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Puck (magazine)

American humor magazine (1876–1918) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Puck (magazine)
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This article is about the American humor magazine. For the literary magazine, see Puck (literary magazine). For the digital media company, see Puck (media company).
Not to be confused with Punch (magazine).

Puck was the first successful humor magazine in the United States of colorful cartoons, caricatures and political satire of the issues of the day. It was founded in 1876 as a German-language publication by Joseph Keppler, an Austrian immigrant cartoonist[1] and Adolph Schwarzmann,[2] a German businessman, co-founder and financial backer.[3] Puck's first English-language edition was published in 1877, covering issues like New York City's Tammany Hall, presidential politics, and social issues of the late 19th century to the early 20th century.

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The Puck Building in Manhattan, New York City

"Puckish" means "childishly mischievous". This led Shakespeare's Puck character (from A Midsummer Night's Dream) to be recast as a charming near-naked boy and used as the title of the magazine. Puck was the first magazine to carry illustrated advertising and the first to successfully adopt full-color lithography printing for a weekly publication.[4]

Puck was published from 1876 until 1918.[1][5]

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Publication history

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After working with Leslie's Illustrated Weekly in New York – a well-established magazine at the time – Keppler and partner Adolph Schwarzmann (who also work at the same publication), created a satirical magazine called Puck. The weekly magazine was founded by Keppler in St. Louis, Missouri. Keppler and Schwarzmann had begun publishing German-language periodicals in 1869, though failed in 1871,[6] he attempted another cartoon weekly with the same name, Puck. Which lasted until August 1872.[7] Then in 1876, he again began publishing in the same name, and in German. Interested backers wanted Puck in English so he published it in both languages for 15 years until he ceased the German version.[5]

In 1877, after gaining wide support for an English version of Puck, Keppler Joseph Keppler and his business partner Adolph Schwarzmann published its first issue in English. The first English edition was 16 pages long and was sold for 16 cents.[5]

Sometime before 1887, Puck moved its editorial offices from St. Louis to New York City.

In May 1893, Puck Press published A Selection of Cartoons from Puck by Joseph Keppler (1877–1892) featuring 56 cartoons chosen by Keppler as his best work. Also during 1893, Keppler temporarily moved to Chicago and published a smaller-format, 12-page version of Puck from the Chicago World's Fair grounds. Shortly thereafter, Joseph Keppler died, and Henry Cuyler Bunner, editor of Puck since 1877 continued the magazine until his own death in 1896. Harry Leon Wilson replaced Bunner and remained editor until he resigned in 1902.[8] Joseph Keppler Jr. then became the editor.

The English-language magazine continued in operation for more than 40 years under several owners and editors, until it was bought by the William Randolph Hearst company in 1916 (ironically, one 1906 cartoon mocked Hearst's bid for Congress with his newspapers' cartoon characters). The Hearst conglomerate discontinued the political material and switched to fine art and social fads. Within 2 years, subscriptions fell off and Hearst stopped publication; the final edition was distributed on September 5, 1918.

London edition

A London edition of Puck was published between January 1889 and June 1890.[citation needed] Among contributors was the English cartoonist and political satirist Tom Merry.[9]

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Content

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The magazine consisted of 16 pages measuring 10 inches by 13.5 inches with front and back covers in color and a color double-page centerfold. The cover always quoted Puck saying, "What fools these mortals be!" The jaunty symbol of Puck is conceived as a putto in a top hat who admires himself in a hand-mirror. He appears not only on the magazine covers but over the entrance to the Puck Building in New York's Nolita neighborhood, where the magazine was published, as well.

Puck gained notoriety for its witty, humorous cartoons and was the first to publish weekly cartoons using chromolithography in place of wood engraving, offering three cartoons instead of one.[1] In its early years of publication, Puck's cartoons were largely printed in black and white, though later editions featured colorful, eye-catching lithographic prints in vivid color. A typical 32-page issue contained a full-color political cartoon on the front cover and a color non-political cartoon or comic strip on the back cover. There was always a double-page color centerfold, usually on a political topic. There were numerous black-and-white cartoons used to illustrate humorous anecdotes. A page of editorials commented on the issues of the day, and the last few pages were devoted to advertisements.

