysses S. Grant's p... More

The Union must and shall be preserved. For President Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. For Vice President Hannibal Hamlin of Maine / lith. by W[illiam] H. Rease, cor. 4th & Chestnut Sts., Philada.

The Union must and shall be preserved. For President Abraham Lincoln o...

Print shows a campaign banner for the Republican ticket. Oval bust portraits of the two candidates are enclosed in rustic bent-twig frames, intended perhaps to recall Lincoln's much-publicized backwoods origins... More

Jeff. Davis in prison, Confederate States of America.

Jeff. Davis in prison, Confederate States of America.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1865 by Gibson & Co. in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio. Inscribed in ink below title: Filed June ... More

Political caricature. No. 2, Miscegenation or the millennium of abolitionism

Political caricature. No. 2, Miscegenation or the millennium of abolit...

The second in a series of anti-Lincoln satires by Bromley & Co. This number was deposited for copyright on July 1, 1864. The artist conjures up a ludicrous vision of the supposed consequences of racial equalit... More

America / E.W.C. - Print, Library of Congress collection

America / E.W.C. - Print, Library of Congress collection

Print shows an idealized portrayal of American slavery and the conditions of blacks under this system in 1841. The Library's impression of the print is a fragment--the left panel only--of a larger print entitle... More

Grand National Democratic banner, US Democratic party

Grand National Democratic banner, US Democratic party

Print shows a campaign banner for Democratic candidates Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, almost identical to Currier & Ives's "Grand National Republican Banner" (no. 1876-1.) The Tilden-Hendricks banne... More

Liberty our aim! Washington our example!

Liberty our aim! Washington our example!

Emblematic design, probably for a kerchief, expressing American support for liberal nationalist movements in Europe. Includes bust-length portraits of Louis Kossuth, Giuseppe Mazzini, and George Washington. The... More

On the way to Araby! - Political cartoon, public domain image

On the way to Araby! - Political cartoon, public domain image

Satire on the Jackson administration's continuing battle against the Bank of the United States. The print was specifically occasioned by the re-chartering of the Bank by the Whig-controlled Pennsylvania Legisla... More

Scene in Washington. Sunday Feby. 25. 1838

Scene in Washington. Sunday Feby. 25. 1838

A caricature of James Watson Webb, prominent Whig editor of the "Morning Courier and New York Enquirer." Webb is shown parading, armed to the teeth, along Pennsylvania Avenue. He carries a sword cane, a musket,... More

Animal magnetism - A cartoon of a man sitting in a chair talking to another man

Animal magnetism - A cartoon of a man sitting in a chair talking to an...

A swipe at President Van Buren's independent treasury system and his continuation of the monetary policies of predecessor Andrew Jackson. The artist, clearly in sympathy with the Whigs, links corruption in the ... More

Grand Presidential sweep-stakes for 1849

Grand Presidential sweep-stakes for 1849

The Free Soil sympathies of the cartoonist are evident in his portrayal of the 1848 presidential contest as a race between the three major candidates. The contenders are on the course. Whig candidate Zachary T... More

Eclipse & no eclipse or two views of one object

Eclipse & no eclipse or two views of one object

Two scenes showing the differing perceptions of Franklin Pierce's stand on the issue of slavery, as viewed by the North and South. The cartoon is divided vertically by "Mason & Dixon's Line." An arrow identifie... More

Old Dominion polka - Lithograph, public domain, Library of Congress

Old Dominion polka - Lithograph, public domain, Library of Congress

An illustrated sheet music cover for a polka composed by Henry Bellman. Within a circular, ornamental border is an allegorical scene based on the seal of the State of Virginia. A helmeted female figure armed w... More

Sam's coming - Public domain portrait engraving

Sam's coming - Public domain portrait engraving

A music cover for a song by William Clifton, "inscribed [i.e., dedicated] to New York Know Nothing leader James W. Barker Esq." The illustration features the youthful "Sam" type who appears in various identitie... More

Fillmore Schottisch - Engraving, Public domain image

Fillmore Schottisch - Engraving, Public domain image

An emblematic illustrated cover for a piece of Millard Fillmore campaign music, composed by Frederic Southgate and copyrighted in 1856. The figure of Columbia or Liberty, surrounded by clouds and an oval frame,... More

The bell and Everett schottisch

The bell and Everett schottisch

An illustrated sheet music cover for campaign music honoring Constitutional Union party candidates John Bell and Edward Everett. The candidates' bust portraits are framed in floral and acanthus tracery. In the... More

Ye conference. "Not any we thank you Mr. Davis"

Ye conference. "Not any we thank you Mr. Davis"

Jefferson Davis's diplomatic overtures to France and Great Britain fail in an imaginary scene at court. Davis (right) bows before French ruler Napoleon III, extending toward him a tray of "bonds." Davis holds a... More

Candidates from the exempt brigade, Political Cartoon

Candidates from the exempt brigade, Political Cartoon

A grim commentary on the extraordinary measures taken by some Americans to evade military service during the Civil War. A man in shirtsleeves (center) has just had his right hand mutilated by a woman who stands... More

The flag with thirty four stars

The flag with thirty four stars

A patriotic sheet music cover for a Unionist song written by Gen. W. H. Hayward, composed and arranged by Prof. C. S. Root, and dedicated to Wilson G. Horner, Esq. Columbia, wearing a liberty cap and carrying a... More

The four years contract and its progress

The four years contract and its progress

One of three anti-Lincoln satires published by Nichols in Boston at around the same time. (It was deposited for copyright on June 30, 1863, along with "Oppression!! Suppressing the Press" and "The Great America... More

Union and liberty! And union and slavery!

Union and liberty! And union and slavery!

An anti-McClellan broadside, contrasting Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln's advocacy of equality and free labor in the North to Democratic opponent McClellan's alleged support of the Southern slave system. ... More

Behind the scenes during American Civil War

Behind the scenes during American Civil War

Another venomous attack on the Lincoln administration by the artist of "The Commander-in-Chief Conciliating the Soldier's Votes, no. 1864-31," and "The Sportsman Upset by the Recoil of His Own Gun," (no. 1864-3... More

Abe linking with his significantly named cabinet

Abe linking with his significantly named cabinet

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1864 by M.E. Goodwin in the Clerk's Off. in the Dist. Court of the United States for the Southern Dist. of N.Y. Designed by R.D. Goodwin. Title appears as it is ... More

Finding the last ditch--Running the "head" of Secession "into the ground," - everybody ...

Finding the last ditch--Running the "head" of Secession "into the grou...

Union soldier, followed by African American in broken chains, hurls Jefferson Davis (dressed as a woman) who drops a bag of "stolen gold" over the edge of a cliff; Satan waits below the cliff with a pitchfork. ... More

"As yet, I have found no difficulty in standing upon my own platform"

"As yet, I have found no difficulty in standing upon my own platform"

A puzzling caricature, probably dealing with Reconstruction under Andrew Johnson's administration. The work is quite crudely drawn. An acrobat, with mustache and sideburns and wearing a jester's cap, holds in ... More

An august convention - Political cartoon, public domain image

An august convention - Political cartoon, public domain image

The National Union Convention met in Philadelphia in August 1866 to create a political party that would back President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction program and to elect a new Congress. Here, the convention ... More

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