Wall Street Panics & Collapses: Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons #107
Using mostly cartoons shown over the course of our Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons run, plus a scattering of a few new ones, we have a brief review in pictures, of Wall Street Crashes & Panics, from mid-19th Century, up through Great Depression I. The upcoming election pits one candidate who is a millionaire [...]
The Wretched Poor…
…or, as Mitt Romney referred to them in his speech that keeps on giving, 47% of Americans. Following, is a handful of cartoons reflective of the Romney attitude towards non-wealthy American workers, retirees, and veterans, which he laid bare by the words he spoke when amongst his own (those who can spend $50,000 on lunch). [...]
What Might Have Been
To conclude our coverage (this year) of Women’s History Month, we look above at What Might Have Been, by artist Henry Barkhaus. It was published in the San Francisco humor magazine, The Wasp, on November 15th, 1884 — shortly following the 1884 Presidential Election. The cartoon’s title pokes fun at “What Might Have Happened”, had [...]
Paupers: Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 80
Above, the 1%, demonstrating against the 99%, denouncing the working class as “Paupers”. Titled Are Honest Laborers Paupers?, from front cover of the March 9th, 1889 issue of San Francisco’s humor weekly, the Wasp. Click on the above picture, to view it in full detail. To find prior episodes of this series,click on Wall Street [...]
Columbia for Sale
A special thanks to historian Richard Samuel West, who permitted me to scan the below cartoon from page 157 of his book, The San Francisco Wasp: An Illustrated History, the best book written about the West Coast’s equivalent to Puck magazine. To obtain a copy of Rich’s book, click here. Titled Sold to the Highest Bidder, with art by George Frederick Keller, this cartoon [...]
Effect of Hard Times on the Rich and on the Poor, 1877: Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 46
A special thanks today to historian Richard Samuel West, who permitted me to scan the below cartoon from page 133 of his book, The San Francisco Wasp: An Illustrated History, the best book written about the West Coast’s equivalent to Puck magazine. To obtain a copy of Rich’s book, click here. Titled Effect of the Present Hard Times on the Rich and [...]
Skipping Town When Most Needed: Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 23
From the Financial Crisis of 1893, this cartoon originally appeared (in color) in the June 17, 2025 issue of Wasp (a San Francisco publication similar in nature to the New York City-based Puck). Issues of Wasp are far scarcer to come by than Puck, and so I have to settle with showing the cartoon as it was afterward reprinted, in [...]
When Women Get the Vote
Florence Claxton’s 1870s comic book Adventures of a Woman in Search of Her Rights, which we presented the past four Mondays, was by far the exception to the kinds of cartoons on the subject, drawn, edited and published mostly by men, which were the norm. (Even Leslie Publications, run eventually by Frank Leslie’s widow, knew where its readership stood, [...]