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The Raven
An 1890 Puck cartoon depicts President Benjamin Harrison at his desk wearing his grandfather's hat which is too big for his head, suggesting that he is not fit for the presidency. Atop a bust of William Henry Harrison, a raven with the head of Secretary of State James G. Blaine gawks down at the President, a reference to the famous Edgar Allan Poe poem "The Raven". Blaine and Harrison were at odds over the recently proposed McKinley Tariff.

Anti-Catholicism

Further information: Anti-Catholicism and Anti-Irish sentiment

The magazine was founded by German immigrants who were sympathetic to Otto von Bismarck who launched a major Kulturkampf against the Catholic Church in Germany. Puck especially targeted Irish Catholics in New York City, where they controlled Tammany Hall.[10] According to historian Samuel Thomas, himself a Catholic:[11]

[I]n an age of partisan politics and partisan journalism, Puck became the nation's premier journal of graphic humor and political satire, played an important role as a non-partisan crusader for good government and the triumph of American constitutional ideals. Its prime targets, however, were not just corrupt machine politicians. The magazine included as well ...[the] political agenda of the Catholic Church, especially its new Pope, Leo XIII....Tammany Hall... was all the more dangerous to Puck because, beginning in the 1870s, Irish Catholics dominated it.... In cartoons and editorials spanning two decades, the magazine blasted and often conjoined both Tammany and the papacy with invidious comparisons that left few readers in doubt as to their sympathies.[12]

Anti-Mormonism

Further information: Anti-Mormonism, Polygamy, and LDS Church

Puck engaged in a sustained and aggressive campaign against the practice of plural marriage (polygamy) by the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints (LDS Church) in the Utah Territory. Referred to in the press as the "Mormon Question," the magazine treated polygamy as one of the fundamental social and political issues facing the United States.

  • Theocratic Threat: LDS leaders were frequently portrayed as defying federal authority, presenting the Utah Territory as a non-republican state within the union. A prominent 1880 cartoon, "Utah Defiant," satirized the perceived willingness of Mormons to resist congressional efforts to outlaw the practice.[13]
    • The Mormon Commander Mustering His Forces (1880 by Joseph Keppler) is one of the most notable Puck cartoons centerpiece, depicted the Mormon resistance by portrayed the community as a militaristic and separatist.[14]
  • Reed Smoot controversy (1904-1907): When a LDS member, Apostle Reed Smoot was elected to the U.S. Senate, Puck revived its focus on Mormonism Cartoons lampooned Smoot's ties to the LDS hierarchy and questioned Mormon loyalty over the United States institutions. Scholars note that depictions both reflected and intensified national anxieties about Mormon political influence.[15]
  • The "Mormon Octopus": Perhaps the most sensational imagery was employed in the 1884 cartoon A Desperate Attempt to solve the Mormon Question[16][17], which depicted Mormonism as a monstrous octopus with tentacles reaching out to seize and corrupt American institutions, including justice and education.[18] This graphic portrayal reinforced the popular narrative that the LDS Church posed a systemic danger to the United State.
  • Wives and Husbands: Mormon husbands were often caricatured as oppressive, Orientalized "Pashes" tyrants, while their wives were depicted as numerous, downtrodden, and enslaved victims of the system, underscoring the perceived need for federal intervention to protect womanhood in the United States.

The magazine's anti-Mormon cartoons often coincided with congressional actions, lending visual support to legislation like the Edmunds Act of 1882, which increased penalties for polygamy. The intensity of Puck's focus on the issued mostly subsided after the LDS Church issued the 1890 Manifesto, officially discontinued the practice of plural marriage.

The Gilded Age

Further information: Gilded Age, Monopoly, and United States antitrust law

By the late 1800s in aera of the progressive movement the magazine was fierce critic of the immense wealth and power accumulated by industrial time (often called Robber Barons) like J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould and William H. Vanderbilt.[19]

Famous cartoons like The Bosses of the Senate (1889 by Joseph Keppler) depicted massive, corpulent monopolists towering over and dictating to the trusts and monopolies. This cartoon is often cited as contributing to the development of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Social commentary

It skewered issues of its times, including conspicuous consumptions and widening wealth gap that defied the Gilded Age.[19]

Cartoons like Protectors of our Industries (1883 by Bernhard Gillam) vividly illustrated the parasitic relationship between wealthy businessmen (sitting a top of the raft and the struggling workers holding them up.)

