Political cartoons of the Twenties and Thirties

This exhibit on the political cartoons of the late teens, twenties, and thirties was amazing. Cassel seemed to be on the money practically every time he did a political cartoon. He was pro democrat, pro Roosevelt, anti racist, anti Nazi and anti war; he really got nearly everything right in my opinion. His cartoons were a bit dark and shocking but they were usually on the money. There were a lot of cartoons about World War I, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and World War II.
It started with World War I drawings where he didn’t seem to feel that this war would end all wars. He talked about alcohol in the 1920s being prohibited, which just made the desire for alcohol more excessive. He had some cartoons about the Great Depression talking for instance about different types of itinerant homeless people. In his opinion, the worst of them were bums and the best of them were hobos. There was a display of code signs that hobos used in the 1930s, most of which I didn’t guess correctly. There were also a lot of political cartoons about the Hoover versus Roosevelt election.
He also had many political cartoons about World War II. For instance, there was a picture of Hitler as a school bully. And one about Germany being the greatest enemy with Italy and Japan as the two lesser of the three evils but still a threat. There were some that use Nazis as a recognizable threat to link up with something else. I will give one example. The DAR refused to have Marian Anderson, a black operatic contralto, sing at their hall because of her race. Cassel therefore compared the DAR to the Nazis. Eleanor Roosevelt, who was up till then a DAR member, resigned and allowed Marian Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial, which was an even higher honor.
There was also a room decorated to look like a 1930s living room, complete with thirties radio, phone and record player. There was also a place where we could re-dress Uncle Sam in many ways to give America many images. For example, the farmers’ outfit and the gentlemen’s hat made him look like a gentleman farmer, and the white hat and suit made him look like a 20s tennis player but the green WWI soldiers’ costume combined with the Santa Claus hat made him look like the Grinch.
Finally, they had a teatime based on popular foods in the 1930s. They had Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, which were invented in 1932, and tea sandwiches, which were a popular snack in the 1930s. They had gingerbread, a popular desert in the 1930s, and mini hot dogs, also a popular snack in the thirties. They had a good sampling of period foods, but made a conscious decision to leave out Spam.