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The Journalist Barnum with His Great Blowing Elephant

Creator:
The Funniest of Awl, and the Phunnyest Sort of Phun
Location:
unknown place made
Origin Date:
1860-1865
Materials:
paper
Measurements:
overall: 16 1/2 in x 23 in
Item ID:
71.2009.081.0129
Holding Institution:
Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Indiana State Museum
Available for Viewing:
No
Category:
Fine Art

Description

This political cartoon spans two pages and was published in The Funniest of Awl, and the Phunnyest Sort of Phun. The cartoon depicts a circus interior: a large elephant with pointed ears and a forked tail has tusks with hands that extend out his mouth, playing his trunk like a horn. P.T. Barnum hoists a man onto the elephant's back while Ulysses S. Grant falls off his back. Abraham Lincoln has fallen and lays on the ground, looking back angrily at the elephant saying, "Come this is no joke." The following text is printed below: "The Journalistic Barnum with his Great Blowing Elephant - "Satanic" Performing his Bombastic Feats of Political Strategy for Ministerial Honors in Paris." Part of The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Indiana State Museum