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1880 Puck Political Cartoon Criticizing the Mormon Practice of Polygamy
UtahDefiant-puck-1880$200.00
Title
Utah Defiant - The Mormon Commander Mustering His Forces.
1880 (undated) 13 x 19 in (33.02 x 48.26 cm)
1880 (undated) 13 x 19 in (33.02 x 48.26 cm)
Description
This is an 1889 Joseph Ferdinand Keppler political cartoon lampooning Mormon resistance to federal efforts to end the Mormon practice of polygamy for Puck magazine. Taking a humorous approach to a very serious subject, Keppler illustrates various 'units' of the Mormon defense. The 'old guard', situated in the upper left corner, are wearing coal-scuttle helmets and armed with broomsticks, while the 'corps of reserve wives' 'would keep up a heavy, raking fire of pillows from their bedstead stronghold'. The 'extra reserve', behind their fortifications of pots and pans, would lob wash-tub artillery at U.S. troops. The 'young recruits', pictured in the upper-right corner, are armed with umbrellas tipped with knives, forks, and scissors, and the Infant-ry wails their support just below. The Salt Lake Navy plies the waters of the Great Salt Lake in wash-tubs complete with sails and large bottles of bitters for cannons between the 'young recruits' and the 'old guard'. All this action surrounds Mr. Elder John Taylor, 'the chief rooster of the territory' per Puck.
This cartoon was drawn by Joseph Ferdinand Keppler and published in the January 14, 1880 edition of Puck.
Anti-Mormonism in the United States
This cartoon fits squarely into a long tradition of anti-Mormonism within the United States, which dates to before the first Latter Day Saint church was established in 1830 and continues to the present day. The Utah War of the 1850s and the Republican Party considered polygamy in the Utah Territory one of the 'twin relics of barbarism' along with slavery. This cartoon emerged from a renewed interest in outlawing and prosecuting the practice of polygamy in the Utah Territory. In 1874, Congress passed the Poland Act in an effort to facilitate prosecutions under the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act of 1862, which was not strongly enforced due to President Lincoln's desire to keep the Utah Territory out of the American Civil War. The Poland Act redefined the jurisdiction of Utah courts by giving the United States district courts exclusive jurisdiction over all civil and criminal cases in the Utah Territory. It also gave the duties of the territorial marshal and attorney to a U.S. Marshal and a U.S. Attorney, and changed the rules for empaneling petit and grand juries in order to bar polygamists from serving. The obvious anti-Mormonism even extended to the explanation of the cartoon printed in Puck which states, 'we really think if the demoralizing and disgusting system of Mormonism were abolished to-morrow, the effect would be a wholesome one on the country generally.'This cartoon was drawn by Joseph Ferdinand Keppler and published in the January 14, 1880 edition of Puck.
Cartographer
Joseph Ferdinand Keppler (February 1, 1838 - February 19, 1894) was an immensely influential Austrian-born American caricaturist and cartoonist. Born in Vienna, Keppler studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and contributed work to the Vienna-based comedy magazine Kikeriki. As he was unable to support himself only with his art, Keppler joined a theatrical troupe and acted as its scene painter and then as a comedian. He earned some extra money as the troupe traveled through the Tyrol and Italy by restoring old paintings in monasteries. He married Viennese actress Minna Rubens in 1864 and he and his wife soon emigrated to the United States to join Keppler's father, who had emigrated to the United States to escape the Revolutions of 1848 and was the proprietor of a general store in northern Missouri. By 1867, Keppler and his wife had settled in St. Louis, where Keppler was working as an actor. He helped start the German-American cartoon weekly Die Vehme in 1869. Die Vehme survived for a year, and was followed by Frank und Frei, which lasted only six months. Keppler founded Puck in St. Louis in March 1871, though this iteration of the magazine only lasted until August 1872. Minna died in 1870, and Keppler married Pauline Pfau in 1871, with whom he had three children. Keppler and his wife moved to New York City in 1872, where he found work in Frank Leslie's publishing house, and Keppler began contributing cartoons to Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper in 1874. Puck was restarted by Keppler and fellow Frank Leslie employee Adolph Schwarzmann in September 1876 for the German-American population in New York, and began printing an English-language edition the following year. Keppler's cartoons, particularly those criticizing President Ulysses S. Grant and his administration, began to generate attention and publicity for the magazine. Keppler's caustic wit and clever adaptations of classical and historical subjects became famous, as did their pioneering use of color lithography. Keppler published a special World's Fair Puck from the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago during the summer of 1893, a strain that took a terrible toll on his health, and contributed to his death the following year in New York. More by this mapmaker...
Source
Keppler, J., Puck, January 14, 1880.
Puck (1871 - 1918) was the first successful humor magazine in the United States and featured colorful cartoons, caricatures, and political satire. Founded by Joseph Keppler in St. Louis, Puck began publishing both an English and a German language edition in March 1871. The German edition moved to New York City five years later and published its first issue there on September 27, 1876, and the English edition soon followed and began publishing from New York on March 14, 1877. 'Puckish' means 'childishly mischievous'm which led to Shakespeare's Puck (from A Midsummer Night's Dream) to be recreated as the mascot of the magazine and for his name to become its title. Each issue featured a full-color political cartoon on the front cover, a full-color non-political cartoon on the back cover, and a two-page centerfold that usually addressed a political topic as well. In 1893, Keppler moved the magazine to Chicago and published smaller editions of Puck from the Chicago World's Fair. Keppler died in 1893, and Henry Cutler Bunner, who had been editor since 1877, took over. Bunner operated the magazine until he passed away in 1896, which left Harry Leon Wilson in charge until his resignation in 1902. The German edition was published until 1897. Joseph Keppler, Jr. then became editor. William Randolph Hearst bought the magazine in 1916 and operated it for another two years until the final issue was distributed on September 5, 1918.
Condition
Very good. Wear along original centerfold. Verso repair to centerfold separation. Closed margin tears professionally repaired on verso. Text and sketch printed on verso.