Details
Creator Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist.
Contributor Robinson, Henry R., -1850, publisher.
Title The times. [graphic] / Clay fecit.
Publisher New York : Printed and published by H.R. Robinson, 52 Cortlandt Street
Publisher N.Y. New York. 1837
Date 1837
Physical Description 1 print : lithograph ; sheet 35 x 49 cm (13.5 x 19 in.)
Description Satire depicting the economic depression and social misery of the working class following the Panic of 1837. Depicts a figure symbolizing President Jackson composed of a hat, spectacles, and pipe called "Glory" overlooking a city street. Lining the street is a hotel for sale; a Custom House doing no business; "The Mechanics Bank" during a run; the pawn shop of "Shylock Graspall"; a liquor store in front of which an African American shoe shiner greets another African American man; the Sheriff's office doing an active business; and attorney "Peter Pillage" being collected by his horse drawn carriage. In the foreground peaches and flour are for sale at exorbitant prices; several white men laborers sit and stand idle including a mason, sailor, carpenter, and driver; a widowed white mother and child beg a banker for money; and reminiscent of Hogarth's "Gin Lane," a white woman and a child lay on a straw mat next to a white man drunkard and seated militiaman. Visible in the background are an almshouse, "Bridewell" Debtor Prison, an idle wharf, and a deflating balloon marked "Safety Fund" symbolizing Van Buren's failed New Bank insurance program.
Is referenced by Weitenkampf, p. 48
Weitenkampf and Nevins, A Century of political cartoons, p. 52
Reilly, 1837-8
Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan, vol. 3, p. 690-91
Murrell, Graphic humour, vol. 1, p. 140.
Notes Title from item.
Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1837, by H.R. Robinson in the clerk's office of the District Court of the United States of the Southern District of New York.
LCP exhibition catalogue: Made in America #52.
Originally part of American political caricatures, likely a scrapbook, accessioned 1899. Collection primarily comprised of gifts from Samuel Breck, John A. McAllister, and James Rush.
RVCDC
Description revised 2021.
Access points revised 2021.
Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Biographical / historical note Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, engraver, and lithographer.
Subject African American men -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Almhouses -- New York (State) -- New York.
Bankers -- New York (State) -- New York.
Banks -- New York (State) -- New York.
Business panics -- United States.
Customhouses -- New York (State) -- New York.
Depressions -- 1836-1837.
Financial crises -- United States.
Intoxication.
Pawnshops -- New York (State) -- New York.
Poor persons -- New York (State) -- New York.
Racism in popular culture.
Unemployed -- New York (State) -- New York.
African American shoe shiners.
Geographic subject United States -- Economic conditions -- 1829-1837.
Genre Lithographs -- 1830-1840.
Political cartoons -- 1830-1840.
Printer Robinson, Henry R., -1850, publisher.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Political Cartoons - 1837-8 [5760.F.75]
Accession number 5760.F.75