The Rhodes Colossus - Striding from Cape Town to Cairo
- Title:
- The Rhodes Colossus - Striding from Cape Town to Cairo
- Alternate Title:
- The Rhodes Colossus
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Sambourne, Edward Linley
- Date:
- 1892
- Posted Date:
- 2017-04-14
- ID Number:
- 1110.01
- Collection Number:
- 8548
- File Name:
- PJM_1110_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1870 - 1899
- Subject:
- Satirical
Pictorial
Unusual Projection
Money & Finance
Imperialism
Railroads - Measurement:
- 24 x 18 (image) (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This satirical image of an immense Cecil Rhodes, arms outstretched, astride the entire continent of Africa is "one of the most familiar of all 19th Century political cartoons . . . the 'archetypal image of British imperial power.'" Scully 2012, 120. By 1892, Rhodes' commercial and business interests in South Africa had merged with his "message of imperial patriotism" as the Premier of the Cape Colony. Ibid. 125. On November 29, 1892, while on a visit to London, Rhodes made a speech in which he dramatically announced that he intended to extend the Colony's telegraphic connections across the entire continent - not only to Lake Tanganyika and Uganda, but through the fundamentalist Islamic Sudan and all the way to British Cairo. The speech was reported in the Times, and promptly became of interest to the editors of Punch. The magazine had often used references to the ancient Greek Colossus of Rhodes, and the pun here had "sheer familiarity and obviousness." Ibid. 128.
Sambourne's cartoon was accompanied by a clever satirical poem from Edwin J. Milliken (verso, ID #1110.02) that savaged Rhodes as "Director and Salesman in one," "Brobdingnagian Bagman," and "A diplomat full of finesse and sharp schemes, With a touch of the pious Crusader."
Interestingly, the Rhodes Colossus "was copied and imitated by numerous other cartoonists," including Uncle Sam as an 1898 "Colossus of the Pacific" - with one foot on the Philippines, another on San Francisco, and his tailcoat on Hawaii - in the Chicago Tribune. Ibid. 136.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Source:
- Punch, or the London Charivari, December 10, 1892, pp. 266-267.
- Cite As:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography, #8548. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Archival Collection:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.