“NOT EVEN-HANDED JUSTICE: Crushing the scorpion of anarchy but sparing the octopus of monopoly”, Artist William A. Rogers, published in Harper’s Weekly, January 21, 1888.

(Snark: Seems kind of apt, given the Occupy movement and response to it. Some things don’t change.)

Image source: Railroad Cartoons Home, http://sophia.smith.edu/~maldrich/topics/political_influence/1888harpersjan21.htm (accessed 12-11-2011)

Attwod, F.G., “He Gathers Them In: A Pacific Sketch”, in Life September 24, 1885. It shows Grover Cleveland (22nd and 24th President of the United States).

Source: Period Paper (15 Aug, 2011), http://www.periodpaper.com

Private collection.

“John Bull in Egypt”, no information for this one. However, can be compared to 1888 Punch cartoon, and is probably of a similar age.

Image source: BradlyHardin.com

 

“A Horrible Monster”, published in Daily Graphic, July 19th, 1880, New York.

(This has been on Vulgar Army previously; this is a clearer, more detailed from Super I.T.C.H.)

Cartoon criticising ‘the pollution of New York’s air by the Standard Oil plant at Hunters Point, New York. The caption reads “A Horrible Monster, whose tentacles spread poverty, disease, death, and which is the primal cause of nuisances at Hunters Point”.

• “Beautiful Villas on The East River Rendered Uninhabitable” (showing buildings by river with “To Let” signs)
• “Interrupted Pleasures” (Family & brass band holding cloths to nose & mouth)
• “Offensive to the Last” (“Hunters Point Ladies Cabin”, smoke stacks in background)
• “Disease and Death” (Mother grieving over dead child)
• “A Whiff From Hunters Point” (Diners holding handkerchiefs to mouths)

Original Image source: Kovarik, W. ”Industrial Revolution: 1810 – 1890″ Environmental History Timeline

The Curse of California

“The Curse of California” by G. Frederick Keller, published in The Wasp, 19th of August 1882, vol 9, No 316, pp. 520-521. Photo by Rick MacPherson of poster in Oakland Museum, California.

This is only a quick overview for now.

The Curse of California, Southern Pacific Railway.

“Somewhere from within the blank mugs of those railroad barons (or in spite of them) projects the image of the modern faceless corporation… the behemoth, unique, beyond the limit, extension of man.” — Eva’s Outlaws: Californian Train Robbers, “Railroad Monopoly as The Octopus”, published 30th of April 2009.

The text below and accompanying image (external link) is from: National Humanities Center, “The Image of the Octopus, six drawings, 1882-1909” (PDF). 

Nob Hill: the neighborhood of the San Francisco powered elite, showing Mansion of Charles Croker (Southern Pacific Railway magnate).

Wheat Export

Wheat Ware House

U.S. Bonds

Mark Hopkins & Leland Stanford (Southern Pacific Railway magnates)

Stage Lines

Lumber Dealers

Wine

Fruit Growers

“Killed by the Railroad Monster”

FREIGHT

Mussel Slough: 1880 shoot out between farmers and federal marshals overland disputes with the Southern Pacific Railway; climax of the 1901 Frank Norris novel The Octopus.

The Farmers

Mining

Standard Oil

One of the earliest references to the Standard Oil as an “octopus” was in an article that appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, in March 1881. ‘The Story of A Great Monopoly‘: “So closely had the Standard octopus gripped itself about Mr. Vanderbilt [railroads] that even at the outside rates its competitors could not get transportation from him.”

The name stuck and the representation of Standard Oil as an octopus continued on for another three decades.

References:

Lloyd, H.D. (1881), The Atlantic Monthly, http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/188103/monopoly/3 (Accessed: 14th Mar 2009)