White House History 48 "Political Cartoons and the White House"

Political Cartoons and the White House The Quarterly Journal of the White House Historical Association Number48

Please note that the following is a digitized version of White House History Quarterly, Issue 48, originally released in print form in 2018. Single print copies of the full issue can be purchased online at Shop.WhiteHouseHistory.org No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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WHITE HOUSE

A journal published by the White House Historical Association Washington

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY NUMBER FORTY-EIGHT• WINTER 2018

2 FOREWORD

William Seale

4 THOMAS NAST: "FATHER OF THE AMERICAN CARTOON"

Fiona Deans Halloran

FIONA DEANS HALLORAN is the author of Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political Cartoons.

She holds a PhD in American history from UCLA. Halloran teaches in Salt Lake City, Utah.

14

CLIFFORD

K.

BERRYMAN

THE DEAN OF AMERICAN CARTOONISTS

Jessie Kratz and Martha Grove

JESSIE KRATZ is the historian of the National Archives and editor of the National Archives blog, Pieces of History.

MARTHA GROVE is an archivist with the Center for Legislative Archives at the National Archives.

30 THE WHITE HOUSE AS A SYMBOL IN THE CARTOONS OF HERBLOCK SELECTIONS FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Sara W Duke

SARA W DUKE is curator of Popular & Applied Graphic Art in the Prints & Photographs Division at the Library of Congress.

In addition to overseeing the Herbert L. Block Collection, she curates rotating exhibitions in the Herblock Gallery.

40

NEWSPAPERMAN FRANCIS PRESTON BLAIR'S CARTOON COLLECTION AT BLAIR HOUSE

Elaine M. Gibbs

ELAINE M. GIBBS is an independent scholar serving as a consultant and collections assistant in the Office of the Curator, Blair House, The President's Guest House, in Washington, D. C.

52 PENNING THE PRESIDENTS: CARTOONS FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE JAMES MONROE MUSEUM SCOTT H.

Scott H. Harris

HARRIS is the director of the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

He was previously the director of the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park, director of historic resources for the City of llfanassas, Virginia, and curator of the Manassas Museum System.

60 ON THE RECORD WITH OFF THE RECORD'S CARTOONISTS

Mike Rhode

MIKE RHODE is a member of the National Cartoonists Society who writes books about the comic arts. He is also an editor for the International Journal of Comic Art and former comic writer for the Washington City Paper.

72 DRAWING THE PRESIDENTS: PAT OLIPHANT'S FIFTY YEARS OF WHITE HOUSE CARTOONING Pat Oliphant is a Pulitzer-Prize winning editorial cartoonist who has covered the presidency for more than fifty years.

His work has appeared in exhibitions at presidential libraries and is in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the Library of Congress, and the New Mexico Museum of Art. In 2013, he received Australia's highest honor, the Order of Australia.

94

REFLECTIONS THE PRESIDENT'S PEN

Stewart D. McLaurin, President, White House Historical Association

I­ ►

:Forewortf Political cartooning exploded on the scene in France and England in the late eighteenth-century period of revolution. The print shops of Paris flooded the eager public with cartoons on loose sheets, and in Britain, father and son cartoonists, Isaac Cruikshank and his sons George and Robert, cartooned with biting humor for an entire generation, even including a spoof (opposite) in 1829 of the much exaggerated chaos of Andrew Jackson's inaugural cele­ bration at the White House.

Political or "editorial" cartooning in America is the subject of this issue of White House History. After the Civil War the art came of age in America primarily in the newspaper work of Thomas Nast, and achieved in the twentieth century a significant place in our political culture. With the advent of technology and the reduc­ tion of the mass of newspapers that once covered the nation, politi­ cal cartooning seems in a sense a part of the past, yet its funny ren­ ditions of opinion continue, and its bite does not relax. The journal hopes that the following cartoons, filled with the amusing and the pithy, will trigger your appreciation of the art as it has applied to the White House and its occupants. We have assembled the best practitioners of the genre.

c�William Seale Editor, White House History

Thomas Nast "Father of the American Cartoon"

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�s Nast was an immigrant, entering the United States as a child in 1846. By 1864 his tal­ ent for reflecting American politics and society in beautiful, detailed, sometimes wickedly pointed car­ toons had catapulted him to newspaper stardom. By 1871 he was the most celebrated cartoonist in the nation, courted-and threatened-by powerful men in Washington and New York.

Nast understood the nation through its mythol­ ogy. Sentimental, patriotic, drawn to symbolism, Nast used the White House in his work when he wanted to demonstrate everything that mattered about his new national identity and when he wanted to exclude the unworthy from its premises.

Nast was six years old when his family left the place of his birth, Landau (then in the German Kingdom of Bavaria), for New York. The Nasts sought to avoid the political tensions that culminated in the Revolutions of 1848. While little Thomas was thus delivered from any possibility that his father's politics might lead to problems for the family, he was also dropped into an unfamiliar environment where he neither spoke the language nor understood local customs. At first Nast found his new home bewilder­ ing. At school, for instance, he struggled to under

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Cartoonist Thomas Nast at work at his desk, c. 1890, amid his books, papers, and models.

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stand instructions delivered in English. Told by a mischievous classmate to line up before lunch, Nast found out too late that he had joined the spanking line.'

Not everything about New York bedeviled Nast, however. His expansive curiosity found everyday life in the city the perfect object of study. Often truant, he roamed the streets of his neighborhood observing the teeming urban culture and feeding his visual imagination. In his early teens Nast left school alto­ gether and sought employment as an artist. He was lucky. A job drawing for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper led to assignments in England and Italy and, by 1861, to a position at Harper's Weekly.

From there, Nast built a career. First, he illus­ trated the news. Later, he transformed his work into images that were much more starkly political. He always infused his drawings with a strong sense of who he was and what he imagined American identity to be. The White House played a role in both.

Cartoonists traffic not in the subtleties of public life but in its fundamental truths. They attempt to reveal those truths in a flash of insight. Nast hewed close to that classic cartooning approach. He embraced certain truths with great fervor. Among them was the idea that the United States was a land of oppor­ tunity, a place where an immigrant child with little education could build a prosperous, fulfilling life with only a pencil.

So when Nast drew the White House, he did so from a position that presumed an idealized national character. If "American" meant opportunity, then the White House must be a place to which great men aspired. If "American" meant purity of intention, the White House must be a place that unworthy men must not pollute. If "American" meant openness, the White House must reflect that openness by resisting tyranny by example. Nast imbued the house itself with a symbolic power that reflected his personal sense of what it meant to be American. To be American, Nast asserted in a Thanksgiving cartoon, meant welcoming immigrants and the native-born, men and women, workers and the powerful, to the same table in the same house. Symbolically, for Nast, the American welcome and its promises lived in the White House.

The White House appeared in Nast' s work not just symbolically, however, but literally, too. It seems he first visited Washington for Lincoln's first inaugu­ ration. He was only 20 years old, wide-eyed and fas­ cinated by everything about the critical election and its outcome. He remembered, all his life, the tense mood leading up to the inauguration.

Nast's visits to Washington increased in the 1870s as he traveled to observe copyright hearings in Congress and to see firsthand the turmoil within the

Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner Harper's Weekly, November 22, 1869

In this cartoon Nast imagines an American Thanksgiving dinner that might take place in the White House and at the same time makes the idea of the people's house uni­ versal. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Ulysses S. Grant-the sitting president when Nast published this image-gaze benevolently down on the immigrants gathered around a table. The centerpiece announces "Self-Government" and "Universal Suffrage."

Also on the wall is a painting of Castle Garden, the New York immigrant depot that preceded Ellis Island. For the holiday, families from around the world have convened to give thanks. Uncle Sam himself carves the bird.

VNCLE S THE WHITE HOUSE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

6

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 48)

AM'S THANKSC.lVI NG DINN ER� Thomas Nast: "Father of the American Cartoon" and the White House 7

Chicago, May 21, 1868

Harper's Weekly, June 6, 1868

Nast demonstrates his regard for Ulysses S. Grant by avoiding stereotype, instead relying on the recognized visual language to signal Grant's rectitude to readers. In this image Grant stands straight, his uni­ form in perfect order, his gaze firm and thoughtful. Columbia, symbol of the nation's admiration and gratitude, honors Grant's selection as the Republican candi­ date for president. For an artist whose car­ icatures so often offended, this portrayal clearly indicates Grant's place in Nast's imagination. To Nast, Grant was the ideal man, an occupant worthy of the White House, a successor to Lincoln.

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Republican Party. By this time, he was no longer an anonymous young illustrator but a celebrated politi­ cal cartoonist, a strong advocate for the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, feared by the corrupt bosses of Tammany Hall-New York City's Democratic polit­ ical machine-and widely lauded for his wicked wit.

An incident in 1872 revealed to Nast, in some ways for the first time, his celebrity. Senator Carl Schurz approached him at a reception to complain about his caricatures. As Nast had observed years before, no man enjoys seeing himself held up to ridicule. But Schurz was particularly sensitive and told Nast that the Harpers would soon force their cartoonist to desist. Nast only smiled. He knew that they would not.2 Many other denizens of Capitol Hill shared Schurz's anger. One man whom Nast avoided offending, though, invited the cartoonist to lunch.

Ulysses S. Grant occupied an unusual position in Nast's cartoon lexicon. Idolized for his leadership during the Civil War, portrayed as a hero not only in a military context but also as an example of American manhood, Grant represented the ideal man for consumers of Nast' s cartoons. Nast por8

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number48)

trayed him with simplicity and respect, avoiding stereotype.

Cartooning relies on a visual alphabet. The reader should, ideally, recognize types and locations so that the cartoonist's point can be made almost immediately. Nast developed (and sometimes bor­ rowed wholesale) stock characters whom readers instantly recognized as ethnic or racial "types." He also employed national symbols, such as Columbia, to represent the nation as a whole. Similarly, refer­ ences to classical or popular literature helped Nast link current events and personalities to tales readers already knew. Nast loved to employ Shakespeare, ancient history, and even his own home for back­ grounds in his cartoons.

Thus Grant's invitation to a family dinner at the White House both sparked Nast's imagination and stoked his ego. Nast was delighted. He wrote to his wife, "Everybody knows me, everybody is glad to see me, everybody thanks me," and he added, "The power I have here frightens me." 3 Grant's invitation, and subsequent meetings and meals with the presi­ dent, pleased Nast so much in part because they showed him that he had truly arrived. To dine at the

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Children Cry for It

Harper's Weekly, February 3, 1872 Nast shows Grant sitting in his White House dining room, comfortable in his station, at his table, and commanding the respect inherent to the White House. He doles out "Civil Service Reform" medicine to Carl Schurz, Charles Sumner, and other reluctant Republicans who had criticized him for corruption and whose calls for reform of government employment had positioned them as defenders of the nation's honor. Nast portrays them as children, however, and shows Grant as the adult, the big man, the leader with authority. He demonstrates that it is Grant, in fact, who is committed to reform and prints an excerpt of Grant's statement on reform at the bottom of the cartoon. Grant, in the people's house, calls for reform on behalf of the people.

Thomas Nast: "Father of the American Cartoon"

9

White House, as the guest of the president, meant that his work-however much it might offend men such as Carl Schurz and Charles Sumner-did matter.

Schurz, Sumner, and Grant were all Republicans. But in the 1870s Republicans disagreed about exactly what policies best reflected their party's values. Questions about Reconstruction, reg­ ulation of the marketplace, the quality of public dis­ course, and the purity of government divided Republicans into factions. Nast had been a fiercely partisan Republican since at least 1864. Like his fel­ low Republicans, however, he was caught up in the infighting that characterized the early 1870s. His

The Last Shot of the Honorable Senator from Massachusetts­ He Pulled the Long Burr Once Too Often

Harper's Weekly, June 22, 1872

In this cartoon, published just after the Republicans met to nominate Grant for a second term, Nast mocks Charles Sumner's criticism of Grant.

Sumner takes aim at the White House, but his bow breaks because he aims it at the wrong man and at the symbolic heart of the nation.

Grant stands firmly on the steps of the North Portico, Columbia at his side. Nash thus asserts that Grant deserved his residency at the White House. and the house reinforced his fitness for office and leadership of the party and nation. For good measure, Nast added the Capitol dome and an enormous American flag. These symbols underscore the failure of Sumner and his Liberal Republican allies to land a killing blow to Grant's presidency.

10

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number48)

opposition to the ideas of, and eventually to the actions by, those who identified as Liberal Republicans positioned him firmly on the side of the president and against many powerful Republicans in Congress. Nast's defense of Grant surprised no one, but his cartoons that derided the great men of his own party revealed party divisions.

