Historical Political Cartoons - A Brief History

The first real political cartoons were drawn back in the early 1500's in Germany during Martin Luther's campaign against the excesses of the all-powerful Catholic Church. During this time of upheaval, Martin was looking for a way to use the new printing press to get his message out to the masses. Unfortunately, the "masses" were largely illiterate peasants who had previously relied entirely on Catholic Clergy for all access to the written word. Since the message Luther sought to distribute was inherently against the Church, he knew he needed a different way to reach the common people. The political cartoon was born.

Looking less like our modern cartoons and more like detailed illustrations, these early cartoons made use of familiar characters and stories to appeal to the peasants in a way that they could easily understand. One of these early cartoons shows the scene where Jesus throws the peddlers and hawkers out of the temple, a Bible story that all onlookers would easily recognize. Opposite the Bible scene is another which shows the Pope writing out and selling indulgences to the people. The comparison of the Pope to the hawkers is unmistakable. In this way, Martin could expose people of all classes to his radical and complex ideas in a way that was both simple and entertaining.

The first real use of political cartooning by an American was Benjamin Franklin's 1754 cartoon "Join, or Die." Its image of a snake cut into eight pieces, each of which was marked as one of the eight colonies, was a direct call to all of the British colonies to unite in common cause against the French and Indians and their plans to take over land west of the Appalachians. Later, in 1765, Franklin would again use the cartoon to try to persuade the colonies to unite in order to fight the British for independence. In both cases, the image of the snake became a stark and easily recognizable symbol around which the unity movement could coalesce.

Franklin's famous cartoon is an example of how political cartoons have, historically, been a way for opposition groups to voice their opinions. The cartoon medium works well as a way for a new idea to gain a foothold in the public consciousness because of the brief and simple message it conveys. Since many cartoons couch their dissenting ideas in humor or satire, the artist can get away with making a radical idea seem more socially acceptable and less dangerous to the powers that be.

Cartoons continued to have huge importance in American politics during some of the more turbulent times in our nation's history, like the government corruption of the late 1800's, when Thomas Nast drew his famous "Boss" Tweed character to skewer thieving politicians. It was during this time that America's first humor magazine, "Puck," was started, creating a new, larger forum for political cartoons. This bargain priced publication pushed the cartoon even further onto the political stage, and the power and influence of cartoons on the public consciousness continued to grow over the years.

During the early 1950s, the term "McCarthyism" was coined by the cartoons of Herblock, one of the first people to publicly question Senator McCarthy's communist witch hunt. Today, political cartoons still entertain and inflame readers of print publications, but perhaps a more modern incarnation of their ability to educate through humor and depictions of the absurd exists in television shows like "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." Using real news facts within satirical and sometimes ridiculous interviews, skits, and reports, these shows expose their audience to new ideas while entertaining them and making them laugh, just like political cartoons always have. These shows wouldn't exist today as the pop-culture phenomenon they are without the groundbreaking legacy of political cartoons.

For further examination of this subject, historical political cartoons, pics and illustrations are available at various educational websites across the web.



Beth Schelle is an educational video consultant for the historical film company Quality Information Publishers, who maintain a library of historic film and video collections at http://www.qualityinformationpublishers.com .




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Cartoons, A Brief Introduction

What is a cartoon? A cartoon is a drawing, a simple example of creative thinking and a perception of the reality and dream. By drawing cartoons, one enhances creative skills.

Cartoons represent almost all aspects of life; they could be humorous, serious or erotic. In a few lines, the cartoonist is able to capture the entire idea he wants to convey, to observe and exaggerate the characters' features.

People have always associated cartoons with fun and childhood, because children love cartoons, they love drawings and like seeing them move on the screen or they enjoy adults reading them comic books. In this way children's creativity path is opened.

Political cartoons are special cartoons that represent current political affairs with humor and originality.

Political cartoons are considered historical sources just like newspapers, paintings, diaries and documents. These kinds of cartoons communicate political messages about events and people of the time through pictures. Some cartoons do this merely to comment on political events and poke fun, other cartoons are evidence of people and government's efforts to influence people.

The universal truth is that most cartoons are drawn to make people laugh. They make normally serious politicians look ridiculous. By exaggerating situations and characters they become funny and daring; they 'say' things people would not dare to say out loud. Cartoons are usually made up of two elements: caricature (a drawing that makes an individual funny by his looks) and illusion (something that cartoonists add but it is not real, but it is used to pretend a funny situation).

However, there are some cartoons that are not meant to be funny, they are deadly serious.

Nonetheless, cartoons do make an impact, and because of this they are memorable.

One can find online on Cartoon Bank carefully chosen cartoons from The New Yorker editions, prints and cover that decorate houses, offices; all original works available for purchase.



Cartoon Bank has the best cartoons for you.




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