The Progressive Era and Reform Satire

As the Progressive Era emerged in the late 1880s Puck maintained its prominence as a voice for political satire, shifting its focus from Gilded Age spoils to new demands for social and regulatory reform. The magazine's satire often maintained a Democratic Party bias, but also targeted corruption and inefficiency across the political spectrum. Puck generally supported progressive goals in that era, like Civil Service Reform, supporting efforts to professionalize government and curb machine politics while also supporting direct democracy by backing initiatives like the direct election for senators and having primary elections.

Commentary on Woman Suffrage

Puck's coverage of the woman suffrage movement was overwhelmingly antagonistic, making the magazine a powerful visual proponent of the anti-suffrage perspective throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The magazine's cartoons often employed negative stereotypes and fear-based commentary, depicting suffragists as:

The magazine's cartoons often employed negative stereotypes and fear-based commentary depicting suffragists as:

  • Neglectful of Home: Cartoons often showed suffragists abandoning their domestic duties, with husbands and children suffering from their political involvement.[20][21]
  • "Unsexed" or Masculine: The Suffragist leaders were frequently drawn in an unflattering femininity and subverted the natural order
  • Harbingers of Social Chaos: Cartoons implied that giving woman the right to vote would lead to the breakdown of the family unit and societal disorder. The Why Not Go the Limit?[22] (1908 by Harry Grant Dart) imagined a chaotic barroom filled with smoking, Gambling, and drinking women, implying that voting rights would lead to the degradation of female morality.

Due to the suffrage movement's close ties to the Temperance movement (Prohibition), a cause Puck generally opposed, the magazine often linked and satirized both simultaneously. While the magazine's tone became less aggressive as the movement gained momentum in the 1910s, with a notable exception occurred during the 1915 campaign for a New York suffrage referendum. Puck published a special pro-suffrage issue with a guest-edited by a suffrage organizations that featured the iconic centerfold named The Awakening (1915 by Hy Mayer), that depicted a torch-bearing Lady Liberty striding across the western states (where women already had the vote) to liberate the women in the darkened eastern states[23], the magazine rarely offered supportive coverage; Puck ceased publication in 1918, two years before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.[24]

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Contributors

Over the years, Puck employed many early cartoonists of note, including, Louis Dalrymple, Bernhard Gillam, Friedrich Graetz, Livingston Hopkins, Frederick Burr Opper, Louis Glackens, Albert Levering, Frank Nankivell, J. S. Pughe, Rose O'Neill, Charles Taylor, James Albert Wales, and Eugene Zimmerman.

Puck Building

Main article: Puck Building

Puck was housed from 1887 in the landmark Chicago-style, Romanesque Revival Puck Building at Lafayette and Houston streets, New York City. The steel-frame building was designed by architects Albert and Herman Wagner in 1885, as the world's largest lithographic presswork under a single roof, with its own electricity-generating dynamo. It takes up a full block on Houston Street, bounded by Lafayette and Mulberry streets.

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Legacy

Years after its conclusion, the "Puck" name and slogan were revived as part of the Comic Weekly Sunday comic section that ran on Hearst's newspaper chain beginning in September 1931 and continuing until the 1970s. It was then revived again by Hearst's Los Angeles Herald Examiner, which folded in 1989.

Archives

A collection of Puck cartoons dating from 1879 to 1903 is maintained by the Special Collections Research Center within the Gelman Library of The George Washington University.[25] The Library of Congress also has an extensive collection of Puck Magazine prints online. The Florida Atlantic University Libraries Special Collections Department also maintains a collection of both English and German edition Puck cartoons dating from 1878 to 1916.[26][27]

The complete collection of Puck magazine's issues, digitized in black and white, can be accessed through the Internet Archives.[28]

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Gallery of Puck cartoons

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See also

Notes

References

External links

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