Criticism of Grant from within the Republican Party included not just disagreements on policy but a real sense of distaste. At the end of May 1872, Sumner, a distinguished senator from Massachusetts and a Liberal Republican, denounced Grant in a public address.4 Sumner's allegations of corruption

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The Foremost Champion of This Spirit of Reform-H. Seymour Harper's Weekly, May 20, 1876

In this election cartoon Nast portrays New York governor and Democratic candidate Samuel Tilden as the latest embod­ iment of the corruption of Tammany Hall. Dressed as a fireman, a member of "Boss" Tweed's Big Six Fire Company, Tilden stands ready to enter the White House to "reform" it. Inverting Ti/den's claim to offer the antidote to Grant's corrupt administration, Nast attacks the Democrat for connections to the corruptions of machine rule.

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12 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 48)

were directed at specific cabinet members, but his critique was, fundamentally, aimed at the White House itself. In response Nast made Sumner the special target of his ire in a cartoon that celebrated Grant's nomination by the Republicans for a second term in office.

Nast' s regard for Grant survived many trials.

Even the increasing crises of the Grant administra­ tion-embodied in the escalating series of scandals during his second term-failed to dim Nast's admira­ tion. Grant was, Nast believed, a great man, and Nast tended to forgive his hero. Even if Grant was badly served, Nast seems to have concluded, he was not bad.

Nast also liked to think of the White House as a physical embodiment of national rectitude. Only men who proved worthy ought to work in its rooms. Thus Horace Greeley's challenge to Grant in the presiden­ tial election of 1872 aroused Nast's ire. Unsuited to the presidency, radical in all the wrong ways, even ridiculous in his dress and person, Greeley was every­ thing Nast believed ought to be excluded from the White House. Putting aside Nast's defense of his hero Grant, he opposed Greeley on personal and ide­ ological grounds. The same logic applied in 1876 to Samuel Tilden, the Democratic nominee for presi­ dent that year. Nast mocked Tilden's ambitions, attacked him for corruption, and charged that con­ nections to machine rule would sully the purity of the presidency and the White House.

James G. Blaine's candidacy in 1884 provoked Nast once again. Blaine was, however, a Republican,

The Sacred Elephant

Harper's Weekly, March 8, 1884 Nast places himself in this cartoon, as he did on occasion. He stands with his hand on the trunk of the Republican elephant-the party symbol that he invented-to urge the party to choose its presidential candidate wisely. ''The animal is sure to win, " the inscription says, "if it is only kept pure and clean, and has not too heavy a load to carry. " The implication is that the party should not nominate James G. Blaine, a man tainted by scandal. Visible behind Nast, in almost perfect alignment, is the White House with the American flag flying above it.

and the complexities of this campaign proved seri­ ously destructive-to Nast's career, his relationship with Harper's Weekly, and his faith in the Republican Party. For years Nast had been loyal to the party that he represented in his cartoons as an elephant, a symbol he invented and that persists to this day. Nast had also been a pugnacious fighter in the internal battles among Republicans relating to Reconstruction, unionization, immigration, foreign affairs, and even free love. He made both friends and enemies. In 1884, he watched with dismay as his enemies wrested control of the party from his friends and nominated a man Nast believed to be hopelessly corrupt. Thus he abandoned his usual loyalties and attacked not the Democratic nominee but the Republican. He couched these attacks partly in terms of a defense of the Republican Party and of the White House itself.

For Nast, the White House had come to repre­ sent-visually and emotionally-a sense of belong­ ing. It was not just a literal home, though he visited it as such when getting to know President Grant, but a symbol of the American identity he loved so dearly. As a result of this emotional meaning, Nast's portrayals of the White House emphasized its cen­ trality to American nationhood, linked it to the lead­ ers Nast admired, and denied it to men Nast consid­ ered inadequate or corrupt.

Nast' s faith in the power of the White House never wavered. Though he grew more realistic as he grew older, his fundamental worldview tended to break ideas into the good and the bad. At the end of his life, in need of financial rescue, it was to the White House he turned, asking for a diplomatic post from the Theodore Roosevelt administration. The answer was yes, but in the tropical city of Guayaquil, Ecuador. There Nast, age 62, took up his post, only to die within months of yellow fever, in the service of the branch of government whose house he so admired.

NOTES I.

Fiona Halloran. Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political Cartoons (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013), 3.

2.

Ibid., 153.

3.

Thomas Nast to Sallie (or Sarah) Nast, February I, 1872, quoted in Albert Bigelow Paine, Thomas Nast: His Period and His Pictures (New York: Macmillian, 1904).

4.

"Mr. Sumner's Speech," Harper's Weekly, June 22, 1872, 484.

Thomas Nast: "Father of the American Cartoon"

13

Clifford K. Berryman The Dean of American Cartoonists

JESSIE KRATZ AND

cord K. Berryman was one of the most renowned and widely acclaimed political cartoonists in the first half of the twentieth century. For more than fifty years his cartoons appeared on the front page of Washington, D.C., newspapers, first the Washington Post and later the Washington Evening Star. He satirized politicians and well­ known figures from the United States and abroad.

His ability to draw witty caricatures helped him deliver political messages in a whimsical way, earning him the respect, rather than ire, of those he drew.

By some estimates, Berryman drew more than 40,000 cartoons in his lifetime. 1 Throughout his extraordinary career, he drew presidents, members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, foreign leaders, and other important figures. His drawings depicted local

Clifford Berryman, seen in a c. 1905 photograph above and in a 1904 self-portrait opposite, was known as "The Dean of American Cartoonists." In this self-portrait Berryman depicts himself drawing his iconic Teddy Bear, which became a recurring symbol in his cartoons. The portraits sketched in the background are of Berryman's wife, Kate, to whom he was married for fifty-six years, and their children, Florence and Jim.

MARTHA GROVE

sports teams, federal workers' woes, political celebrities of the moment, national holidays, and one of his favorite topics-the infamous Washington weather.

Berryman drew specific events, many of which occurred a century ago, but his cartoons remain remark­ ably relevant today.

As a prominent Washington cartoonist, Berryman was both celebrated and beloved. Through out his life he received letters of appreciation from many admirers, including presidents. He was affec­ tionately known as "The Dean of American Cartoonists."2 In 1949 President Harry S. Truman wrote to Berryman, "You are a Washington institu­ tion comparable to the [Washington] Monument." 3 Berryman's Life Clifford K. Berryman was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, on April 2, 1869. Although he never attended art school, he was prolific at drawing and a naturally skilled portraitist. He taught himself the art of cartooning.

When he was 13, Berryman sketched a portrait of Congressman C. S. Blackburn of Kentucky.

Blackburn saw it several years later and encouraged Berryman to pursue his art. With Blackburn's sup­ port, in 1886, at the age of 17, Berryman moved to

Washington, D.C., and secured a position as a mes­ senger at the United States Patent Office. But politi­ cal cartooning was Berryman's passion, and he con­ tinued to draw, sometimes honing his skill by copy­ ing the works of popular cartoonists of his time.

In 1889, on a whim, Berryman submitted several original sketches to the Washington Post. To his astonishment and delight, the Post published them.

Berryman later recalled being so surprised that after his drawings appeared in print, he steered clear of the newspaper for days, fearing he might be charged for advertising.4 Instead, the newspaper paid him $25, nearly as much as his monthly salary at the Patent Office. In 1891 Berryman was hired by the Post and his drawings began to appear regularly in the paper. 5 Berryman's mentor at the Post was the cartoon­ ist George Y. Coffin, whose drawings were featured in several prominent publications including Puck, Judge, Harper's Weekly, and the Washington Hatchet, a weekly humor newspaper established in 1883. By the 1890s, Coffin was working almost exclu­ sively for the Washington Post. 6 He was known for his lifelike depictions of people, never distorting physical features or being cruel in his portrayals.

Berryman embodied these same traits, and they came to define his cartooning style. When Coffin died in 1896, Berryman took over as the Post's chief cartoonist.

16 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 48)

On November 16, 1902, the Washington Post published what became Berryman's most famous car­ toon, "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," which por­ trayed an image of the Teddy Bear for the first time.

The cartoon referenced a trip to Mississippi where President Theodore Roosevelt had traveled to settle a border dispute with neighboring Louisiana. On a hunting trip while there, Roosevelt famously refused to shoot a bear that had been captured by guides. In his cartoon depicting the event, Berryman drew a cute, cuddly "teddy bear"-named for President Teddy Roosevelt-which immediately gave rise to the popular stuffed bear. Thereafter the Teddy Bear appeared regularly in Berryman's cartoons.7 While Berryman was employed at the Post, he continued to clerk at the Patent Office. In 1907 he was offered the position of front page cartoonist at Entitled "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," this cartoon is perhaps Berryman's most famous. Made in 1902, it references a hunting trip in Mississippi where President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear. The drawing of the cute, cuddly "Teddy Bear"-namedfor President Teddy Roosevelt-inspired the popular stuffed bear. The Teddy Bear appeared frequently in Berryman's cartoons and in such related motifs as the 1905 Washington Post advertisement above.

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the city's rival newspaper, the Washington Evening Star. 8 The Evening Star had a wider circulation and was the more influential newspaper at that time, and the new position allowed Berryman to eventually quit his job at the Patent Office. Berryman's first cartoon in the Evening Star appeared on January 31, 1907. He drew for the Evening Star for the next forty-two years.

At the Evening Star, Berryman's cartoons appeared nearly daily, usually on the front page. Yet he found time to give lectures on his work and the art of cartooning, and he was an active Washington socialite and prominent member more than a dozen clubs. One was the Gridiron Club, a prominent membership organization for journal­ ists, where Berryman served as presi­ dent in 1926. He remained a devoted member for years. Many of Berryman's drawings depict the club's rowdy annual dinner, a Washington tradition that continues to this day.

Awarded numerous honors throughout his lifetime, in 1944 Berryman was recognized with a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning for "But Where Is the Boat Going?" depicting President Franklin Roosevelt, members of Congress, and other gov­ ernment officials simultaneously trying to steer the "USS Manpower Mobilization" in opposite directions during World War II.9 Berryman did most of his drawing in his office at the Star Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Washington. He commuted daily by streetcar, which he said provided inspi­ ration for his cartoons. 10 On November 17, 1949, while entering the lobby of the Star Building, Berryman became ill and collapsed. 11 He never fully recovered and died less than a month later on

18 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 48)

After Clifford Berryman won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning for his 1943 cartoon (at top), a cartoon captioned "Congratulations Dad" by his son, Jim Berryman, appeared on the front page of the Washington Evening Star. Jim proudly paid homage to his father by depicting him being cheered on by two of Clifford's most endearing characters-Mr. District of Columbia and the Teddy Bear.

►

December 11, 1949, at his home in Northwest Washington, with Kate, his wife of fifty-six years, by his side. The Evening Star devoted a full page to his memory. 12 Berryman's son, Jim, also a political cartoonist, took over his father's role at the paper, carrying on the family tradition. Jim Berryman first worked as a staff artist and sports cartoonist at the Evening Star, and by the early 1940s the newspaper was also pub­ lishing Jim's editorial cartoons, often as fill-ins for his father. Jim's style was remarkably similar to Clifford's, and like his father, Jim won a Pulitzer Prize in 1950 for one of his cartoons. Jim died in 1971. 13 In 1989, Clifford Berryman's daughter, Florence, endowed an award in memory of her late father and brother, presented annually by the National Press Foundation. One of several awards recognizing the best in American journalism, the Clifford K. and James T. Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons honors U.S.-based editorial car­ toonists for work that exhibits power to influence public opinion and incorporates "good drawing and striking effect." 14 The most recent recipient was Kevin Kallaugher, editorial cartoonist from the Baltimore Sun. Kallaugher holds the distinction of being the only cartoonist to win the honor twice­ first in 2002, then again in 2017. 15 Berryman's Legacy Berryman was a prolific and bounteous artist and often gave his cartoons away to the people they featured. Many of his original pen-and-ink drawings survive today in repositories and private collections across the country. In 1945 he donated 1,200 of his cartoons to the Library of Congress, which houses one of the largest collections of his work. 16 Another large collection of Berryman's original drawings is at the National Archives. Discovered in the Berryman family home upon the death of Florence in 1992, this rare collection was purchased from the estate by the Charles Engelhard Foundation and donated to the U.S. Senate. It is now part of the historical records of Congress in the Center for Legislative Archives at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.17

A man of his time, Berryman made drawings that reflected the political temperature and circum­ stances of his era, providing insight into historic events from the first half of the twentieth century. A century later, his fine artwork and keen observation continue to resonate, inspiring a new generation of political cartoonists.

NOTES I.

"The Press: Teddy Bear's Father," Time, August 21, 1944.

2.

"Berryman, Dean of Cartoonists, 80 Today," Washington Evening Star, April 2,1949.

3.

