INTERNET RESOURCES
Editorial cartoons on the Web: Picturing politics
C&RL News, October 2008
Vol. 69, No. 9
by Paul Cammarata
Editorial or political cartoons are artistic creations depicting political and social commentary of the time. The study of editorial cartoons involves many academic disciplines including journalism and mass communications, political science, history and art. Political campaigns and presidential elections, including the current campaign, have always provided rich material for editorial cartoonists. Editorial cartoons have expanded beyond the printed page of newspapers and are now a visible presence on the Internet. The following is a selective list of Internet resources for students, scholars and the general public.
Starting points
• CartoonHub: A National Hub for British Cartoons and Caricature. CartoonHub’s Web site states, “The RSLP CartoonHub Project is creating a national hub for research into British cartoons and caricature.” The CartoonHub is based in the British Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent-Canterbury. Its partners are the British Library of Political and Economic Science, the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, and the National Library of Wales. The Web site touts that it is the “world’s largest electronic archive of cartoons with a catalogued database of over 90,000 images.” The site contains a separate links page that is an annotated listing of cartoon archives and collections, professional organizations, and numerous Web resources. Access: http://library.kent.ac.uk/cartoons/collections/cartoonhub.php.
• The Daily Cartoonist. The Daily Cartoonist, a news blog for professional cartoonists, was launched in 2005. “While it has primarily focused on newspaper cartooning (comic strips and editorial cartooning), its coverage has grown to include webcomics, movies and animation, and magazine gag cartoonists.” One of the key features on this site is a lengthy list of editorial cartoon bloggers on the right side of the home page. Access: http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php.
• Daryl Cagle’s Professional Cartoonist’s Index. Daryl Cagle, the MSNBC’s editorial cartoonist, is the host of this Web site, which is updated daily and contains an extensive selection of national and international editorial cartoons. This site contains a blog by Cagle, special interests sections (such as Campaign 2008 and Iraq), Teacher Guide, and Search for a Cartoon. There are links to the Year in Review, which start with the Best Editorial Cartoons of 2001. The Teacher Guide has lesson plans from elementary school through high school. This site organizes America’s top columnists and political cartoonists by topic, but contains a database searchable by date, keyword, topic, or artist. Access: http://cagle.msnbc.com/.
• Editorial Cartoons (comics.com). Comics.com is a source of various comics on the Web. The Editorial tab takes you to a page of recent cartoons and links to more than 45 political cartoonists, such as Daryl Cagle, Mike Luckovich, and Signe Wilkinson. Access: http://www.comics.com/editoons/.
Professional organizations
• The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC). This professional association concerns itself with “promoting the interests of staff, freelance and student editorial cartoonists in the United States.” The site uses a tab approach to information with sections titled: Welcome, Cartoons, Cartoonists, News and History, AAEC, and Members. Key features include searching the current year’s editorial cartoons and being able to search the past ten years. The site enables you to search for an individual member cartoonist or to search by keyword for cartoons on a particular subject. When searching for an individual cartoonist, you are directed to a biographical profile of the cartoonist that has links to contact information, recent cartoons, and a direct Web site link, if available. The News and History tab has a link to Cartoon History Corner featuring obituary information of cartoonists. Access: http://editorialcartoonists.com/.
• The Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain. “The Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain has evolved since 1960 into one of the largest cartoonists’ organizations in the world, with a membership of over 200 full and part time Cartoonists in the United Kingdom (and further afield).” This professional organization site lists Meetings and Events, Cartooning News, Articles, and Reviews. There is a member’s portfolio section that is subdivided by topic with sections entitled: Political, Social, Editorial Comment, Editorial Illustration, Cartoonist’s blog, and Galleries. The site also features a Public Question and Answer Forum, Live Chat Room and Useful Links. Access: http://www.ccgb.org.uk/lobby/index.php?/pages/welcome.html.
