‘Very Poor Material’

We’re all familiar with the format of political cartoons: caricatures of political figures drawn in a way to criticize or satirize their policies and decisions.

As the Science History Institute’s assistant museum collections manager, I’ve undertaken a complete inventory of the museum’s collections. While working on our fine art collection, I noticed that we have a number of political cartoons featuring chemical or alchemical imagery. Why, I wondered, is this such an oft-used motif?

Perhaps it’s because alchemy offers an easy way to show how certain political ideas can be “distilled” to create a broader (often criticized) political belief or stance. It is imagery that is familiar to the average reader, but still mysterious enough for artists to take liberties with. The mysteriousness of alchemical processes may also lend themselves to the mysteriousness of political wheeling and dealing.

For those versed in late 19th-century United States history, the cartoon includes many familiar phrases as the names of the various concoctions Curtis is using to create the Civil Service Reform Party, such as “Tincture of Tammany” and “Spirit of Greenbackism.”

Another example of a cartoon using alchemical imagery is “The Unsuccessful Alchemists—Trying to Make Political Gold for Blaine Out of Anti-Cleveland Dross” from the November 2, 1887, issue of the humor magazine Puck.

Puck is well known for its editorial cartoons that satirized politics and social trends. This comic is criticizing James G. Blaine, the political opponent of Grover Cleveland in the 1884 presidential election. Here, we see three “alchemists”—caricatures of the editors of pro-Blaine newspapers—attempting to “make gold” for Blaine’s political campaign using anti-Cleveland “ingredients,” instead of pro-Blaine qualities. They are failing spectacularly by instead creating “popularity for Cleveland.”

Fun fact: Hot Drops was the name of a “pain reliever” that was mostly alcohol with chloroform in it. Can’t feel any pain when you’re unconscious!

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, these “medicines” bear the names of various Union generals from the Civil War and are meant to “cure the illness of secession,” making this a definitively pro-Lincoln illustration. The 16th U.S. president is seen refining and purifying the southern states and “slavery” into a “national elixir of liberty,” a statement perhaps hinting at the hope of a United States where all people are free.

“The Dissolution, – or – The Alchymist Producing an Aetherial Representation” is by James Gillray (1756-1815), who is often credited as “the father of the political cartoon” (as opposed to Thomas Nast, who is considered the “father of the American cartoon”). In it, Pitt distills the British Parliament to produce a single leader—himself—seated atop a throne.

I am extremely unfamiliar with British history, but a little research helped me understand that Gillray’s cartoon is a commentary on Pitt’s ability, as the British prime minister, to dissolve the British Parliament. It had already been dissolved in 1784, when King George III dismissed a coalition government that was unfriendly to him, and installed Pitt—then only 24 years old—as the youngest PM in British history. The cartoon’s publication date, May 21, 1796, places it just before the British general election. Ultimately, the results shored up Pitt’s control of the Parliament, but perhaps Gillray is implying that Pitt would rather dissolve it than lose?

If these political cartoons have intrigued you, you can search our digital collections and our museum collections database for other examples! 

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