1880 which criticising ‘the pollution of New York’s air by the Standard Oil plant in the Bronx. The company is depicted as “A HORRIBLE MONSTER, WHOSE TENTACLES SPREAD POVERTY, DISEASE AND DEATH”.’ and was published July 19th, 1880.

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

The Mongolian Octopus – His Grip on Australia (1886)

Artist Phillip May, Published in The Bulletin on the 21st August 1886. The arms labelled: “Customs Robbery”, “Fan-Tan“, “Opium”, “Small-Pox”, “Immorality”, “Pak Ah-Pu“, “Cheap Labour”

This cartoon was apparently reworked to demonstrate demonisation of ethnic groups in modern cartoons:

Geoff Pryor, editorial cartoonist for the Canberra Times has recently (6 September 2001) used the racism of nineteenth-century cartoonists as a vehicle for critique of current racial politics. Under the title ‘Recycling’, he reproduced the famous ‘Mongolian octopus’ cartoon by Phil May, first published in the Bulletin in 1886. Pryor annotated the cartoon, suggesting the addition of a turban and other features to turn the Chinese menace into an Islamic one.¹

Footnotes:

1. Sawer, M. (2001) “Cartoons for the Cause: Cartooning for Equality in Australia”, EJournalist, http://ejournalist.com.au/v1n2/SAWER.pdf, Accessed: 21st May 2009 [↩]
2. Image source: “The Mongolian Octopus” Multicultural Research Library, General Reference Library, State library of NSW. (Accessed: 21st May 2009)

“What Shall We Do With Our Boys?” (1882)

The following is from: The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library¹:

San Francisco received many Chinese immigrants because of its geographic position and the economic opportunities California offered. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a proposal to outlaw most Chinese immigration was under debate at this time and several California publications, including The Wasp, tried to influence Congress to pass this law. Many Americans opposed Chinese immigration, arguing that the Asians were willing to do manual labor for low wages and took jobs away from American citizens.

The cartoon shows a multi-armed Chinese worker with a foot on a wooden board that says “Chinese trade monopoly”. There is a bale of tobacco in the background. He appears to be making clothes, shoes, cigars and handling tools at the same time. He is holding a bag of “Earnings”. In the meantime, a group of unemployed loiter outside, and a (father? police office?) is escorting a boy to San Quentine (a prison, might be some sort of “school”). There is other writing but it is too illegible.

Footnotes:

1. The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library Accessed 21st March 2009 
2. Image Source: “What Shall We Do With Our Boys?” The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library (Accessed 21st March 2009)

Corporate Greed (1882)

Cartoon published 27th June 1882 shows a large bulbous octopus sitting on top of a pile of crates and bales. The caption apparently reads: “Corporate greed octopus gobbles up freight for Great Railroad while unemployed handlers look on”¹. Octopus head reads: “Corporate Greed. All for ourselves, nothing for the public”. The tentacles have the names of railway companies on them.

Unfortunately image quality is too low to make out the artists signature or the name on the building behind the octopus.

Footnotes

1. Corbis http://tinyurl.com/cl8voh (Accessed 4th April 2009)

The Devil Fish of Californian Politics (Walter, 1889)

The cartoon was published in The Wasp, v. 22, Jan. – June 1889 and ’shows “highbinder” caught in tentacles of Buckley octopus’¹. The caption reads ‘The Devil Fish of Californian Politics’ with a sub caption ‘ECSS Buckley’s rapacious maw equal to anything from a state capitol to an almshouse or a dog pound’. The tentacles – with their bird-reptilian like hands – have the names: teachers, state legislators, ‘Solidine’, and grasp: [chinese] ‘highbinder’,  ’spring valley water’, the courts, the school house, the fire dept, the jury, the dog house, the alms house, the house of correction, and the gas company.

Footnotes

1. Library of Congress (http://tinyurl.com/cbltdr) Accessed: 4th April 2009.

Octopus of ‘Monopoly’ by John Tenniel published in Punch, or the London Charivai, November 3rd,1888. The octopus of “Monopoly” attempts to upset the boat of oar-wielding ‘Commerce’ (wearing the winged hat of Hermes or Mercury?). The octopus’s limbs are: ’salt’, ‘iron’, ‘copper’, and ‘cotton’. The boat is called: “Free Competition” (A case of ‘bad’ versus ‘good’ capitalism?).

Image source: Fotosearch, http://www.fotosearch.com (Accessed: 16th March 2009)