Quoted in "Truman Sends Regards to Party for Berryman on 80th Birthday," Washington Evening Star, April 3, 1949.

4.

"Leaders, Public Mourn Death of C. K. Berryman" Washington Evening Star, December 12, 1949.

5.

Ibid.

6.

Guide to the George Coffin Papers, 1858-1896, Special Collections Research Center, George Washington Cniversity, Washington, D.C., online at http://library.gwu.edu/.

7.

"Living Has Been Joyous Adventure for "Clift" Berryman, Who Is 70 Today," Washington Evening Star, April 2, 1939.

8.

"Berryman, Bear Man: Popular Cartoonist to Join Staff of the Star," Washington Evening Star, January 24, 1907.

9.

"Pulitzer Prizes Won by Flavin, Berryman, Price and DeLuce," Washington Evening Star, May 2, 1944.

10. "Leaders, Public Mourn Death of C. K. Berryman."

11. "C. K. Berryman Stricken; Evening Star Cartoonist," Washington Evening Star, November 17, 1949.

12. "Leaders, Public Mourn Death of C..K. Berryman."

13. Editorial Cartoon Awards, 1922-1997: From Rollin Kirby and Edmund Duffy to Herbert Block and Paul Conrad, ed. Heinz-Dietrich Fischer and Erika J. Fischer (Munich: Saur, 1999),111.

14. Clifford K. & James T. Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons, National Press Club, http://nationalpress.org.

15. "Baltimore Sun Cartoonist Kevin Kallaugher Wins National Press Foundation's Berryman Award," Baltimore Sun, November 9, 2017.

16. Mary Hume Richardson, "The Drawings of Clifford Kennedy Berryman," Library of Congress Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions. 3,no. 2 (February 1946): 6-10.

17. These cartoons are available online in the National Archives Catalog, https://catalog.archives.gov.

Clifford K. Berryman: The Dean of American Cartoonists

19

Clifford K. Berryman: Selected W orl{s Hepburn Rate Bill May 15. 1906

In this cartoon (below), Benyman pokesfun at the leg­ islati11e process. In reaction to the Senate's barrage of re11i.1ions to a popular House bill aimed at regulating rates that railroads could charxe. the "Hepburn Bill" is shown limping back 10 the House on crutches, hobbled, and covered wirh amendments. The hill appearsfi·ight­ ened because it knows the Consritution requires legisla­ tion ro pass both houses of Congre.\S in identical form before it goes to the president for signature.

Philippines

February 4, 1899 In 1898 Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States in the treaty ending the Spanish-American War. The Philippine Revolutiona,y Government, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, did not recognize the treaty or American rule, resulting in the Philippine­ American War. Benyman shows the.futility of Aguinaldo's small. indigenous.forces fighting against the large boot of Uncle Sam. The war o_fjicial(y ended in 1902following Aguinaldo's capture the previous year, and the United States eventua/�y granted Juli independence to the Philippines in 1946.

Open for Business August 15. 1914

The Panama Canal project began during Theodore Roosevelt's administration. ,1fier years of difficult work and the loss of many lives, the canal officially opened for business on August 15, 1914. Considered one ()/ the great engineedngfeats of modern times, the canal sig­ nfficantly reduced transit time for ships sailing between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This cartoon (oppo­ site) shows Uncle Sam and the Teddy Bear welcoming the_finr ships on opening day.

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Tax Him!

September 13, 1914 As IVorld 1Var I hmke out in Furope, Preside111 TYondrow II ilson. Repllblicans and Democrats in Congress, and ,\pecial interesr groups were divided 011 how to mise additiona/fimds to off.iet the decrease in customs revenue rn a resuh u_(the war. Ben:Fnum shows 1he prohlem: with revenue and sales at stake. each special interest group suggests that taxes be leFied 011 someo11e el1e's product rather than its own.

Government Clerk January 7, 1917 Each year as part of the appropriation process. Congres:., with a proposa!fiwn the president. decides ilit will increase federal governmem worke1:\' · pav to keep pace with ilrflation. This I() 17 cartoon is one of many that Benyman drew on the topic. Here he shows a ''Government Clerk" car(!fidlv navigating lire chal­ lenges of increased costs rd clothing, rem, andfnod wirh an outdated sa/a,y scale.fi-mnfiftr years ago to guide him.

April First April 1, 1920 After decades of effori and debate, in June 19 I 9, a constirutional amendment granting women the righz w vote passed rwu-thirds of both houffs of Congress and was sent w th<' srat<'sfor ratification. l'vfany states quick{v approved the wnendmelll, and by the end o,f March I 920, it was just one state shy rd rmtfication. J'vfississippi could have been the final vore needed w make the amendmenl law, but the swte reiecred ii on J\1arch 29.

Benyman shows /1.fississippi's re;eczion as a cruel April Fool'sjoke played on rhe woman :.1dfi"age movement.

Nearlvfive months later, wirh passage by Tennessee, the 1\!ineteenrh Amendmenr became law on August 18, 1920.

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14th Census December 18, 1920 A rtide 1 <?f the Constirution requires a census of the population to he taken eve1y ten year.1 .fr1r the pwpose of apportioning members <?l the House of Represenwrfres. Uncle Sam announces the results of the /920 censm and remind, the House that it nowface the diffi­ cult rusk 1dreapportioning sears. However, membersjimn rum/ district.� foughz to mirigate rhe impact of tlu! rnntinuing shifi in popula­ don to urha11 areas. Ultimately there ll'as no reappol'fionment after the 1920 census because Congress could not come lO an agree­ ment. The Reapporrionment Act of /929 estahlished a permanent method.for apportion­ ing 435 seats in the House ofRepresentatives.

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!:Vall Streez was pilloried hy the presJ, Congress, and the public/in· causing the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing depression. The Senate Banking Committee aurhorized i11vestigaw1:\ to STll<�v the operatiom uf Wall Street "bean"­ investm:s whu sold large quanrities (?(stock in anticipation offi:t!ling prices.

Berryman captured the .feeling of many Americam hy showing a gangster and a racketeer commeming.

"Them guys make m look Wee piken."

After a divisive primatJ', it can be d{fjiculrjin· a politi­ cal par(J' to unite vutl!l:� behind the clwsen candidate in the general decrion. In I Y24. Calvin Coolidge, the incumhent president, breezed through the Republican primmy unop­ posed. As the Repuhlicans advanced unscathed to the ;,convenrion putting green, " tlze Democratic candidates waged a hostile primarv battle ''oj/d1e/{1irway."

Coolidge easily wm, redecriu11.

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Hope This Won't Develop into a Neighborhood Feud May 18, 1948 This cartuon illustrates the pe1petual pm,·er struggle between rhe executive and legislative brancheJ <?f government. In I 948 the lfouse Un-American Activities Committee que.1/ioned the loyalry ola prominent nuclear physicist in charge �l the Bureau ol Standards and demanded access to confidential FE/files. Citing execurive privilege, President llar,y S. Truman refused, declaring it an encroachment by Congress on the executive branch.

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October J 9, 1948

President Har�v S. Truman, the Democratic presidential nominee, in the election of 194H, was wide(vforecast to lose bv a large margin to the Republican Thomas E. Dewey. This cartoon shows the prevailing public opinion ,f the time, just days before the election took place.

Despite several polls predictinK a landslide victo,y.for Dewev, Truman won the election in one o( the biggest political upsets in U.S. history.

The White House as a Symbol in the Cartoons of Herblock Selections from the Library of Congress SARA W.

:1-L.rt Lawrence Block (1909-2001), who signed his editorial cartoons "Herblock," graced newspaper editorial pages for seventy-two years. He began his career as a teenager in his native Chicago, employed by the Chicago Daily News six months before the start of the Great Depression in 1929. Four years later, he moved to Cleveland Ohio. where he worked for the conservative Newspaper Enterprise Association Service (NEA).

Politicized by the poverty and injustice he saw all around him, Block infuriated his employer with his move toward liberalism. As he tells it, he was in New York, certain of being fired, when the Pulitzer Prize committee announced he had won the award for edi­ torial cartooning in 1942. 1 Drafted in 1943 by the U.S. Army, Block was soon assigned as an artist for Yank and the Camp Newspaper Service.2 In 1946, following military service, he moved to Washington,

Cartoonist Herblock at work in his studio in 1980 ( opposite). His portrait as George Washington (above) was made in 2000 by Paul Conrad.

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D.C., where he became a featured contributor at the Washington Post for more than fifty-five years.

While at the Post, Herblock won three Pulitzer Prizes and numerous other awards for his work. He published his last cartoon on August 26, 200 I. ju t w ek before his death.

In 2002, the Herb Block � Foundauon donated Block archive to the Library of Congres . The Herbert L Block Collection includes more than 14,000 finished cartoons, in addition to preliminary sketches, files, and manuscripts. The library exhibits selected works in an ongoing exhibition, and they are available to view online.3 During the course of his long career, Block cov­ ered presidents from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush. The White House, for Block, was a symbol of the presidency-the successes and failures of adminis­ trations, their excesses and corruption. During the course of his career, he rarely depicted the exterior of the White House. However, when he did, how he chose to feature the iconic facade functioned as part of his commentary just as much as the other elements of the composition and the title.

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Herblock (opposite) is seen presenting a cartoon to President Harry S. Truman in a photograph signed by Truman to the cartoonist. The inscription reads "To Herblock, a great historical artist with regards from his good friend, Harry Truman. "

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Cartoonist Jack Higgins was one of many artists who made caricatures of Herblock. At right, Higgins shows President Bill Clinton emerging from Herblock's bottle of ink.

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SOURCES

Unless otherwise noted all images are courtesy of the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress and used with permission from the Herblock Foundation.

"The January Industrial Curve": see Delbert Clark, "Business and the New Deal: Can They Get Together?," New York Times, January 16, 1938, 63; Herb/ock! The Approaching Perils, Library of Congress, online at www.loc.gov.

NOTES

"Washington, D.C., June 1963": John F. Kennedy, "Radio and Television Report to the American People on Civil Rights," June 11, 1963, online at American Presidency Project, ed. Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, www.presidency.ucsb.edu.

I.

Herbert Block, Herblock: A Cartoonist's Life, updated and expanded ed.

(New York: Times Books, 1998), 66-67.

2.

Ibid., 90-92.

3.

Herb/ock! overview of the Herblock Gallery and online exhibition, at www.loc.gov/exhibits.

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The White House as a Symbol in the Cartoons of Herblock: Selections from the Library of Congress 33

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Herblocl{: Selected Worl{s

The January Industrial Curve Newspaper Enterprise Association January 17, 1938 With his metaphorical breadline-an iconic image of the Great Depression-as well as allusion to supply and demand economic charts, Herblock depicts captains of industry queuing at the White House to seek financial relief' Here, Herblock portrays the White House as a symbol C?f stability. In I93 7, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was ha!fivay through his second term of office when a renewed recession caused an economic tail­ spin that sent industrial production into a major decline. While the Roosevelt administration dithered about a solution, Herblock was prescient; Congress oversaw an emergency appropriation of $5 billion for work re/hf and public works. The economy began to pick up again by June 1938.

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Look-Suppose We Put It to Him This Way­ Washington Post July 2, 1948

Democrats, upset by President Hany S. Truman's firm stance on civil rights, stand outside a White House gate, wanting to talk some sense into him.

Herblock, an early supporter of" civil rights, portrays the Truman White House as a symbol C?l strength, but the gate serves as a boundary between him and the Democratic Party.

During the Democratic Party Convention, two weeks later, several Dixiecrats walked out over the passage of the civil rights pla(form. Truman's narrow victory came, in part, from increased African American votes.

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Focusing on the North Portico Qf the White House and imag­ ining John F. Kennedy hanging a banner with lines from his recent civil rights speech on the roQ[topflagpole, Herblock celebrates the president's use of executive authority. Herblock believed civil rights were para­ mount and reacted with pride to Kennedy's speech enforcing the peaceful enrollment of two African American students at the University of Alabama.

Kennedy proclaimed that all citizens were equal and everyone had a duty to protect that right. Noting that it had been one hundred years since Abraham Lincoln had freed the slaves, Kennedy stated, "Now the time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise."

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You're Really Rolling Up Quite a Record

1Vashington Post April I I, 1965

Having declared a "war 011 pover(F, '' President Lyndon B. Johnson used the legislative process to build programs that provided more Americans with equal opportunities.

In 1965, Congress passed the Elementa,y and Seconda,y Education Act that increased.fimding to public schools. It also created Medicare.for the elderly. By passing the Voting Rights Act, it banned discrimi11at01y practices aimed at minodties. Herblock drew this cartoon a week before Easter in 1965, with a nod to the anmwl tradition of the H71ite House Easter Egg Roll.

