A lesson in Comic Cartography

Amanda also sent in this article from Fine Books Magazine about Comic Cartography

“The plumb pudding in danger.” In 1805 English cartoonist James Gillray lampooned Napoleon (right) and British Prime Minister William Pitt. CREDIT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, LC-USZC4-8791.

“The hungry customer.” Canada (left) offers Great Britain a breakfast of hot cereal while Uncle Sam’s smaller serving is politely refused. CREDIT: AUTHOR’S COLLECTION.

“The Rhodes colossus.” As the founder of the De Beers diamond mines, Cecil Rhoades was a great supporter of the British Empire. When he announced plans to build a railway and telegraph line across Africa from Cairo to Cape Town, Punch magazine portrayed him as the great Rhodes colossus. The original colossus guarded the Greek harbor of Rhodes in the 2nd century BC, and at 30 metres, is thought to have been the tallest structure of the ancient world. CREDIT: PUNCH, 10 DECEMBER, 1892.

“I repeat, we see no signs of intelligent life.” In a world gone mad with nuclear weapons that are capable of destroying the world several times over, cartoonists Roy Careless asks how we could ever possibly consider ourselves to be an intelligent form of life. CREDIT: NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CANADA, C-141801.

In this broadside from 1876, Uncle Sam and his family feed the world using their new Uncle Sam wood stove by Abendroth Brothers. From the red, white and blue fabrics, to the Declaration of Independence on the wall, the image is a celebration of America’s centennial. CREDIT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

“Heal.” Duncan Macpherson would like us to think that President Jimmy Carter (dressed like a country preacher) has some rather unusual methods for improving the world’s problems. The caricature was inspired by the announcement in May 1977 of a new foreign policy for the U.S. CREDIT: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA, C-112581.

“The French Invasion, or John Bull, bombarding the Bum-boats.” Gillary’s 1793 caricature has the British Isles, in the form of King George III, blasting a fleet of bumboats into the face of France. At the time, there was some concern that revolutionary France might challenge Britain’s sovereignty. Bumboats were small vessels that ferried supplies to ships moored offshore and their reference by Gillray was obviously meant to underline the British monarch’s contemptuous reaction to the situation. CREDIT: BRITISH MUSEUM.