16 x 27 on page 56 x 43 (centimeters, height x width)
Notes:
The collection includes a number of maps reflecting the profound American sense of power and confidence following the Spanish-American War. Many of these maps focus on the nation’s growing global reach and influence. (See Subjects > Spanish-American War.) In this cartoon map, a self-satisfied Uncle Sam sprawls across the Southern U.S., with his toe in the Philippines and his hand on Cuba. He smokes a large cigar, billowing a cloud of “Prosperity” smoke.
Perhaps most significantly, tiny figures representing France, Russia, Germany and Britain look on. Below them is the caption: “How the Old World Regards Uncle Sam Nowadays. A Modern Colossus Who Prevents Europe From Developing in the East and to the South.”
The Utica Saturday Globe, founded in 1881, was the first illustrated newspaper in the United States. It began publishing halftone etchings in 1892, and four years later installed the world’s first rotary press for halftones. In the late 1890s, it was producing 33 editions for separate areas of the country, from Maine to California, with circulation in some years exceeding 200,000 copies. http://uticahistory.blogspot.com/2007/08/saturday-globe_20.html, accessed October 14, 2017.
For a very similar map questioning American expansionism on the eve of the Fourth of July, 1904, see “Gee but this is an awful stretch,” ID #2141.