Strange-they all seem to have some connection with this place Washington Post June 23, 1972 Within six days of the June 1 ?. 1972, break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel, Herblock pointed his.finger at Richard Nixon. Herblock took advantage ()f the First Amendment to express his opinion, but chose to use the White House as a symbol, rather than depict the presi­ dent himse!f Katherine Graham blanched when she saw it, and asked "But you're not going to print that, are you?" With a truejournalist's sense.for the news, Herblock beat Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's October 10, 1972, expose of the break-in by almost four months. In 1973, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Herblock, and their editor, Roger Wilkins, shared a Pulitzer Prize for exposing the Watergate stmy.

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Newspaperman Francis Preston Blair's Cartoon Collection at Blair House

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P.v,ticaJ cartoons, often controversial, are rife with symbols and characters, and frequently rise to historical significance.1 While political cartoons were usually published as individual drawings during the eighteenth century, in the nineteenth century they began to appear in newspapers, especially after the founding of the Globe in the nation's capital in 1830.

On November 6 of that year, Francis Preston Blair­ editor, clerk, lawyer, judge, and bank president­ took the helm of the newspaper with his coeditor and friend, John C. Rives. The paper became a voice for President Andrew Jackson, advocating his programs and agenda under the slogan, "The World Is Governed Too Much." Promoting Democratic Party political and economic principles, the newspaper also printed human interest stories, special features, letters from diplomats, and fiery editorials.

Blair wrote those editorials as an insider. He was an influential member of Jackson's so-called Kitchen Cabinet, the informal group of his political friends who met in the northwest corner bedroom on the Second Floor of the White House, over the East Room. Blair's thundering essays broadcast their views over the nation, copied newspaper to newspa­ per from the Globe. Blair continued to deliver the Democrats' message when Jackson's vice president,

A selection of the historic cartoons in the Blair House collection displayed today on the north wall of the Lincoln Room.

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Martin Van Buren, was elected president in 1836, and on through the early 1840s, when the Democrats were turned out of office by the Whigs. Blair sup­ ported Democrat James K. Polk's candidacy in 1844 but disagreed with Polk's expansionist views.

Evidently Polk also had misgivings about the Globe's editor. Shortly after his inauguration Polk told Blair that the newspaper needed a new editor, someone more closely aligned with the Democratic Party of the present day. Shocked, Blair sold the newspaper, and it ceased publication.2 Today a collection of newspaper cartoons from Blair's era as editor are on display at the Blair fami­ ly's old residence, on Pennsylvania Avenue, across from the White House, in Washington, D.C. Preserved as The President's Guest House, the home, now expanded, provides comfortable accommoda­ tions for foreign visitors of state who come to meet with the president. The cartoons were acquired by the U.S. government in 1942, along with the house and many of its furnishings. They are original litho­ graphs drawn on wove paper, not printed on newsprint or cut from newspapers. Some are hand colored. Like works of fine art, they are framed and matted under black and gilt eglomise-decorated glass.

Among the artists are H. R. Robinson and H. Bucholzer. Many were published by James S. Baillie. 3 Through satire and exaggeration, these cartoons convey the political messages of both the Democrats and the Whigs, amusing and instructing voters of all socioeconomic classes. In this style of caricature, the

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Francis Preston Blair, seen at right in an 1845 portrait

by Thomas Sully, was publisher of the Globe from 1830 until 1844. As seen in the detail of the masthead (above) the motto of the Globe was "The World is Governed Too Much."

featured figures are dressed in formal wear of cut­ away coats and top hats, or in religious garb and Quaker attire. They are presented in bizarre poses­ flailing their limbs in mid-air, brandishing canes, and tossing colleagues out of windows-made ludicrous by exaggerated teeth, wings, and claws instead of hands. The text is encapsulated in large, cloud-like balloons outlined in dark ink.

The core themes in the Blair House collection are presidents and political issues, including banks, currency, tariffs, the annexation of Texas, and cor­ ruption, both real and imagined. Several address the presidential elections of 1840 and 1844. They speak the language of the times, often making their point through classical references that would have been familiar to educated audiences. Through humor, they record the toss and turn of politics in the era of one of the nation's first great newspapermen. Presumably these are the cartoons that made Francis Preston Blair and his descendants laugh, or grimace. They hold their power to entertain long after the events and characters have vanished into the textbooks.4

2.

William Seale, Blair House, The President's Guest House (Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 2016), 24.

3.

Henry R. Robinson was a New York caricaturist and lithographer, well known for his support of Whig Party politics and his antagonism to Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party. More biographical informa­ tion is in the description of "The Riddle," a cartoon by Robinson in the collections of the National Museum of American History, online at ameri­ canhistory.si.edu. On the other hand, H. Bucholzer, an artist active in the 1840s, seems to have favored the Democrats and satirized the Whigs in his cartoons. His cartoons were published by James S. Baillie!. James S. Baillie was picture framer and colorist for Currier in New York before opening his own shop about 1843--44, from which he published many popular litho­ graphs. The Philadelphia Print Shop, "America on Stone: Nineteenth Century Popular Lithographs," online at www.philaprintship.com.

4.

Victor S. Navasky, The Art of Controversy: Political Cartoons and Their Enduring Power (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013).

IMAGES

SOURCES

Unless otherwise noted all photographs in this article are by Bruce White for the White House Historical Association. All artwork is in the collection of Blair House: The President's Guest House, U.S. Department of State.

"Grand Virginia Reel and Scamperdown at the White House Washington," "Loco Foco Expresses," "Expansion and Contraction," "The North Bend Farmer and His Visitors," "The Little Magician Invoked," "Cleansing the Augean Stable," and "Virtuous Harry, or Set a Thief to Catch a Thiefl,": com­ mentary in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog at the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov. See also Presidential Campaigns: A Cartoon History, www.indiana.edu.

NOTE S I.

Thomas C. Blaisdell Jr., Peter Selz, and Seminar, The American Presidency in Political Cartoons,1776-1976 (Berkeley, Calif.: University Art Museum, 1976); Allan Nevins and Frank Weitenkampf, A Century of Political Cartoons: Caricature in the United States from1800 to1900 (New York:

Charles Scribner's Sons, 1944).

"A Meeting at the Hermitage": Google Arts & Culture, www.google.com/cul­ turalinstitute.

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Grand Virginia Reel and Scamperdown at the White House Washington: All the World Completely Discumgalligumfricated H. R. Robinson, February 1836 In Robinson's carroon, Preside111 Andrew Jackson, _{i-unt cente,� is dancing with glee. He is holding a sack of2 5 million_fiw1c.,� the anwum France owed the United Stares.for damages to U.S. shipping during the Napoleonic FVars, as set by the li·eaty 1l 183 I. Payment, intended to be in sL'<: annual installments, was delayed by France, fin'Cing a crisis encouraged by Vice President Martin Van Buren, who plav5 the.fiddle in the orchestra box on the left and says, "I am the boy jiJr bewitching ·e,n 1 Fonvard and back nvo!!" After insults and retractions, the French gave in and authorized payment. and in thi5 cartnvn the French king is mocked, shown as.ff.tiling backward and exclaiming, "Nom de Dieu! 1 fl:,, de double sludfle wis dis d--n old Jackson, & he puz me on my back suprist!!"

Gathered round are twenty:five heads ofstate whn comment on Jackson's diplomatic vict01y.

Loco Foco Expresses. Arriving at Washington H. R. Robinson, 1838 Robinson satirizes rhe e_(fects ()(a resounding TV/zig ,,ict01y in rhe midterm elections ,�f' 1838, which sent defeated poliri­ ciansfi·om the Loco Focofactiun <?fllu: Democratic Par(v ro Washington to begfor posirions in government. President Martin Van /Juren. a Democratji·om New York. greets two New Yorkers in a J;Vhite House parlor, where a portrait ofhwzcis Preston Blair hangs on rhe wall, over a label that slzvs "Globe /1,,fan." "lldcome old_ji-iend� to me yet dear."

J/an Buren says. "Pmy whm the devil brings you here?'' JVilliam L. Marcy, turned out as New York grwernor. asks _/or rhe Qt/ice of Collector. Congressman Churchill C. Camhre/eng, wiping his t:ves, say.1, "/ am defeated i11 spire 1f t/1e lamentation� of the people'" Van Buren would shorr(v appoinr him minister ro Russia.

The North Bend Farmer and His Visitors (opposire) H. R. Robinson, 1840 Tire presidential cwnpaign of' 1840 pirted President Manin Van Buren, a Democrat running.Jin a .,econd 1ern1, against the f Whig candidate General J,Vi/liam Hemy Harrison, hem r? the Battle o{Tippe£wl0<'. The campaign wasfamousJr11· its sym­ lmls and slogans. The Hhigs portrayed Harrison as a man oftlu: people.fi·om the JVe.H (despirc his patrician hirr/1 in p/ama­ tion Vi1gi11ia) who lived simp(v in a log cabin and drank hard cider. In this cartoon, Robinson depicrs him as afarme,· dressed in buckskin, plowing his.field ar hisfarm in North Bend, Ohio. and welcoming his nemocratic visitm:s·, who arrive by elegant cuach. To his right is Van Buren, whom the Wh(�s chastised.for high lfri11g in the llhire House at public expense and who confesses. "I roll in riches, and live in splendour, ... enrich my.fi-iends, ... and laugh in my sleeve at the dear People whom I gull. " 7he cartoonist not on�v mocks Van Buren 's expensive habits but rhe dn•irm.1· intentions of the visiting D<:mocrat1. ·. On th<:jtlf le_fi is Francis Preston Rlair. editor of the Globe. who says, "/ will state in my paper rhat we.fin111d him drinking Rye Hhiskey and that will kill him with rhe Temperance men and reading Aholitirm tract� sertl<:s him in the 5,outh. Our readers you know will swallow anything. " Harrison w011 the election but died l{/terjust a 11umth in office.

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Virtuous Harry, or Set a Thief to Catch a Thief! ( ahu ve)

H. Bucholzer. published by James Baillie, 1844 The Texas question is front and center in this cartoon by Bucholzer. The Lone Star Republic is represented hy a lovely woman adorned with.flowers. On her right, Whig candidate James K. Polk welcomes her '·to the land of the brave and the home of the free." Behind him stands his running mate, George M. Dallas, also supporting annexation.

On her other side is Jfe111y Clay, who tem· her to "Stand back ... for we are more hnlv than thou.' Do you think we have anything to do with gamblers, horse-racers, and licentious pro/ligates?" The irony of "Virtuous llarrv" is revealed by the man in Quaker garb who tel11 Clay to speak mfilv, for Clay's reasons/or shunning Texas are "the vc1:i· reason we cannot Vote for thee!" Unmentioned is the 5/ave1:v issue that animated the debate over Texas. {/annexed, TexaJ would add to the number C!f slave states represenwd in the Senate and increase the South's power. Just hefore he lefi (!{/ice on March 4, 1845, President John Tyler signed a bill approving Texas annexation, preempring Polk, who had won the election and would be inaugurated a few days later.

Cleansing the Augean Stahle (opposite) H. Bucholzcr, published by James Baillie, 1844 This cartoon, most like�v publislted in the election summer of 1844, is a pro-Whig takedown (!{the Democrats by H. Bucholzer. Whig candidate Henry Clay stands in the center, using a pitchfork to shove the Democratic candidate James K. Polk out the window and exclaiming, "It's all vety well, Mr. Polk, but you can·, come here." The cartoon's title likens Cla_v to Hercules and the �J;'l1ite House to the stables ofKing Augeas. which Clay, the cartoonist implies, will cleanse ofDemocralic corruption. On the right Prnident John Tyler shoves Polk's running mate George M. Dallas out the same window On the ll'.ft Senator John C Calhoun is removing the fox (i.e. jhxJJ. wilv) Martin Van Buren (nicknamed "The Red Fox of Kinderhook''), and Congressman Henry A. Wise of Virginia is kicking Texas out the door, a reference to the question of its annexation, which Clay opposed. in the center Daniel Webster is shov­ eling out "mint drops" (i.e. money from U.S. Mint). Peeking in a window to see all the cleansing going on, Andrew Jackson exclaims, "By the eternal! We shan't know the old place, these.fellows have gutted it so completely."

