Book cover for “De groote Olie octopus, door Truth onderzocht” (The Great Oil Octopus by Truth Examined)‎. ‎Amsterdam, L.J. Veen. Conflicting dates: first published 1910, reprinted 1925?

Dutch Anti-trust/Anti-capitalism criticising oil companies including Esso and Rockefeller.

References: Antiqbook, http://www.antiqbook.nl/boox/vvliet/12028.shtml 
Image Source: International Institute of Social History, Collection: IISG, Call # BG C12/589. (Accessed: 23rd Oct, 2010)

 “The End of the Circus Season” by  William Allen Rogers published November 3, 1900, in Harper’s Weekly p.1050

Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan is pictured as a clown dejected by his impending defeat. He rides the exhausted Democratic Donkey through a driving rain storm, while carrying the symbols of his failed issues—free silver (bunco dollar), imperialism (tyrant), and antitrust (octopus). The scene evokes the literary analogy of Don Quixote, who tilted at imaginary windmills, and the body of water is probably meant to be the Salt River, a metaphor for political defeat.

Source of image and quote: Harp Week (Accessed 27th Aug 2010)

C.P Hunting as an Octopus (1896) by Jimmy Swinnerton was published in the San Francisco Examiner, December 14th 1896¹. The cartoon show an octopoid with trunk like limbs as a head of a bearded man, with C.P. Hunting (Collis Potter) written across its forehead. Huntington was a railway magnate and one of the “big four”².

Each of its limbs holds either a person: “farmer”, “merchant”, “orange raiser”, “manufacturer” or an object: a piece of paper saying “honest vote” and a building with “San Francisco” flag. It has a small wound on one limb with “Johnson Defeat” written next to it.

Image Source: California State Library,http://bancroft.library.ca.gov/diglib/imagedata.cfm?id=1408 Accessed: 22nd May 2009.

1. California State Library,http://bancroft.library.ca.gov/diglib/imagedata.cfm?id=1408 Accessed: 22nd May 2009 [↩]
2. Wikipedia (2009), “Collis Potter Huntington”,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collis_Potter_Huntington, Accessed: 22nd May 2009 [↩]

The cephalopod - terrestrial devil fish - a monster of centralization (?) (1873)

This is the earliest cartoon (1873) in my collection of the octopus as a metaphor for an industry. The presence of the cave, and the timing¹ would suggest an Victor Hugo influence. It also precedes the ‘burst’ of octopus cartoons in the1880s and is slightly earlier the “Serio-Comic War Map” of Europe (1877).

I think the caption reads: “The cephalopod, -or terrestrial devil fish-, a monster of centralization”. It was published on the 4th March 1873 by the New York Daily Graphic.

Between its humanoid teeth the octopus holds a piece of paper: “Congressional Honor”. The human mouth appears below a normal octopus orifice. Most of its limbs are trains, except for the lowest one which is very serpentine. The motive (Victor Hugo) of the cave makes an appearance. As does USA (Lady Liberty?). An unusually creepy image.

Other little details is the train (at least I think it is a train) is approaching in the background, following the power lines. Also, the birds are flying an orderly and serpentine line.

Image source: “Railroad Cartoons: The Image and the Locomotive”,http://sophia.smith.edu/~maldrich/introduction.html (Accessed: 21st May 2009) – Some interesting late 19th C & early 20th C railroad cartoons.

Footnotes

1. Six years after publication of “Toilers of the Sea” in English in New York

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)

The Forty T—-s (Rogers, 1888)

Another octopus antitrust cartoon from Harper’s Weekly. Proof that octopus cartoons can be more imaginative than just putting an octopus on a building or map and tattooing it with whomever you want it to represent.

“The Forty T—-s: Baba Jonathon: I don’t like your looks, Mr. Merchant, you had better move on” by W.A. Rogers. Published in Harper’s weekly, Vol 32 No 196 (March 17, 1888). Imaged altered from source:http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g12535 (i.e. cleaned up). Accessed: 4th Jan 2009.