While previous posts have discussed political cartoons from American publications like Harpers Weekly, Punch was a popular periodical in England. Art Historian Allan T. Kohl works at Minneapolis College of Art & Design and has put together an interesting collection of Punch’s “principal cartoons” related to the Civil War. Weekly editions “featured a principal cartoon, […]

“An Heir to the Throne, or the Next Republican Candidate” satirizes the Republican Party’s stand on slavery in the 1860 presidential election.  Democrats attacked  Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party for rejecting the expansion of slavery into new territories.  Louis Maurer, the artist of this 1860 Currier & Ives cartoon, depicted the ultimate allegiance between […]

Louis Maurer mocked presidential candidate Stephen Douglas in the cartoon “Stephen Finding His Mother.” Through the months leading up to the election in late 1860, Douglas engaged in an unprecedented national campaign tour. In response to critics of his new vote-gathering methods, he falsely claimed to visit his mother when he lead his tour through New […]

The German artist, Louis Maurer, drew upon an American sport—baseball—for this pro-Lincoln political cartoon, which Currier & Ives published in September 1860, only two months before the presidential election of 1860. Maurer created a parody of the four main presidential candidates (from left to right): Constitutional Union Party candidate John Bell, Northern Democratic Party candidate […]

The Republican Party held its second national convention beginning at noon on May 16, 1860 in Chicago.  The presidential nominees included the veteran statesmen Edward Bates, Salmon P. Chase, Simon Cameron, and William H. Seward, as well as a new senator from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln.  Although Seward was the favorite going into the convention and […]

The Election of 1860 mirrored the divided nature of the United States both in the presidential candidates and the voting results.  The four major candidates represented three parties, a result of sectional discord: Stephen Douglas (northern Democratic party), John Breckinridge (southern Democratic party), Abraham Lincoln (Republican party), and John Bell (Constitutional Union party).  This pro-Breckinridge […]

HarpWeek has an online collection of political cartoons from 14 presidential elections between the years 1860-1912.  These cartoons provide a visual insight into the climate surrounding the Election of 1860, and its core issues.  Some of the cartoons require a lot of prior historical knowledge, while others can be understood with some basic analysis.  HarpWeek […]

This post is part of a new summer 2017 “DIY” (do-it-yourself) series by House Divided Project interns Rachel Morgan and Sam Weisman on how to make various types of primary source facsimiles; see posts on CDVs, stereocards, colorized photos, and letters. Imagine holding the tear-stained letter from a loving wife to her husband, a Union soldier. Then, follow the […]

The reaction to President Obama’s appearance on Between Two Ferns was swift. 32,000 viewers clicked through the video to HealthCare.gov, more than 1,000 tweeted about the segment, and health plan enrollments skyrocketed as the final deadlines approached.  None of those suggestions of effectiveness, however, prevented Fox News host Bill O’Reilly from leveling a pretty tough criticism. […]

The 150th anniversary of President-Elect Lincoln‘s tense arrival in Washington has provoked several evocative blog posts. Ted Widmer, director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, provides a comprehensive decscription about Lincoln’s travels for the “Disunion” blog at the New York Times. Through several posts (see especially 2/10, 2/21 and 2/22) Widmer traces the route from […]