Penning the Presidents: Cartoons from the Collection of the James Monroe Museum

SCOTT H .

pliticaJ cartoonists have depicted presi­

dents of the United States since the inception of the office. In the days leading up to his first inauguration on April 30, 1789, George Washington was lam­ pooned in a cartoon in handbill form called "The Entry." The Revolutionary War veteran John Armstrong Sr. described it in a letter to another of Washington's former generals, Horatio Gates, on April 7, 1789: A caricature has already appeared called "The Entry," full of very disloyal and profane allu­ sions. It represents the General mounted on an ass, and in the arms of his man Billy [Lee]­ [Washington aide Col. David] Humphreys lead­ ing the Jack, and chanting hosannas and birthday odes. The following couplet proceeds from the mouth of the devil: "The glorious time has come to pass/ When David shall conduct an ass." 1 In a 1965 Washington Star cartoon by Gib Crockett, a disheveled President Lyndon B. Johnson complains to President James 1l1onroe, "They Just Don't Seem to Go for the Idea the Way They Used to" in reference to public reaction to U.S. military intervention in the Dominican Republic, whe,:e Johnson feared that generals revolting against their government harbored Communist sympathies. Johnson echoed the foreign policy estab­ lished by the Monroe Doctrine when he ordered U.S. troops to intervene on April 28-coincidentally, Monroe's 207th birthday. Johnson's action, dubbed the Johnson Doctrine, though consistent with those of his immediate predecessors, provoked harsh criticism in Latin America.

HARRIS

While no copy of "The Entry" is known to exist, it inaugurated a steady stream of political cartoons· related to the presidency that grew into a torrent as newspapers proliferated in the United States.

Editorial opinions on policy, analysis of election campaigns, commentary on foreign affairs, and per­ sonal transgressions great and small were all fair game for the cartoonists' pens. Physical features and personal traits of the presidents were also illustrated and often exaggerated-Theodore Roosevelt's spec­ tacles and toothy grin, Franklin Roosevelt's patrician cigarette holder, former haberdasher Harry Truman's Stetson hat, Lyndon Johnson's heavy-browed visage.

Laurence Gouverneur Hoes, great-great-grand­ son of President James Monroe and founder of the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library in Fredericksburg, Virginia, named for his ancestor, was an insatiable collector of political memorabilia from all eras, especially those pertaining to the presidency.

Among Hoes's passions was original artwork of edi­ torial cartoons from newspapers across the country.

His collection of more than two hundred drawings, dating from the late nineteenth century to the 1960s, included several presented to the museum by admir­ ing artists. Twenty-nine cartoons purchased by Hoes at an estate sale were dedicated to Andrew K. Reynolds, an advertising executive who worked in the 1920s and 1930s at several Washington, D.C., newspapers, including the Daily News, the Washington Post, and the Washington Times.

Selected Works from the James Monroe Museum •.

The artists represented in the images that.follow include some of the most notable and prolific American editorial carioonists of the twentieth centwy, depicting presidents ji'Oln the 191 Os to the 1960s. Their work, and that of their colleagues, are time capsules of presidential histo,y and political culture.

Untitled

Charles L. Bartholomew, C. 1912 Unpublished

Charles Lewis Bartholomew (1869-1949) was one of the world's first daily editorial cartoonists. He worked at the Minneapolis Journalji'Oln 1899 to 1915, producing cartoons that ji-equently appeared on the paper's ji-ont page. He later served as dean of the Federal School of Illustrating and Cartooning in Minneapolis, known today as Art Instruction Schools.

President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency ji'Oln the vice presidency upon the death of William McKinley in 1901, won election in his own right in 1904, and hon­ ored his promise not to run agaili in 1908. He was dissatis­ fied with many of the policies of his successor, W'illiam Howard Taft, particularly pas­ sage of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909. When Roosevelt, an advocate of tariff reform, lost the Republican nomination to Taft, he formed the Progressive (or "Bull Moose'') Party. The resulting three-way race helped the Democrat Woodrow f,Vilson win the election. This cartoon

by Charles L. Bartholomew of the Minneapolis Star depicts Roosevelt as a farmer wielding a "Revision Hoe" while Uncle Sam peruses the Republican platform and another.farmer representing Congress stands nearby. While undated and apparently unpublished, it likely characterized the schism in the Republican Party over tariffreform.

Untitled

Clifford K. Berryman, 1924 Unpublished

Presidents could figure in editorial cartoons even when not pictured. In this cartoon, the powe1jitl Senator Hiram Johnson of California reacts angrily to his "nomination" as postmaster of Oil City, Pennsylvania,

by President Calvin Coolidge. Johnson was challenging Coolidge for the Republican presidential nomination in 1924, seeking to tie Coolidge to the still-controversial Teapot Dome scandal of the Warren G. Harding administration. That may explain Benyman's empha­ sis of the word "oil. "

Untitled

Clifford K. Berryman, c. 1936 Unpublished The 1936 Republican National Convention was held indoors at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio, but the Washington Star's Clifford K. Benyman chose a football theme to illustrate former presi­ dent Herbert Hoover's desire to participate. Hoover's depiction as a young boy plaintively ask­ ing to "peep through this knot­ hole" reflected his ostracism ji'Oln Republican leadership. It may also have been a sly refer­ ence by BertJ'man to Hoover's election in that year as chair of the Boys' Clubs of America.

A rematch of the 1932 contest against Franklin Roosevelt was not to be. The Republicans nominated Kansas governor AlfLandon, who lost to Roosevelt in a landslide.

Taken for a Ride?

"

Fred 0. Seibel Richmond Times-Dispatch August 23, 1938

•

Two years before the end of his second term in office, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is shown speeding toward an unprecedented third term while coyly disclaiming responsibility for the movement. The twoterm tradition that dated to George Washington was not mandated by the U.S. Constitution at the time. The sign carried by the cartoon's "traffic cop" accurately reflected Gallup polling in the summer of sf938. Public opinion shifted to Roose1,elt's favor a year later with the outbreak of the Second vVorld War in Europe, but this cartoon shows Roosevelt was already contemplating staying in office.

Although Frederick Otto Seibel (188fr1968) was born in Durhamville, New York, he spent more than forty years as editorial cartoonist for a c011se1w1tive Virginia newspape1� the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

From his hiring in 1926 to retirement in I968, Seibel penned more than 14,000 cartoons. His depictions of Roosevelt often reflected his newspaper's opposition (and his own) to the president's perceived abuse of executive power.

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Our Deepest SympatliY, Mli. P.resident

LeBaron Coakle� Unpublished, September 7, 1941

Not.all editorial cartoons are political-commenta,y. When Franklin D. Roosevelt's mother Sara Delano Roosevelt died on September. 7, 1941, LeBaron Coakley drew the president receiving condolences fi'om Uncle Saii1. Perceived by s011ie as domineering, Sara Roosevelt nonetheless lavished her only child with unconditiona_ l love, which wqs reciprocated.

- �· LeBcy-on ("Coqk") Co{lk/ey (1901.-1976) was q_n illustrator qnd_ sporfs cartoonist forp1e RichmondJ Times-Dispatch in ■ - tl1.!J!.930;, a:7�cj edjtorial C[U't�ist.,111 fhe Washington Post until 1943, when the paper did awaY, with the position. (The ..

• I_....,_... 1 .. job was revived in !J!,.46 with the hiring of.Herbert Block.) ...,..

11!!111 �' .... • ■ During the Second World Wai� Coakley drew a large number · L • • ..

I .•.:L• 11 ofcartoons for,the Office of War Injor111atio11. Coakley's sup:......II ■- • I I L • port of organized labor led. hin'z' to work for several labor publi""cations ilfthe 1950s, inch�di'4 tize A"FL-CIO Bulletin and IUE News.

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spring approaching,• President Hany .iTrun� ■ .._ •• .• .

1co1iferi with a gl'oup :Jk//1!J::.zen rep_resenting potential • ccn1£lj_dg_tes bi the 19ft8preside11tial1election.1From lefj• ...

-■ - . .. to right, Republic_qns Hqrolc[_, Stassen,� Robert Tcift, an{j_ Thomas Dewey, and Tn!J1l�!IJ's fellow Democ,·{l_t He0r.

Wallace survey the 1z1elted _!_emgi�1s of_."GeJ1.erlJJ. .£_oi[!lqs 1vlacArthu,� recognizable only by his famous battered . - ■ ..... -officer's cap. This drawing may.refer to the results of the Wisconsin Republican prifna,y on Ap_ril16, r'i!i�nly one bi which ]1£acArthur was formallJJ.. entered, • Stassen's surprise win eJ[ectively e,�de�acArthur's c�idacy. Considering the scene br_:;for;J/iim, TFjlfwn qztips "We nee_d more tlgnvs!"

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Claude Gibson ("Gib") Crockett (19 studied cartooning through a. corresp011dence1coiirse aiid joined-the staff .. J2�2000) -of the Washington Evenin�nr in 19TJrT,;;tialfY. he drew spot illustratio11s and spof-ts c;J.tooi1s. Iii the 1940s, Crockett's woil began1�lternate with that of James Be'/!!yma'7: (;ii of Cliffqrd K. B�a,v 011. the■editorial page.

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Selections from the James Monroe Museum's collection of some 200 political cartoons are frequently on exhibit, especially during presidential election years.

IMAGES All photographs in this article are courtesy of the James Monroe Museum, Fredericksburg, Virginia.

NOTE I.

Quoted in Rufus W. Griswold, The Republican Court, or, American Society in the Days of Washington (New York: Appleton, 1867), 122-23.

SOURCES "They Just Don't Seem to Go for the Idea the Way They Used To": National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 513, posted by David Coleman, April 28, 2015, http://nsarchive2.gwu.edu. In addition to a historical overview of the U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic, the briefing book includes audio files of telephone conversations between Lyndon Johnson and relevant government officials during the event.

Untitled, by Bartholomew, c. 1912: For background on the election of 1912, see Reyna Eisenstark, Lora Friedenthal, and Jennifer Weber, Key Concepts in American History: Progressivism (New York: Chelsea House, 2010), 49-51. A source for Bartholomew and the Federal School of Illustrating and Cartooning is Rev. Marion Daniel Shutter, ed., History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest, vol. 3, 1923 (Chicago-Minneapolis: S. J. Clarke, 1923), 676-80.

Untitled, by Berryman, 1924: Kevin Murphy, Uphill All the Way: The Fortunes of Progressivism, 1919-1929 (2013), online at Academic Commons, Columbia University Libraries, https://academiccommons.columbia.edu. Hiram Johnson's

58 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number48)

correspondence with supporters over Coolidge and Teapot Dome are discussed in Chapter 8: "The Duty to Revolt-Progressives and the Election of 1924-111.

Hiram and Goliath." A biography of Berryman is on the National Archives website, www.archives.gov.

Untitled, by Berryman, c. 1936: For an analysis of Hoover's attempted political comeback in 1936, see Glen Jeansonne, Herbert Hoover: A Life (New York: New American Library, 2016), 304-9.

"Taken for a Ride?": Roosevelt's strategy regarding the 1940 election and a third term are discussed in James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox, 1882-1940 (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1956), 408-15.

For an appreciation of Seibel, see Brent Tarter and Jon Kukla, "Fred 0.

Seibel," Virginia Cavalcade 26, no. 4 (Spring 1977): 148---0I. The Special Collections Department of the University of Virginia Library owns a large research collection of Seibel's work, donated by the artist. A guide to the col!ec• tion is available online at http://ead.lib.virginia.edu.

"Our Deepest Sympathy Mr. President": "Sara Delano Roosevelt (1854-[941)," Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, George Washington University, online at https://www2.gwu.edu. Coakley's tenure at the Washington Post is described in Hal Hays McClure, Adventuring: My Life as a Pilot, Foreign Correspondent and Travel Adventure Filmmaker (Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, 2012), 17-18.

Untitled, by Crockett, 1948: For a discussion of MacArthur's fate in the Wisconsin primary, see Howard B. Schonberger, "The General and the Presidency: Douglas MacArthur and the Election of 1948," Wisconsin Magazine of History 57, no. 3 (Spring 1974): 201-19. Biographical information on Crockett is in Gib Crockett Cartoons: An Inventory of His Cartoons at Syracuse University, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries, https://library.syr.edu.

The Most Famous Address in Washington: Perspectives on White House History In Collaboration with the White House Historical Association

The President's House was a major feature of Pierre Charles L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the city of Washington. He envisioned a vast palace for the nation's leader, planned and constructed under George Washington's personal supervision. Since then, it has been burned, reconstructed, renovated, designed, and redesigned.

In "this series, noted specialists explore aspects of every corner of the famous building, where every decision has political ramifications.

FEB. 15 Architecture

APRIL 19 Gardens

How have revisions shaped public perceptions of the presidential house? What kind of themes and messages does its architecture convey? William Seale, author of A White House of Stone: Building America's First Ideal in Architecture, explores the answers.

The White House grounds encompass a carefully maintained 18-acre garden. Jonathan Pliska, author of A Garden for the President: A History of the White House Grounds, analyzes the relationship benveen the White House and its landscape.

MARCH 15 Art

MAY 17 Music

There are 500 paintings, sculptures, and drawings in the White House's collection. Bill Kloss, author of Art in the White House: A Nation's Pride, discusses the artistic and historical significance of a number of the works.