• National Cartoonists Society (NCS). The National Cartoonists Society is the world’s largest and most prestigious organization of professional cartoonists. Established in 1946, NCS membership boasts 500 of the world’s major cartoonists, including newspaper comic strips and panels, comic books, editorial cartoons, animation, advertising, magazine and more. The site has News, History, and Awards as well as a Members directory with sample cartoons and blog for each artist. The site has a Chapter listing and Other Useful Web Sites, which includes Daryl Cagle’s Professional Cartoonists Index, the Society of Illustrators, the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and more. Access: http://www.reuben.org/ncs/news.asp.
• Political Cartoon Society. This society states, “Our aim is to promote the ‘political’ cartoon by way of amusing, informing and educating. Cartooning in Britain has an unrivalled heritage going back over many hundreds of years.” The site does not have many cartoons for viewing; however, it does have links to Exhibitions and Events, Cartoon History, and Cartoon Gallery. Cartoons can be found under Exhibitions, while Cartoon History links to essays of historical significance such as “Steve Bell in America.” Access: http://www.politicalcartoon.co.uk/index.html.
Libraries and special collections
• Caroline and Erwin Swann Collection of Caricature and Cartoon. This collection was created by Erwin Swann, a New York advertising executive who started collecting original cartoon drawings of artistic and humorous interest. He created the Swann Foundation in 1968 to promote preservation, exhibition, scholarship, and publication of caricature and cartoon. The collection is housed in the Library of Congress (LOC) and contains “…2,085 drawings, prints, and paintings related to the art of caricature, cartoon, and illustration which spans the years 1780 to 1977.” The Web site links to the online catalog (www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html) record for each image which is available in the LOC Prints and Photographs Division. There is an online bibliography of related collections at the LOC and related collections and sources outside of the LOC with contact information. Access: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/230_swan.html#Bibliography.
• Cartoon Research Library. The Cartoon Research Library is part of the Ohio State University Libraries. Its “primary mission is to develop a primary research collection documenting American printed cartoon art, to organize the materials, and to provide access to these resources.” The collection includes editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons. There is an Online Resources Guide that allows you to view Digital Albums, Digital Exhibits, Finding Aids, and Other links. Drawn on Stone is of special interest with guides to exhibits, checklists, and a bibliography. This section “…explores American political cartooning during the tumultuous Jacksonian era. It features thirty rare satirical lithographs recently acquired by the Cartoon Research Library….and illustrates the surge in the creation and distribution of political cartoon broadsides made possible by the relative ease and speed of the new print-making process of lithography.” Access: http://cartoons.osu.edu/index.php.
• Dr. Seuss Went to War: A Catalog of Political Cartoons. The Dr. Seuss Collection in the Mandeville Special Collections Library at the University of California-San Diego, contains the original drawings and newspaper clippings of the more than 400 editorial cartoons that Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) drew from 1941-1943, when he was the chief editorial cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM (1940-1948). The collection is searchable by date, subject, countries, regions, War, Domestic Issues, and Battles and Battlefields. This unique collection adds to the knowledge of political cartoons by some famous, but lesser known, political cartoonists. Access: http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/Frame.htm.
• Political Cartoons of the Lilly Library. This online exhibition highlights selections from a rich collection of political cartoons in the Lilly Library located at Indiana University-Bloomington. “The caricatures depict times of turbulence in American history and range in date from the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812 and to the presidential elections of 1860 and 1864 which brought Abraham Lincoln to the White House. To facilitate browsing, the exhibition is divided by time period and includes a section on the history of caricature. As you visit the online galleries, you will sample the works of notable artists and publishers who sought to portray and comment upon the events forging America’s future.” This exhibit shows the rich history of political cartoons at the time they were produced and creates a visual historical perspective for today’s reader. Access: http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/cartoon/cartoons.html.
