FRES 1010 - Politics and Propaganda in Cartoons

Spring 2009 (course id: 00-159)

Note: this page is under constant development as I add new sites. Suggestions are always welcome.

Handouts: Syllabus, information about paper assignments.
Current cartoons: Links to various websites that collect current political cartoons.
Historical cartoons: Links to various websites that collect historical cartoons.
Organizations: Links to websites of organizations that deal with cartoons or cartoonists.
Cartoonists: Links to websites for individual political cartoonists.
Posters: Links to websites that collect political (propaganda) posters.
Animation: Links to animated political propaganda & cartoons.

New York Times Cartoons: Superb site for current political cartoons from around the world
Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index: Large collection of cartoons on current issues and themes. Source of the popular "Best editorial cartoons of " series.

Brueghel's proverb painting: Clickable version of Brueghel's painting with the corresponding Dutch proverbs. See also the wikipedia entry for the painting, here, which shows fragments of the painting alongside the proverb in question, translated into English.
Hogenberg's history prints: A few of the history prints by Hogenberg, as displayed on the website of a print dealer (note: a few of these are mislabeled as regards the specific events being depicted).
America in Caricature, 1765-1865: Nice site at Indiana University's Lilly Library, with a selection of cartoons from the early days of the American republic, the war of 1812, and the Civil War.
Presidential Elections, 1860-1912: The U.S. presidential election as covered in political cartoons in the second half of the nineteenth century. Excellent selection of cartoons from nearly-forgotten campaigns.

Individual cartoonists of note

James Gillray: Overview of an exhibit at the New York Public Library on James Gillray, with information about his life as well as a selection of images. The checklist offers detailed information about a number of images. Click on the thumbnails of the images to see a larger picture.
John Leech: Archive of John Leech's cartoons from Punch. Leech was the artist behind the political cartoon that gave cartoons their name, "Cartoon, no. 1: Substance and Shadow"
Thomas Nast: Nice site dedicated to the cartoons of Thomas Nast, the most famous American cartoonist of the 19th century. He is known, among others, for his crusade against Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall, and for helping popularize the donkey and the elephant as the symbols of the Democratic and the Republican party, respectively. There is also a smaller selection of his cartoons at Ohio State University, here.

Cartoons and the Civil War

Lincoln Archives Digital Project: The Lincoln Archives digital project. Click on "Political Cartoons" in the menu on the left-hand side to go to cartoons featuring Lincoln that appeared in several contemporary magazines.
John Tenniel and the American Civil War: Cartoons published in Britain's Punch magazine during the U.S. Civil War by John Tenniel, best known as the original illustrator of Alice in Wonderland.

Social Movements at the turn of the 20th century: Labour and Suffrage

Labor Prints, 1863-1908: Superb collection at Georgia State of illustrations and political cartoons related to early labour union activism and industrial workers in the late nineteenth century
Union cartoons: Nice set of modern labor organizing cartoons. Interesting to compare the style and imagery of these cartoons with those from a century ago.
Cartooning for Suffrage, edited by Alice Sheppard: An excellent book published by the University of New Mexico Press, available in electronic version through GALILEO
Suffragettes: Small selection of suffrage cartoons from Punch magazine.
Suffragette Images: A selection of suffrage cartoons from a Marxist website.

Association of American Editorial Cartoonists: American association of political cartoonists. Good selection of current cartoons, brief profiles of many American editorial cartoonists.
National Cartoonists Society: National (American) association of cartoonists. Has various regional chapters with their own websites. For Georgia, this is the Southeast Chapter.
Political Cartoon Society: British organization dedicated to the promotion of the political cartoon. Nice set of short articles on various aspects of cartoon history, as well as brief biographies of major cartoonists. Good selection of (UK-focused) books for sale.
Cartoon Journal: German cartoon website, with a nice selection of current cartoons from German artists (look under Galerie in the menu), as well as helpful information, links. etc.

Museums, Archives, etc.

British Cartoon Archive: Hosted at the University of Kent. Has a massive collection, much of which is available (and searchable, albeit not very well) online. Especially good if you're looking for cartoons by a particular artist.
Punch Cartoons: Historical archive of all cartoons published in Punch magazine. Mostly general cartoons, but with a good number of political ones too. Pretty good search engine. Sells quality reproductions of the cartoons, in various sizes.
Cartoon Museum: Museum in London, focused on editorial and political cartoons. Good selection of cartoons available online. Interesting occasional exhibits.
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art: Museum in New York City, with some interesting past exhibits. Not much emphasis on editorial or political cartoons, and not much else on the website.
Cartoon Art Museum: Museum in San Francisco whose goal is to foster and promote "a greater appreciation of cartoon art". Website is fairly simple. Useful primarily for links to other cartoon sites. Not much emphasis on editorial or political cartoons.

Ann Telnaes: Animated as well as traditional print cartoons. An archive of older cartoons is still available (but perhaps not much longer) here. Won the Pulitzer for editorial cartooning in 2001.
Mike Luckovich: Popular cartoonist of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Won the Pulitzer in 1995 and 2006.
Herblock: Herbert Block, probably the most influential post-WWII cartoonist in the United States (won the Pulitzer 3 times: 1942, 1954, 1979, and shared one more in 1973). Exhibit at the Library of Congress: Herblock's History - Political cartoons from the Crash to the millennium.
Dr. Seuss: It is not well known that for two years during World War II Dr. Seuss was an active (and excellent) political cartoonist. This website shows all published cartoons.
Baldy: Clifford H. Baldowski, cartoonist for Augusta, Miami, and Atlanta papers in the first few decades after World War II. Archive at UGA's Russell Library.
Bill Richards: Interesting interview with the cartoonist of UGA's Red & Black student newspaper, from April 2008, when he had (temporarily, it turns out) retired from his position.

Museum of Russian Poster (sic): Russian site with a large collection of Russian posters. The sections on agitational, military, and social posters are particularly valuable.
Support! Vote! Strike!: Online exhibit of labor posters from the International Institute of Social History.
Northland Poster Collective: Modern-day labor posters (also plenty of other topics) from an organization with the motto: "Where Art Meets Organizing!". Provides interesting comparison material for the historical posters on similar topics.

JibJab: Animation site with a number of light-hearted, mostly bipartisan, animated political cartoons. See, for example, their take on the 2008 presidential campaign, here

FRES 1010 - Politics and Propaganda in Cartoons / maurits@uga.edu
Last updated 12 February 2009.