Elise Kirk, author of Music in the White House: From the 18th to the 21st Centuries, discusses music's unique role within the White House as a form of entertain­ ment, and as a powerful tool to shape the image of an administration.

At each session, participants, receive a copy of the speaker's corresponding large-format, illustrated book published by the White House Historical Association.

4 sessions; Thurs., Feb. 15-May 17, 6:45-8:15 p.m.; Ripley Center; CODE 1B0-241; Members $130; Nonmembers $180 Individual sessions:

Feb. 15 (CODE 1B0-237); March 15 (CODE 1B0-238); April 19 (CODE 1B0-239); May 17 (CODE 1B0-240);

Members $40; Nonmembers $50 (includes copy of book)

To reserve your seat at this program Call 202-633-3030 or visit smithsonianassociates.org

Smithsonian Associates

Ripley Center, 1100 Jefferson Dr., S.W., Suite 3077, Washington, D.C. 20560

On the Record with Off the Record's Cartoonists

MIKE

athe north side of Lafayette Park, a short city block from the White House and both Executive Office Buildings, sits the Hay-Adams Hotel. It was built in 1927 by Harry Wardman, a noted Washington real estate developer, on land that once held houses owned by John Hay, who served as William McKinley's and Theodore Roosevelt's secre­ tary of state (he had also been Abraham Lincoln's private secretary), and the author-historian Henry Adams.The houses had been built in 1885, and the hotel's Off the Record bar appears to date from that era, with its oxblood red wall and overstuffed red vel­ vet furniture.Surprisingly. that name and look came to be only in 2001�2, during a six-month revamping of the entire hotel.

Today, to get to the bar, one enters the hotel's dark-paneled-wood lobby through doors held open by bellmen and then strides purposefully to an alcove on the left. There a small door leads down a short, tight flight of steps to the bar area.At the bottom of the steps one may get the first hint of what is to Cartoonists Matt Wuerker, Ann Telnaes, and Kevin ("KAL") Kal!augher share a laugh while making sketches at Off the Record, the bar within the Hay-Adams Hotel which displays their work.

RHODE

come-a Matt Wuerker original watercolor cartoon hanging above a table set with flowers.Around the next corner hang two more cartoons by Wuerker.

One shows a miniature female Democratic donkey struggling for an oversize gavel with a male Republican elephant, both clad in suits; the bar uses this image on its menus.The other shows the Lincoln Memorial statue in its chair, partying for the inaugu­ ration of President Barack Obama as the sun rises over the Capitol.Remember this image-we will return to it. Also in this area is a drawing by the Arlington caricaturist Mike Jenkins, a large-headed Obama triumphantly fist-bumping with a painting of Abraham Lincoln.As Jenkins recalls, "They were looking for someone to do a few commission pieces, coasters and wall art.I ...sent the Obama piece I drew ... at the time of Obama's inauguration in 2009." 1 The idea of having cartoons define the bar did not start with Obama's election but began eight years earlier, when the basement bar was renovated.The former hotel president Kay Enokido recalls, "The basement bar was initially named 'The Grill' when Mr. Iue acquired the hotel in 1989. Then we changed the layout and renamed [it] 'Eagle Bar."' During the renovations, she says, "We decided to do something to make it more visible and popular. The name 'Off the Record' was invented by Tom Crouse [Kay's hus­ band and business partner] after extensive search for

a proper name. Tom came up with the idea of Off the Record, in a car while driving." 2 The bar now had a new name for its new look, the work of Thomas Pheasant, the hotel's acclaimed interior designer. Hans Bruland, the hotel's vice pres­ ident and general manager, elaborates, "The bar wasn't red. It didn't have this type of upholstery.

Tom Pheasant redesigned the bar to make it look the way it looks today. The only thing we didn't touch was the nicotine-stained ceiling; we basically sealed it because we could never re-create the color." He reflects, "The transfor­ mation of the bar made it very cozy and warmer." Before the renovation, "The bar was very, very quiet... . You could walk in here in the evening, and find only a few people sitting at the bar and the piano player was playing a lonely song." 3 With its new name and look, the bar still needed to be decorated.

Then came another serendipity of the kind that lies behind so many of Washington's institu­ tions. Enokido recounts, "Tom happened to wander into Art Wood's Cartoon Gallery," just east of the Treasury Building. When he learned that Art was closing the gallery, "Tom suggested to me that we should borrow Art's collection and display [it] in our bar." Crouse and Enokido visited Art Wood's home, "to see his incredible cartoon collection.We chose one dozen or so cartoons.We promised Art that we would frame them, we would insure them, and we would pay a fee."4 Today these are still at the Hay­ Adams, while more than 30,000 of Wood's original political cartoons, plus his comic strips, animation eels, and illustrator's drawings, are in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress.5 After the 2001 renovation, a wide selection out of Wood's collection was displayed. Bruland recalls,

"Originally there must have been about sixty-eight, sixty nine, images around the bar, ...grouped by artist ...five, or six, or seven artists." 6 Wood's con­ tribution is now down, and later the work of two car­ icaturists, Edmund Valtman and Ron Coddington was displayed, rounded out by a lithograph or two from the nineteenth-century humor magazine Puck.

Valtman was a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who used the pen name "Vallot " (he included his syndi­ cate Rothco in his signature for some of the cartoons in the bar).7 His ink caricatures are mostly of 1970s' politicians such as Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, and others from Nixon's cabinet.

Coddington's cartoons are also done in the big-headed style exem­ plified by David Levine. They date from the early 1990s, when he was doing a series called Faces in the News. According to Coddington, "Art Wood made all the selections based upon a grouping of about 100 original images I gave to him. I had no say, which was fine with me-I was happy to be part of the decor and trusted Art's judgment." Coddington later ceased doing caricature to become an editor and a writer, and he now says, "I have not drawn in many years, but remember it fondly."8 Vallot and Coddington's black-and-white car­ toons line the back walls around the fireplace and occupy a reserved nook behind the bar. None are identified, and many are becoming lost to history. In a 2012 interview with Politico, the bartender John Boswell claimed, "I'm the only one who knows who all these people are.People keep trying to get me to write it all down, but I won't."9 Unfortunately Boswell spoke the truth, and the identities of some of the politicians passed with him, says Bruland10-at least until a political historian or a caricaturist takes

{ OFF THE RECORD }

62 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 48)

the time to reidentify the two score or so pictures of past politicians more obscure than Marion Barry, Boris Yeltsin,Janet Reno, Michael Dukakis,and Mikhail Gorbachev,and television's Ted Koppel.

Coddington's cartoons and large parts of Art Wood's collection were succeeded in 2008 by the duo of Northwest D.C.'s Matt Wuerker and Arlington's Richard Thompson. According to Wuerker,the bar "was looking for work pegged to the 2008 presiden­ tial campaign.'' 11 At the time, Thompson was regularly drawing weekly caricatures for US. News & World Report, which was based across the Potomac River in Rosslyn,Virginia. "The original plan," said Thompson,"was to have images of all the 2008 can­ didates,and they'd have patrons voting,and it'd be a PR thing.''12Thompson supplied nine cartoons that were arrayed in a square on a wall directly inside the bar's main door. "I own them,they're renting them," explained Thompson.13 But Thompson could not sup­ ply all the images the bar needed.Wuerker recalls, "They got in touch with Richard and wanted more stuff. I do have Richard to thank for roping me in... . I got a call from Hans,when Politico was brand new,who said 'I understand you do political car­ toons and caricatures.' My stuff went up on the walls about the same time as Richard's.Richard, [Richard's wife] Amy and I celebrated there accord­ ingly."14 The bar displayed Bush administration char­ acters and presidential candidates-George Bush, Laura Bush,Dick Cheney,Hillary Clinton,John Edwards,Al Gore (in scuba gear), Rudolph Giuliani, John Kerry,John McCain,Ralph Nader,and Barack Obama. Most of these images were removed to be scanned for inclusion in Thompson's book, The Art of Richard Thompson, so Wuerker and two other car­ toonists began filling the walls anew.

In spite of his workload for Politico, Matt Wuerker took over as the lead cartoonist. "They wanted to freshen things up and make it relevant," Wuerker recalls, "because a lot of the faces on the wall weren't ones that the people in the bar could rec­ ognize....I had about a years' worth of stuff. ...I came in with a pile of cartoons, and Hans thought my work was great and exactly what they wanted."

Bruland made a selection. "In the last nine years,I think there's been two freshenings of the wall.I brought Kevin "KAL" Kallaugher and Ann Telnaes

A sketch of Off the Record by Matt Wuerker includes walls filled with political cartoons (opposite). Former First Lady Laura Bush with dogs Barney and Spot (below) is one of the many caricatures by Richard Thompson displayed in the bar.

in on it.It's great," says Wuerker. "It's one of the best collections of cartoons in Washington."15 Sometimes the "freshenings " are done to reflect changes in American society or politics.According to Bruland, "When I took over the bar,the only instruction I got was to keep and preserve the inven­ tory intact. Whenever we take these images off the wall,we account for them. We don't own any of them.Our main expense is really the framing. The artists give me a drawing,and I make the decision who to take off the wall based on current events and importance, and have the new caricature matted and framed. Our concern is the preservation of the art­ work in the best possible condition." 16 Wuerker remembers another concern. "Probably eight years ago when Obama was first elected ...

Hans came to me and said we have a shortage of women on the wall.I did a Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a Hillary Clinton and a Michelle Obama specifically for the bar. "11 On the Record with Off the Record's Cartoonists 63

Although the voting for candidates based on caricatures on the wall that Thompson mentioned never took off, another one of Bruland's ideas did.

The bar began commissioning original drawings to use on cardboard coasters that patrons could take home. It became such a success that the hotel even puts out press releases when new coasters are pre­ miered. Bruland explains his logic: "The idea with the coasters came because I'm German, and when I go home, if I go to any pub, a coaster is what I get.

There are no cocktail napkins. I said, 'Wouldn't it be fun to work with the artists to come up with some images for us?"' Instead of renting, "We wanted to own the images so we pay for the repro­ duction rights to the art, and it's a one-time fee.

We can do whatever we want then." 18 At the time of the interview, Bruland was work­ ing on new images for the new Donald Trump and Mike Pence administration."We have eighteen images now. Seventeen are politicians and one Matt created pro bono of John Boswell, the bartender who 64

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 48)

passed away....Matt came to me and said, 'Hans, my interaction with your team is so intimate and I have respected John for a long time. Do you mind if I do this pro bono and you do whatever you want with it?' I thought that was so gracious of him and it was so appreciated."'9 Bruland is pleased that the coasters "have become the most popular collector's item. When we have President Trump and Vice President Pence or candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine on the coasters, people ... grab them by the dozen."

He continues, "People write us, people Facebook us, people send us notes from Seattle or London" to ask for them, and they "send us pictures of framed coast­ ers on their wall. "20 Bruland is a shrewd marketer and has made the most of the hotel's status and location. "We did one extra item this year with the inauguration," he remembers. Every hotel works on special inaugural gifts. We created a small custom leather box in red, that's embossed on the inside with 'Off the Record'

Matt Wuerker's Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoon (opposite), which shows President Abraham Lincoln celebrating the inauguration of President Barack Obama, is a favorite of General Manager Hans Bruland.

and contains six acrylic coasters with little rubber feet,and a top that doesn't let the drink slide.We tied each of the boxes with a red ribbon and that became the gift for each of the guest rooms.We had 145 of them for each guest room,and we had KAL create one unique image of Melania Trump and the president in front of the White House with the Hay­ Adams in the background. That became the gift for each of the attendees,and for the three top suites KAL made an original individual piece of art dedi­ cated to each of the suite owners that we profession­ ally framed and gave as a gift."21 KAL,the cartoonist for both the Economist and the Baltimore Sun, enjoys working for the bar."It's a super fun project in a great venue. It is fun to share with friends,relatives and guests while they are in town." 22 In addition to the coasters,he has done a few other items for the bar including a cartoon of Pope Francis that is cur­ rently on display.

Bruland has worked hard to keep the bar as a neutral place where people can meet after work.

"This has become a hot spot for caricature that's cur­ rent,that changes,is light but not confrontational; it challenges you in a nice way.People are more sensi­ tive right now,not knowing who a neighbor is at the bar,and whether his leanings are to the left or right."

During the Women's March in January 2017, Bruland recalls standing at the door for three hours.