Online exhibits
• Cartoon America: A Library of Congress Exhibit. James Arthur Wood Jr. was an award winning political cartoonist. The Art Wood Collection of Cartoon and Caricature contains more than 36,000 original cartoon drawings with the online exhibit containing 102 drawings selected as examples of the collection, which reflect Wood’s primary collecting interests including political illustrations, comic strips, and caricature. “He collected more than 16,000 political cartoons by hundreds of the leading creators of the ‘ungentlemanly art,’ a phrase that is commonly used to describe this type of graphic satire.” The Political Illustrations tab will provide examples of editorial cartoons from greats such as Thomas Nast, Ding Darling, Rube Goldberg, and many others expressing their unique viewpoints. Access: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/cartoonamerica/cartoonamerica-home.html.
• Monstrous Craws and Character Flaws: Masterpieces of Cartoon and Caricature at the Library of Congress. This exhibit is part of the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. “Great graphic artists have created enduring images that demonstrate the power of art as a vehicle for social and political commentary. Caricatures and cartoons are among the most lasting and effective of these images.” This exhibit is a collection of editorial cartoonists through the centuries creating a timeline of assorted viewpoints. Access: http://www.comics.com/editoons/.
• Running for Office: Candidates, Campaigns, and the Cartoons of Clifford Berryman. Berryman was a staff political cartoonist for The Washington Post and the Washington Evening Star for the first half of the 20th century. He drew thousands of cartoons commenting on the candidates, campaigns, issues, and the election process. This online exhibit features cartoons that appeared on the front page of Washington newspapers from 1898 through 1948, and gives a picture of the entire election process. The full collection of more than 2,400 pen and ink drawings are now housed with the historical records of Congress in the Center for Legislative Archives at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Access: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/running-for-office/.
Digital collections
• AAEC Editorial Cartoon Digital Collection. The Editorial Cartoon Digital Collection is part of the digital collections of University of Southern Mississippi Libraries. “It contains examples of the work of member artists of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC). With more than 1,000 cartoons representing more than 50 cartoonists, the digital collection is still growing. Created primarily in the 1960s and 1970s, the cartoons reflect changes in American social and political attitudes and provide artistic commentary on such topics as the Civil Rights Movement, Watergate, the Vietnam War, government bureaucracy, taxes, and political corruption.” You may browse the collection of cartoons or search by keyword, cartoonist, publisher, or time period. An advance search feature is also available allowing the user to search Across All Fields, Selected Fields, By Proximity, or By Date. Access: http://cdm.lib.usm.edu/cdm_usm/cartoon.php.
• The Editorial Cartoons of Jay N. “Ding” Darling. This collection is housed in the University of Iowa’s Digital Library and contains 11,000 cartoons by Pulitzer Prize winner J. N. “Ding” Darling. Darling was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for syndicated editorial cartoons which he drew “…almost daily between 1900 and 1949, in 1934-1935 he headed what is now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, created the Federal Duck Stamp Program which has since restored thousands of acres of wet lands, and in 1936 founded the National Wildlife Federation.” The cartoons can be searched by Topic, People, Events, and Depictions. One of the unique features to this site is the Audio Recordings. This site allows you the opportunity to hear Darlings voice as he comments on the making of four cartoons. Access: http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/ding/.
Museums
• Cartoon Art Museum. The Cartoon Art Museum is located in San Francisco, and is committed to fostering and promoting a greater appreciation of cartoon art. The Web site has a list of cartoon links, which act as an online directory to Museums and Galleries, Virtual Exhibits, Publishers, and Organizations. Access: http://www.
cartoonart.org/links.html.
• National Cartoon Museum (formerly International Museum of Cartoon Art). In July 2008, the International Museum of Cartoon Art (a.k.a. the National Cartoon Museum) merged with Ohio State University to create the largest collection of original cartoon art in the world. The collection consists of approximately 300,000 drawings, thousands of books, comic books, films, and memorabilia. Access: http://www.cartoon.org/exhibits/.
Paul Cammarata is assistant collection development librarian at the University of South Carolina, e-mail: paulc@mailbox.sc.edu
© 2008 Paul Cammarata