A Suggestion to the Franco-American Society. Instead of “Liberty Enlightening the World” - This Brazen Statue for the Marines of the Universe.
- Title:
- A Suggestion to the Franco-American Society. Instead of “Liberty Enlightening the World” - This Brazen Statue for the Marines of the Universe.
- Alternate Title:
- A Suggestion to the Franco-American Society
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Weldon, Charles Dater
- Date:
- 1875
- Date 2:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2309.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2309_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1870 - 1899
- Subject:
- Satirical
Advertising & Promotion
Pictorial
Politics & Government
New York City - Measurement:
- 39 x 31 on page 52 x 36 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- In September 1875, the French statesman Édouard René de Laboulaye announced plans for a monument to celebrate the 100th anniversary of American independence. The “colossal statue of Liberty represented as enlightening the world” was being created by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi for erection in New York Harbor. Laboulaye also announced the formation in Paris of a Franco-American Union to assist in raising the necessary funds. New York Times, September 29, 1875, p.1.
Some six weeks later - at a time when it was far from certain that the necessary financing could be secured, or even that the statue would be completed - this illustration appeared on the cover of the New York Graphic. It shows Jay Gould, one of richest, best known and most ruthless robber barons of the gilded age, as the “colossus” astride the harbor, holding aloft a latern of “enlightenment.” The verso (page 102 of the Graphic) offers an explanation: “The casual and careless reader may see in our first page cartoon only a joke. But is it a joke? Why not substitute a colossal Jay Gould for the bronze shaft suggested by our good French friends? Who are our real rulers? We elect governors, legislators, judges; but Gould, Dan. Drew, Vanderbilt, control law-makers and courts. Why not acknowledge the conquest, and set up our dictators in imperishable brass?”
The lantern in the illustration is labeled “The Tribune,” the name of the powerful New York newspaper founded by Horace Greeley in 1941. After Greeley’s death in 1872, his assistant Whitelaw Reid bought control of the paper with some form of financial assistance - never fully explained - from Jay Gould. Gould thereafter apparently “made no attempt to influence editorial policy, but criticism of his activities vanished from the paper’s columns. That fact, coupled with his unsavory reputation, was evidence enough for rival editors that Gould’s sinister shadow darkened the Tribune’s newsroom.” Klein 1986, 135. The New York Times was particularly aggressive in attacking his role at the paper, ibid., which may explain the crumpled paper in Gould’s hand labeled “Financial Column - Times & Tribune.” But it appears the Graphic was eager to join in the editorial criticism.
The New York Daily Graphic (1873-1889) was the first newspaper in America to feature daily illustrations, using a then-unique, relatively simple photo lithography process.
The collection includes a number of persuasive maps featuring the Statue of Liberty: ID #2309 (1875), #1091 (1885), #2125 (1885), #1109 (1890), #1176 (1915).
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:
- The Daily Graphic, New York, November 13, 1875.
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.