"We were so busy,and already had a lot of Republican National Committee people staying. I had 'Make America Great' on the bar,but I also had pink hats.Everyone was quite nice to each other,try­ ing to convince each other of their view.Not success­ fully,but they tried. It was just very warm and a very nice feeling.There was no animosity in the room that I could detect."23 When drawing new coasters,Wuerker notes, "Usually it starts with a group e-mail from the hotel asking for new coasters,and collaboratively we'll come up with a list of about nine prominent faces that we think are going to last at least the next six

months,and then we divvy them up.Postelection,I did a coaster of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, playing jenga and looking really bored and forlornly dealing with the reality of being in the minority for four years."24 Telnaes,one of only two women to win the Pulitzer Prize,agreed with Wuerker,albeit with a touch of sarcasm,noting "I wanted to do Hillary obviously.As Matt says,I am always playing the woman card-it's so unfair.For the coasters,I did a Hillary before the election,and the Trump family postelection." Telnaes,currently the Washington Post's digital cartoonist,is the most recent addition to the Off the Record artists.For the bar,she says, "Initially,when I first started, they picked the inau­ gural stuff,quick sketches,and then I added four or five during the primaries."25 Bruland says,"I was delighted when Ann Telnaes came into play because then we had a female cartoonist.She has a very dif­ ferent style.We created a wall for her so her art would stand out."26 When asked about favorites, opinions differ.

KAL says, "The Trump cartoon [on the coaster] is a favorite of mine and is enjoyed by both Republicans and Democrats.I think they all find it amusing that a man with such a monstrous ego might have a beer that also looks like himself."27 Bruland selected a car­ toon with historical and personal resonance."I got very excited during the previous inauguration when Obama was the president-elect and the family was staying here," he explains. "Matt had created this drawing that's outside [the bar] of Lincoln celebrat­ ing Obama's election.When I met Matt,I asked if I could purchase it from him.I said,'The president is in love with Lincoln,and I want to give him some­ thing to remember his stay in the Hay-Adams."'

Matt said he was submitting the original with his portfolio for a Pulitzer Prize,but he gave Bruland the initial pencil drawing,with his compliments."I took that," says Bruland, "and had it nicely framed and presented it to the president-elect....He was really moved....The Obama drawing is my favorite because I thought it was so unique and appropriate and Matt's kindness in giving me the pencil original."28 But Bruland says he generally does not "get very attached to the art.There are a few that I leave in here for political purposes.I don't want to remove them too early. Some images,even as old as Nixon On the Record with Off the Record's Cartoonists

65

Ed Valtman's depictions of Vice President Spiro Agnew (left), President Richard Nixon (below), and Jimmy Carter (opposite) are among the most iconic cartoons that have been displayed on the walls of Off the Record.

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and Agnew, are iconic, and they just need to stay."

Under Bruland's guidance, the bar's display will con­ tinue to evolve. He states, "The original caricatures have really added a unique feature to the bar which can't be replicated, especially since we have artists who are still very active and engaged keeping us really current, and their coasters have become collec­ tor's items. Also the bar could have celebrities and politicos sitting in the corner. I've been present when prominent stars were in the bar-people didn't know what to do-they didn't want to be intrusive, but you could see the cell phones come out. It just has become the busy neighborhood bar with limited seats."29 The Off the Record bar is not the only place in Washington to see cartoons. Most Smithsonian 66 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 48)

museums include comic books or strips in exhibits, to add popular culture. The Newseum displays reproductions of cartoons, usually the Pulitzer Prize winners. The Library of Congress has a small gallery that regularly exhibits Herblock's cartoons and a larger space with changing exhibits on various topics.

There are also some Washington restaurants with cartoon connections. The Palm prides itself on its caricatures on the wall. The National Press Club's private members' bar has a few older cartoons on its walls. And at the Tabard Inn, there is a plaque read­ ing, "On this spot the immortal 'Kudzu' was created by the mortal Doug Marlette, April 31, 1980."

Marlette died in 2007 and the comic strip ended with him.

6.

7.

8.

9.

and "Cartoon Cornucopia: The J. Arthur Wood, Jr. Collection of Cartoon Art," Library of Congress, both online at www.Ioc.gov.

Bruland interviews.

"Edmund Valtman: The Cartoonist Who Came In from the Cold," Library of Congress, online at www.loc.gov.

Ron Coddington, e-mail interview by author, February 23, 2017. Hundreds of Coddington's caricatures are on the Tribune News Service website, www.mct­ direct.com/faces, and at the Getty Images website, www.gettyirnages.com.

Quoted in Elizabeth Meyer, "D.C.'s Evolving Food Scene," Politico; online at http://www.politico.com.

10. Bruland interviews.

II. Matt Wuerker, interview by author, January 17, 2017, and follow-up e-mail interview, February 23, 2017. The easiest place to see Wuerker's cartoons online is at www.gocomics.com/mattwuerker.

12. Richard Thompson, e-mail interview by author, October 14, 2013. For more of Thompson's artwork and thoughts on caricature, see The Art ofRichard Thompson (Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel, 2014). By 2013, Thompson's career had ended due to the rapid onset of Parkinson's disease; he died in 2016.

13. Thompson interview.

14. Wuerker interviews.

15. Ibid.

16. Bruland interviews.

17. Wuerker interviews.

18. Bruland interviews.

19. Ibid. The actual number of coasters is closer to twenty-six by the author's count. Wuerker has done John Boehner, George H. W. and Barbara Bush with their children George W. and Jeb Bush, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton with Bill Clinton, Tim Kaine with Hillary Clinton, Rand Paul, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, Marco Rubio, Bernie Sanders, Charles Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, Scott Walker, and bartender John Boswell. KAL has done Joe Biden, George W. Bush with Barack Obama, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz with Canadian Club whiskey, Ted Cruz with a teapot, Carly Fiorina, Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, and Donald Trump. Telnaes has done Chris Christie, Hillary Clinton, and Melania Trump and the Trump children.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid. The special inaugural gift set included Wuerker's Hillary Clinton with Bill Clinton, and postelection Schumer and Pelosi; Telnaes' Hillary Clinton; and KAL's Trump, Pence, and Ryan.

22. Kevin ("KAL") Kallaugher, e-mail interview by author, February 14, 2017.

KAL's website is www.kaltoons.com.

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23. Bruland interviews.

24. Wuerker interviews.

25. Ann Telnaes, interview by author, January 17, 2017, and follow-up e-mail interview, February 22, 2017. For the Washington Post, Telnaes also does short animations for the website, a blog, live sketches, and occasional writing. Her work on the Washington Post website is at www.washington­ post.com/people/ann-telnaes. She has her own website, www.anntelnaes.com

26. Bruland interviews.

NOTES 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Mike Jenkins, e -mail interview by author, January 23, 2017.

Kay Enokido, e-mail with Hans Bruland, January 23, 2017.

27. KAL interview.

28. Bruland interviews.

29. Ibid.

Hans Bruland, interview by author, January 24, 2017, and follow-up e-mail interview, February 23, 2017.

Enokido e-mail.

"Library of Congress Acquires Art Wood Collection of Cartoon, Comic Strip and Animation Art," Library of Congress press release, July 24, 2003, avail­ able online at www.loc.gov. See also "Wood Collection of Cartoon and Caricature Drawings," Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Catalog,

On the Record with Off the Record's Cartoonists 67

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The collection at Off' the Record is not limited to presidential caricatures. This selection Q/'cartoons made by KALfor Off the Record includes politicians and candidates e,!joying drinks and re.fi'esh111e11ts at the bar (clockwisefi·om top left): Senator Elizabeth IVarren reads a book entitled How to Drink Liberally: Dr. Ben Carson adds an olive to lzis drink with surgical precision; Vice President Joe Eiden makes a toast; and Speaker Q/'the House Paul Ryan Q/' IVisconsin prepares to eat a burger made of a block Q/'cheese as KAL and Matt Wuerker co1111erse in the background.

Drawing the Presidents Pat Oliphant's Fifty Years of White House Cartooning INTRODUCTION

ptrick Bruce ("Pat ") Oliphant has cari­ catured ten presidents, starting with Lyndon Johnson, and over the course of half a century has become the best-known political cartoonist in the nation. In 1964, he left his native Australia and his position as cartoonist for the Adelaide Advertiser to become editorial cartoonist for the Denver Post, and also to pursue his personal commitment to the arts.

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning three years later, he remained in Denver for another decade before becoming editorial cartoonist for the Washington Star. Beginning in 1980, Universal Press Syndicate distributed his cartoons in more than five hundred newspapers and magazines around the world. Oliphant has also won the Thomas Nast Prize, two Reuben Awards, and seven recognitions from the National Cartoonist Society. His work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery and at the Library of Congress, where his drawings sketchbooks are now part of the permanent collection.In 2015 Oliphant was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. He is, observed former Senator Bob Dole, "central to the great American tradition of political caricature" 1 and the New York Times has called him "probably the most influential editorial cartoonist now working. " 2 In the simplest terms, Oliphant's cartoons are funny at first sight, and cling to one's interest through details of things, not least often the White

BY WILLIAM

SEALE

House. The details support his particular commen­ tary, which is often made clear by pithy comments spoken from the corner by a little penguin named Punk.

Oliphant's cartoons are editorial in the best sense, serious satire rendered with a twist of humor that keeps one thinking. In a recent interview with Matt Grubs of the Santa Fe Reporter, Oliphant said of the cartoonists' work, "Stay angry. You've got to work yourself up every morning into a lather of indignation and take it out in your drawings." He continued, "You're trying to build a character at the same time as you're getting the caricature together."

He thinks, reports Grubs, that President Donald Trump "might lend himself to the character part more easily than the nine other presidents Oliphant has drawn, but he says getting a signature image down is something that demands painstaking self­ criticism. "3 Although Oliphant claims he has not yet arrived at his perfect Trump, a review of his cartoons of previous presidents verifies his gift for catching character and expression.

The humorist critic P.J.O'Rourke observed of Oliphant's work, "Pat draws Bad large and unattrac­ tive and doing things that aren't nice.He draws Good very small in a corner, making wry comments to a miniature penguin.... Some critics have claimed that Pat leans to the left. But he has been known to stagger to the right as well, and also to go facedown,

Oliphant often demonstrates his approach to drawing the presidents by making quick sketches during interviews and lectures. This series of sketches in progress wasfi1med by C-SPAN during a February 1998 lecture at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, which held an exhibition of O/iphant's work. Clockwise from top left: Oliphant brings to life Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, George H. W Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Gerald R Ford with just a few quick strokes of charcoal.

and to fall over backwards too. Taken altogether and mathematically averaged, Pat's stance is balanced.

Furthermore it is the stance that the issues of the day demand."4 From 1975 to its closing in 1981, Oliphant was the political cartoonist with the Washington Star.

Oliphant and his wife Susan Conway Oliphant lived in Georgetown, D.C., where the Susan Conway

Gallery was central to Washington's art world. They now live in Santa Fe, and the world hopes Oliphant will terminate an experimental retirement and soon be busy again with his pencil, pursuing his career.

For insight into the cartoonist's perspective, we reprint here Pat Oliphant's foreword to his Oliphant's Presidents. A gallery of his cartoons follows, and like any fine work of art, as you will see, they never age.

Drawing the Presidents: Pat Oliphant's Fifty Years of Political Cartooning 73

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Observations by Pat Oliphant In the mid-1930s, the renowned British cartoon­ ist David Low was sketching from life a pompous group of top-hatted gentlemen as they emerged in high collars and frock coats from an emergency session of the League of Nations, where they had been deliberating on the proper punishment to be meted out to Mussolini for his recent incursions into Abyssinia. An acquaintance of Law's, seeing what the artist was doing, leaned close and remarked, "Mr Low, henceforth photography will suffice."

His point is well taken, and perhaps he was right.

In thirty-five odd years of watching and carica­ turing public figures, I have increasingly felt that the figures are lampooning themselves and that the busi­ ness of satire is continually and deliberately being undercut by the subjects. How else to explain the spectacle of Lyndon Baines Johnson picking up his dogs by the ears or hoisting his shirt to show his operation scar to the press? How else to account for the thespian furtiveness (which, after all, was no act) of Richard Nixon, or why Gerald Ford was in immi­ nent danger of falling over or banging his head the

74 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number48)

moment he stood up? How else to justify Jimmy (a grown man called Jimmy) Carter finding the Killer Rabbit, or the public tolerating the goofy vacuity of Ronald Reagan, who drew his every movement and utterance from old B-movie scripts? And how else to reconcile the Yankee WASP George Bush with the Texan George Bush or any other George Bush?

Life is kind to cartoonists at least in their work­ ing life, and in this country it is especially true. I owe America so much for providing such a beautiful and varied canvas as a backdrop and then peopling the foreground with a rich, almost overabundance of charlatans of all shades-wonderful Barnum politi­ cians of varying degrees of shamelessness, cabinet opportunists, self-aggrandizing public servants, shift­ less bureaucrats, and assorted lickspittles, greedmon­ gers, and common thieves-all of them exciters of the linkage between brain and drawing hand. If pho­ tography alone sufficed.fifty or more years ago, then television in this age should suffice doubly so, and this art by now should have disappeared.

