Wow, the GPO has an interesting choice for a Christmas illustration

I'm a fan of their blog. I just wouldn't have chosen this illustration for an article about Christmas trees....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, say, can you tree? American Christmas tree traditions

by Michele Bartram, U.S. Government Online Bookstore
http://govbooktalk.gpo.gov/2013/12/17/oh-say-can-you-tree-american-christmas-tree-traditions/

As you can see, it's Uncle Sam and Columbia bringing the blessings of liberty to less-enlightened peoples in the wake of the Spanish-American War.  My guess is that it's a scan off the Library of Congress site. Yes, here it is, from 1899.

In the larger size reprinted here, you can see children in native garb representing their countries, with Puerto Rico receiving a book, Hawaii reaching out for something too, Samoa sucking on candy, and  Cuba and the Philippines getting a nice new plow. If it's not a justification of imperialism (although I think it is), it's certainly paternalism.

However, should you like to have this Keppler print for your own decorating, you can download a 140mb tif and print it out probably as big as a tree. It is a nice drawing.

Comic Strip Hate in Arlington (contains morally-offensive images)

Randy Scott of Michigan State University's Comic Art Collection posts a list of material he's catalogued each week and I usually browse it on Friday evening.

This description caught my eye recently:

Buy Aryan : Boycott Jew Stores. -- Arlington, Va. : National Socialist White People's Party, 1973. -- 1 leaf : ill. ; 28 cm. -- A white supremacy leaflet describing the program of the political party, in comic strip format on one side and text on the verso. -- Call no.: HS2330.N39B8 1973

Yes, Virginia, Arlington had a headquarters for George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi party. Thanks to MSU, we can see this comic strip abuse of Uncle Sam in favor of ridiculous anti-Semitism. Thankfully, these days - 40 years later - Rockwell would be run out of Arlington on a rail. His former headquarters is now a coffee shop. As a corrective to these images, ComicsDC recommends a visit downtown to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, where one can see the consequences of rhetoric such as this. (We do of course recognize and support the First Amendment and Rockwell's right to speech like this, even as we despise his views).