716 Cartoon prints american, Prints Images: LOC's Public Domain Archive Public Domain Search

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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

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

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

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 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. 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

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"

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 ...

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"

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"

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

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

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

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 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

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

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 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

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

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 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

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, ...

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.

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 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

America triumphant and Britannia in distress

A crude allegory of American prosperity and victory over England. Below the image an "Explanation" reads: "I America sitting on that quarter of the globe with the Flag of the United States displayed over her he... More

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

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

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, 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

Congressional pugilists - Engraving, Public domain image

A crude portrayal of a fight on the floor of Congress between Vermont Representative Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold of Connecticut. The row was originally prompted by an insulting reference to Lyon on Griswold... More

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 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"

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

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 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

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!!

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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 ...

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

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

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.

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

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 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

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 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 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., ...

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., ...

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, de...

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

The Tory mill. The original genuine experiment is published this day

A crude and unusually large woodcut, employing the metaphor of a mill to portray the spoils system under the Democrats (or "Tories" as they were labeled by the Whig press). The print may attack Andrew Jackson'... More

The ghost of a dollar or the bankers surprize / W. Charles, Del et Scu...

A caricature of Philadelphia merchant and financier Stephen Girard, here called "Stephen Graspall, Banker & Shaver." He stands behind a counter with a small slot in it, staring at an apparition of an 1806 Span... More

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

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 ...

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

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, 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 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 & ...

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. ...

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

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....

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 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.

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 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

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

A minister extraordinary taking passage & bound on a foreign mission t...

The second of two prints surrounding the scandalous trial of Methodist minister Ephraim K. Avery for the brutal murder of factory girl Sarah Maria Cornell. (See "A Very Bad Man," no. 1833-13). Contrary to Weite... More

Uncle Sam sick with la grippe - Drawing. Public domain image.

A satire attributing the dire fiscal straits of the nation to Andrew Jackson's banking policies, with specific reference to recent bank failures in New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia. The artist blames th... More

Democratic simplicity or the arrival of our favourite son

A satirical attack on alleged excesses in the Van Buren administration and on the President's Loco Foco or radical Democratic supporters in New York. Martin Van Buren rides past New York's Tammany Hall in a lu... More

Virtuous Harry, or set a thief to catch a thief!

A satire on the Whig party's anti-annexation platform. The question of whether or not to annex Texas was a large issue separating candidates in the 1844 campaign. Annexation's serious implications for the futur... More

A dish of "black turtle" - Political cartoon, public domain image

The cartoonist mocks the opportunism evident in Winfield Scott's endorsement of both the abolitionist cause and the Missouri Compromise. Scott, in military uniform, is seated at a table with a plate of soup be... More

Quartette from the new opera of the "Whig celebration at Lundy's Lane....

Winfield Scott's controversial performance as commander in the War of 1812 battle at Lundy's Lane turned to account by the artist in this parody of the general's candidacy in 1852. The battle of Lundy's Lane ag... More

I am glad, I am out of the scrape!

An optimistic Unionist boast, issued early in Lincoln's presidency, predicting the summary defeat of the Confederacy. Abraham Lincoln (at left) stands over the shield of the United States and a bald eagle, and ... More

The pending contest. Although all Copperheads call themselves Democra...

A variant of "The Pending Conflict" (no. 1863-10), evidently issued at about the same time (and deposited for copyright on the same date). Significant alterations here include: the "Neutrality" band has been re... More

The white man's banner . . . Seymour and Blair's campaign song

Sheet music cover for a campaign march for Democrats Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair, Jr. The oval bust portraits of the men are framed by oak leaves. The same New Orleans publisher issued another, anti-G... More

AntiMasonic Convention in Valdimor [on the] corner-stone march

An illustrated sheet music cover for a march dedicated to the Masons. According to the text the march was performed "at the Ceremony of laying the Corner Stone of the Masonic Temple, Boston." The illustration p... More

The Union, the Constitution and the enforcement of the laws. For Presi...

Print shows a large, handsome campaign banner for Constitutional Union party candidates Bell and Everett. Predictably, the imagery stresses unity of the states under the Constitution. Oval bust portraits of the... More

Young America. C.H. Lilienthal, N.Y. / Lith. of Sarony, Major & Knapp,...

An advertising card or box label for New York tobacco distributor C. H. Lilienthal, featuring the figure of "Young America." The boy is a much younger counterpart of the central figure in "The Young America Sch... More

The Union defenders certificate in support & defense of the government...

A colorful printed certificate for soldiers serving in the Union Army against the "Great Rebellion." At the top center is a seal with acanthus leaves spreading out from it, framing the title below. Two small mi... More

Grand banner of the radical democracy, for 1864

Print shows a campaign banner for presidential nominee John C. Fremont and his running mate John Cochrane. Fremont and Cochrane were the candidates of a faction of radical Democrats consisting mostly of Germans... More

An heir to the throne, or the next Republican candidate

The Republicans' purported support of Negro rights is taken to an extreme here. Editor Horace Greeley (left) and candidate Abraham Lincoln (resting his elbow on a rail at right) stand on either side of a short ... More

In union is strength. We will fight it out on this line

Print shows a Republican campaign banner for the Ulysses S. Grant-Schuyler Colfax ticket. The two candidates are shown in bust portraits in carved oval frames, encircled by olive or laurel branches. Grant (left... More

In union is strength. We will fight it out on this line

Grand Democratic banner, US Democratic party, portrait print

Print shows a campaign banner for Democratic candidates James K. Polk and George M. Dallas. Two bust portraits of the candidates appear in elaborate oval frames, each adorned with two eagles and a cornucopia. B... More

A bad egg. Fuss and feathers - Drawing. Public domain image.

Triumph of liberty. Dedicated to its defenders in America / drawn by J...

Print shows an allegory of liberty flourishing and monarchy and tyranny in decline. In a wooded grove Minerva, with a shield bearing the arms of the United States and a flag emblazoned with stars, pours libatio... More

Martial law / engraved by John Sartain.

The laying of the cable---John and Jonathan joining hands / W & P.

A crude but engaging picture, celebrating the goodwill between Great Britain and the United States generated by the successful completion of the Atlantic telegraph cable between Newfoundland and Valentia Bay (I... More

The last offer of reconciliation in remembrance of Prest. A. Lincolns....

A sentimentalized allegory "Dedicated to the Memory of our most lamented late President Abraham Lincoln" of the reconciliation of the North and South after the Civil War. Kimmel and Forster also produced two si... More

Johnny Bull and the Alexandrians / Wm Charles, Ssc.

The citizens of Alexandria, Virginia, are ridiculed in this scene for their lack of serious resistance against the British seizure of the city in 1814. At left two frightened gentlemen kneel with hands folded,... More

Can you rest one hand on the sacred altar of Liberty, and with the oth...

A strongly pro-Van Buren cartoon, espousing the antislavery platform of the Free Soil party and condemning Whigs and conservative Democrats alike. The artist also reflects the lingering bitterness among many De... More

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