Furthermore, this mode of expression also faces the threat of an always diminishing field of reference.

In fairly recent memory, allusions to works by Shakespeare and otherfuddy-duddies were recog­ nized and accepted as suitable vehicles for satiric opinion-but no more. The riches of literature, along

with the lessons of history, have been largely ignored by present educators. The symbols of Aesop lie fallow, as do the titles and imagery of Poe, Hemingway, Kipling, Twain, and all the others. No more "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him. . . . "No more ravens quoth­ ing "Nevermore!" Barely a "Farewell to Arms" left in the house. Send not to see for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for an education system that has sold out.

Products of such a system are not likely to savor a cartoon that relies for its impact on the follies of today juxtaposed against those of fifty, fifteen, or even five years ago. Without reference there are no parameters; without parameters, no perspective; and without perspective, alas, no satire.

Cartooning and caricature, however, offer more than the photographic image or the fleeting electronic signal. A strong audience exists that needs to hold in the hand and contemplate a graphic distillation of the personality of the strutting popinjay on last night's news. This audience wants a visual rendering of imme­ diacy and endurance that can be cut from the printed page and saved on the refrigerator, or if disliked, can be ripped from the page, have rude recommen­ dations scrawled upon it, and mailed back to the artist. Such people, pro and con, possess awareness and opinion, and as such are to be blessed It is my contention, having said all this, that cartoonists, should be seen

and not heard. I find myself largely unable to discuss my own work, and I dread artists who drape their work in verbiage to disguise its shortcomings. English ladies, it is said, wear shoes that appear to have been built by someone who has only heard shoes described.

In my case, to discuss a cartoon or caricature is to destroy it, for without the visual component the piece ends up sounding like English ladies' shoes.

There are, thank goodness, those more learned than I who can, and, do describe my function and my work with the assurance of instructors and scholars, and I yield to them in true fascination. For me, however, this art of the daily deadline leaves me only as good as I was yesterday, and the work itself, good or bad, is that which must suffice.5

IMAGES

2.

All cartoons are copyrighted by Pat 0/ipant and unless otherwise noted are provided courtesy of Susan Conway Gallery.

3.

Matt Grubbs, "An Art to It," Santa Fe Reporter, July 5, 2017.

4.

P. J. O'Rourke, foreword to Leadership: Oliphant Cartoons and Sculpture from the Bush Years (Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2007), II.

5.

Pat Oliphant, foreword to Wendy Wick Reaves, 0/iphant's Presidents: Twenty-Five Years of Caricature (Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews and McMeel, 1990), 11-12. Used by permission.

NOTES I.

Senator Bob Dole, foreword to Pat Oliphant with Harry Katz, Oliphant's Anthem: Pat Oliphant at the Library of Congress, ed. Sara Day (Kansas

City, Mo.: Andrews lvlcMeel Publishing, in cooperation with the Library of Congress, 1998).

Wayne King, "What's So Funny About Washington?," New York Times

Magazine, August 5, 1990.

Drawing the Presidents: Pat Oliphant's Fifty Years of Political Cartooning 7 5

Pat Oliphant: Selected Works Lyndon B. Johnson Administration (1963-69)

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"Now, remember-No 11howing the scar until a.ltu- the formal Introduction!''

With the cartoon above, Oliphant poked fun at President Lyndon Johnson following an incident in which he revealed his gall bladder surgery scar during a press conference. As England's Princess Margaret arrives for a visit, an aide who has consulted an etiquette guide advises the president not to show his scar to the princess until they have been introduced.

To help decrease fatalities on US. highways, President Johnson, depicted here leading a battle "on the home front," signed the Highway Safety Act into law in 1966. At the time, the annual death toll from automobile accidents far exceeded that of the Vietnam War.

76 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number48)

In 1968, Oliphant depicted LBJ's many heroic personas, with his ultimate demeanor turned demonic when he raises taxes to help pay for the Vietnam War. He left the "little problem" of the unpopular surtax to his successor Richard M. Nixon to solve all by himself (below).

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Richard M. Nixon Administration (1969-74)

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A page from Oliphant's sketchpad, now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, includes a spoof scenario of an attempt to have Nixon smile for the camera (above). Oliphant's cartoons during the Nixon era covered the many dilemmas the president faced-from inflation and war (in the form of deadly reptiles, opposite top) to political scandals. At the height of the Watergate investigations.following an order by US. District Court Judge John Sirica compelling the president to turn over tape recordings of his conversations, Nixon is portrayed lamenting "Politics is Hell, Bebe!" to his loyal friend and real estate developer, Bebe Rebozo, by his side at his Florida compound "Land Deals," the headline of the newspaper at Nixon's feet, refers to yet another scandal.

78 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 48)

"WHA1'1 QUIT NOW? JUST AS l'M BEGINNING TO ENJOY MYSELF?"

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Drawing the Presidents: Pat Oliphant's Fifty Years of Political Cartooning 79

Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter Administrations (1974-81)

'SOMETIMES I MUST ADMIT TO SOME MISGIVINGS . .

A few months after Nixon's resignation, Oliphant por­ trayed his successor, Gerald R. Ford, attempting to reach a lifeboat to escape his difficult job. Oliphant was one of many artists and comics who mercilessly joked about President Ford's supposed clumsiness following a slip on the stairs of Air Force One. At right, a missing tooth undermines his spokesman's attempt to change the misconception.

80

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number48)

1 THINK YOUR PoRll?.A:(AL OF THE PRESIDENT A$ CLUMSY IS A MOST UNC.ONSCIONABLE..,

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Oliphant imagined the reac­ tion of gawking reporters should President Ford take a tumble when greeting Queen Elizabeth during her 1976 visit to the United States. The press were often featured in Oliphant's work.

In the early days of the Carter administration, incoming Press Secretary Jody Powell reports that he has been introduced to the White House press corps, portrayed by Oliphant as a hungry hound dog.

"YES, JIMMY, THE TRANSITION'S GOIN' ALONG FINE ...

THAT NICE MR. NESSEN INTRODUCED ME BRIEFLY TO THE BIG OL' HOUN' DOG THAT GOES WITH THE PLACE."

Drawing the Presidents: Pat Oliphant's Fifty Years of Political Cartooning 81

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Alluding to President Reagan's acting career, Oliphant depicted the president's first day in the Oval Office as if it were the opening scene to a dramatic movie, complete with cred­ its that include First Lady Nancy Reagan and Counselor to the President Edwin Meese.

Drawing the Presidents: Pat Oliphant's Fifty Years of Political Cartooning 83

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Oliphant continued to use theatrical references in his Reagan-era cartoons, often depicting the president as a cowboy dealing with the economy. After a plea for lowered expectations, he is allowed to take a bow as the bulls run on Wall Street. Oliphant closed the curtain on the Reagan pres­ idency with a final scene in which the president waves to the cowboy riding off into the sunset.

Drawing the Presidents: Pat Oliphant's Fifty Years of Political Cartooning

85

George H. W. Bush Administration (1989-93)

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Oliphant depicted the Oval Office on "Day J" of the George H W Bush administration with a reference to the phrase coined by the president during his first presidential campaign, "I want a kinder, and gentler nation." The falling of the Berlin Wall during his first year in office was the subject of one of many war and peace cartoons during his tenure. As they prepare to depart the White House after a Clinton victory in the presidential election of 1992, President and Mrs. Bush suspect a flock of chickens arriving at the North Portico might signal the arrival of the transition team from Arkansas.

Drawing the Presidents: Pat Oliphant's Fifty Years of Political Cartooning 87

William J. Clinton Administration (1993-2001)

Oliphant depicted the opening of the Clinton administration as a reveille (led by the president on his familiar saxo­ phone) signaling impending tax increases that jolt awake both Democrats and Republicans. Socks­ the Clinton's famous black and white cat-often substituted for the president himself in Oliphant's cartoons. A home­ sick Socks complains about the Secret Service cats who follow him (below) and about a new ban on smoking in the White House (opposite top). As the twentieth century drew to a close, increased concerns for security prompted_ the closing of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, to the disappointment of a busload of tourists (opposite bottom).

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Drawing the Presidents: Pat Oliphant's Fifty Years of Political Cartooning 89

George W. Bush and Barack Obama Administrations (2001-17)

Natural disasters and global conflicts unfolding in view of the Oval Office are a recurring theme in Oliphant's cartoons.

Avian flu was one of many crises that faced the George W Bush administration.

90 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 48)

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As the Obama admznistration struggled to pass health care reform, Oliphant compared the task to a scene in Alice in Wonderland while Punk observes, "When All Else Fails, Try Magic."

Drawing the Presidents: Pat Oliphant's Fifty Years of Political Cartooning 91

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REFLECTIONS

rifte President's Pen STEWART D .

McLAURIN

PRESIDENT, WHITE HOUSE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Perhaps the most Every president since and including prolific of these presidential doodlers George Washington S was Ronald Reagan, has been the subject of � who portrayed himcartoons and drawings � self in a variety of commenting on his � roles and whose undertakings as the �a. drawings were nation's chief executive.

As they step into that � recently part of a � public auction of his most public of positions, personal effects. The all dimensions of their ; man who famously lives, political and § portrayed football personal, are subjected 0 to characterization and .,,� player George Gipp satire by the cartoonists' I on the big screen pens. The presidents i often enjoyed drawa. ing football players themselves have also President Ronald Reagan displays one of his sketches in the Oval on the field. His taken up the pen with Office. A lifetime doodler, Reagans favorite subjects doodles of their own. loeofth included horses, cowboys, and quarterbacks.

Many modem presidoordents-Harry Truman, and his California home Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, ..,,.

Rancho del Cielo inspired ��Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter-occasionally doohis drawings died during meetings. Kennedy A. . A of cowboys and horses. He also fre- , liked to enclose important .---. quently expressed his love for • ·. · words or phrases, and First Lady Nancy Reagan, '", . often drew geometric drawing hearts with their ini­ i shapes and designs in tials locked inside. The \ the margins of his notes.

LBJ would sometimes doo-

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tions-created from both inside and outside the White House-have been a staple of the office since its inception in 1789.

WHITEHOUSE

HISTORY WHITE HOUSE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY STAFF

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

William Seale, Editor

Frederick J. Ryan Jr., Chairman John F. W. Rogers, Vice Chairman James I. McDaniel, Secretary John T. Behrendt, Treasurer Stewart D. McLaurin, President

Scott Harris, Editorial Adviser Mac Keith Griswold, Editorial Adviser Anthony Pitch, Editorial Adviser Lydia Tederick, Editorial Adviser

Jean Case, Henry A. Dudley Jr., Cathy Gorn, Janet A. Howard, Knight Kiplinger, Martha Joynt Kumar, Anita McBride, Mike Mccurry, Robert M. McGee, Roger B. Porter, Ann Stock, Ben C. Sutton Jr., Tina Tchen

Marcia M. Anderson, Vice President ofPublishing and Executive Editor Fiona Griffin, Editorial Director Lauren Zook, Senior Production Manager Kristin Skinner, Production Manager Jeanine Marie, Editorial Assistant Ann Hofstra Grogg, Consulting Editor

Ex Officio: David S. Ferriera, Carla Hayden Tom Mayes, Earl A. Powell III, David J. Skorton Directors Emeriti: Nash Castro, Jeannine S. Clark,

John H. Dalton, Nancy M. Folger, Elise K. Kirk, Harry G. Robinson III, Leonard L. Silverstein, Gail Berry West

THE EDITOR WISHES TO THANK The Office of the Curator, the White House; Hans Bruland and Ashley Wood, The Hay-Adams; Pat Oliphant and the Susan Conway Gallery; Candace Shireman, Blair House: The President's Guest House; Anita McBride; Bruce White; Lisa Helfert; and The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation

WHITE HOUSE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION STAFF Geraldine Alarcon, Marcia Anderson, Cindy Buck, Lauren Cahill, Leslie Calderone, Joanna Capps, Matthew Costello, Lucy Crowley, Cora Cruz, Yolande Demosthene-Wood, John Emerson, Imke Gahrmann, Tyler Grasee, Fiona Griffin, Nathaniel Guzeh, Arioth Harrison, Lindsey Kolling, Ed Lengel, Alexandra Lane, Albert Lee, Julianne Levin, Lynn Maxey, Lauren Zook McGwin, Bob Milam, Tiana Nailing, Kimberly Osborne, Evan Phifer, Rachel Phillips, Sharon Pierce, Melody Reynolds, Haley Rivero, Curtis Sandberg, Elizabeth Sheehy, Gina Sherman, Amanda Shifflett, Whitney Todd, Stephanie Tuszynski, Rhett Wilson, Teresa Williams, Cindy Wilson, Butch Winter, Alfred Young