Episode 6: C.J. Taylor’s 1881-82 William Vanderbilt Comic Strips: Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 55
The March 17, 2026 front page of New York City’s Daily Graphic newspaper, featured artist Charles Jay Taylor’s sixth sequential comic strip with railroad baron and stock market manipulator William H. Vanderbilt. In this outing, Vanderbilt, shown wearing a sunflower and gone Aesthetic (per the Aesthetic Art Movement of the day) is holding a reception in his home, to show off his art collection to his Wall Street monopolist friends. Recurring participants appearing in Aestheticism on Fifth Avenue, are Rufus Hatch, Russell Sage, and the Rockefeller brothers.
Paintings seen include “My Obelisk” (per Episode Zero), Study in Harness (Vanderbilt’s race horse, Maud S.), and “Squall on the Lake Shore” (Lake Shore was a railroad stock Vanderbilt inflated, took out his money, crashing it on the other investors). Panel three involves the Rockefeller brothers and Russell Sage commenting on Vanderbilt’s oil paintings:
Russell Sage: You don’t mean it’s real ile (oil)? J.D. Rockefeller: Yes, sir; I’m a connoozer in ile, and I say its Standard. William Rockefeller: And hung on the pipe line. |
The Rockefeller brothers and William Vanderbilt were owners of the Standard Oil Company. Click here to see an 1879 cartoon involving a Standard Oil Company environmental disaster, with the Rockefellers and Vanderbilt.
Click on picture, to open a large enough version to read.
Next week, Episode Seven! Click here to find the previous 1881-82 William Vanderbilt comic strip episodes.
And, click here to find prior Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons entries, and related I.T.C.H. posts. This series will continue, so long as the debate on financial reforms continues in Congress (except Mondays and holidays, during which I’d already had other material planned).
financial reform NYDailyGraphic
— Doug
