POLITICAL CARTOONS - Original Artwork

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Storytelling at its best The political cartoonist distills complicated worldly events into a serious – or sometimes humorous – panel drawing which in one brief glance helps a reader better understand the situation. Political cartoons can be so potent, in fact, that a century-plus ago the powerful political boss of New York City (Boss Tweed) ordered his cronies to “stop them damn pictures!” He knew the immigrant population could not read well, but they could easily figure out what was going on from seeing cartoons.
The political cartoonist involved was Thomas Nast whose artwork in “Harper’s Weekly” satirized society and pompous politicians for a generation. (The relentlessness of Nast’s cartoon campaign ultimately sent Tweed to prison.) From the first political cartoon to appear in a colonial newspaper drawn by Benjamin Franklin in 1754 (a severed serpent – the nation – needing to “Join, or Die”) to contemporary cartoons by Pat Oliphant, Jim Borgman, and Herblock, editorial cartoonists still offer an insight to readers that continually reinforces the maxim “a picture is worth a thousand words” day after day.

Symbolism is the shorthand in the political cartoonist’s arsenal. The Republican elephant and Democratic donkey (both attributed to Nast), Uncle Sam and the Bald Eagle, John Q. Public, Mr. Atom (bomb), among others, are the language used by the cartoonist on his storyboard. Contemporary cartoons tend to hit their mark more often than not using humor rather than the traditional jugular approach, but nonetheless, both kinds of cartoons have a common – and often successful – effect.

Original political cartoons are more rare than comic cartoons. Many editorial cartoonists reserve a career’s output of originals for a museum or university (the entire collection of Hugh Haynie – “Louisville Courier-Journal” – rests at his alma mater, The College of William and Mary here in Williamsburg). However, some originals of most cartoonists do find their way to public ownership. The Art-cade offers a unique selection of original political cartoons, each capturing a moment of history while being a work of art.