Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in rare, important and unusual American maps and prints
![[ Containment Policy ] Draper Hill, [Two versions of an untitled Vietnam War-era political cartoon featuring Lyndon Johson, Dean Rusk and Robert McNamara.] Probably Worcester, Mass., ca. 1865-68.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/BRM2941-Draper-Hill-LBJ-cartoon_2-150x150.jpg)
A rare political cartoon by Draper Hill satirizing the United States’ Cold War-era Containment Policy, which sought to limit the expansion of Soviet communism but ended up precipitating the catastrophe of the Vietnam War. Present here in both working manuscript and printed form, enabling one to see changes from conception to the final copy. The […]
![[Joseph Ferdinand] Keppler, THE SIREN SONG OF PARTISANSHIP. THE OLD STUFF DOESN’T GO ANY MORE. New York: Keppler & Schwarzmann, [June, 1, 1910].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/BRM3716-Keppler-Siren-Song-of-Partisanship-1910_lowres-scaled-e1612898258121-150x150.jpg)
A striking 1910 chromolithographic political cartoon from Puck magazine, skewering political partisanship by skillfully deploying not one but two metaphors, the “ship of state” and the “Sirens’ song”. “Illustration shows a galley labeled “Government Of, By, and For the People” sailing past rocks labeled “Bossism” where other ships have wrecked, drawn by “Party Solidarity” sung […]
![[After Benjamin Wilson], THE REPEAL OR THE FUNERAL OF MISS AME[RICAN]=STAMP [No place, no date, but London, 1766].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/BRM3754-Wilson-The-Repeal-1766_lowres-150x150.jpg)
Important and scarce political cartoon lampooning the repeal of the Stamp Act under the administration of George Grenville, Prime Minister from 1763 to 1765. “One of the most famous and popular political satires commenting on the Stamp Act”. (Dolmetsch) Background As Prime Minster, George Grenville (1712-1770) was faced with restoring Britain’s finances and reducing the […]
An unusual and mildly anti-Semitic cartographic cartoon from 1912 taking aim at the power of the Guggenheim Family and their purported corrupt dealings in Alaska. The cartoon depicts the United States in outline, towered over by eight of its industrial titans. East of the Mississippi are Morgan, Rockefeller and Carnegie, glaring across the river at […]
A striking political cartoon from the Bolognese journal La Rana, probably issued in early 1898 as tensions between Spain and the United States were coming to a head. Spain, astride a bull and holding her “little king” in her left arm, charges at America, in the guise of a beautiful young woman wearing a liberty […]
![G[eorge] Cruikshank, PREPARING JOHN BULL for GENERAL CONGRESS. London: W.N. Jones, No. 5 Newgate St., August 1st 1813.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/BRM4444-Preparing-John-Bull-General-Congress_lowres-150x150.jpg)
A fantastic political cartoon with strong War of 1812 content including the frigate USS President. The print mocks Britain’s many difficulties as it fought on many fronts against Napoleon and the United States, all the while hemorrhaging money in subsidies for its allies on the Continent. The image depicts John Bull, his wig awry, backed against a […]
![[Attributed to James Gillray (1756-1815)] / Published by W. Humphrey (1742?-before 1815), The TIMES, Anno 1783. No. 227 Strand, London, April 14th 1783.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/BRM3768-Gillray-The-Times-1783_lowres-scaled-e1614986180118-150x150.jpg)
A scarce and entertaining James Gillray political cartoon skewering Great Britain’s loss of her American colonies. At the time of the print’s publication in April 1783, the American Revolutionary War was essentially over: On January 20 Great Britain, the United States, France and Spain signed the provisional treaty of peace, ending hostilities and recognizing American […]
![William Charles (artist and engraver) / [Samuel Kennedy (publisher)], The Hartford Convention or LEAP NO LEAP. [Philadelphia, Dec. 10, 1814.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/BRM3110-Charles-Hartford-Convention-1815_lowres-e1541804471558-150x150.jpg)
A scarce and striking political cartoon satirizing the 1814 Hartford Convention, at which delegates from New England states contemplated secession from the Union. Background: The War of 1812 Following the ratification of the Constitution and against the hopes of the Founders, American politics rapidly organized into a two-party system that approximately mirrored sectional differences: Roughly […]
A fantastic, if premature, political cartoon predicting British victory in the French and Indian War. The title of the print refers to one of the opening battles of the War, when on June 8, 1755 off Newfoundland a squadron under Admiral Boscawen captured two French ships loaded with reinforcements for Louisbourg. Boscawen’s aggression, the print […]
![Pueblo Lith. Co., THE SILVER DOG WITH THE GOLDEN TAIL. Will the Tail Wag the Dog, or the Dog Wag the Tail? Pueblo: [Nuckolls Packing Co., 1896?]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BRM3271-Silver-Dog-with-Golden-Tail-e1567078689932-150x150.jpg)
An extremely rare cartographic cartoon supporting William Jennings Bryan’s candidacy in the 1896 presidential election. Bryan’s signature issue was “Free Silver,” a return to silver coinage. He and his supporters argued that the inflationary impact would act “… as a remedy for the Panic of 1893, a severe depression that had created high unemployment, falling […]