150 years ago Harper’s Weekly observed Valentine’s Day with a cartoon featuring six cupids representing different ethnic groups. The New-York Times noted that the post office was being swamped with valentine missives. That apparently wasn’t a new phenomenon – eight years earlier, as the United States was becoming less united and losing some of its states, Harper’s Weekly published a Valentine page that included a beleaguered postman. In 1909 black cupids made an appearance on the cover of Puck
more mosaic than melting pot?
neither snow nor rain …nor the hearts attack
Africa beckons
I was stumped about “Teddy’s Valentine” – but according to Wikipedia the Smithsonian–Roosevelt African Expedition left for Africa on March 32, 1909. It lasted until 1910. You can watch a thirteen minute (silent) film of the expedition at the Library of Congress.
Teddy’s African adventure
scientific specimen, shot by TR
“Col. Roosevelt with his big bull rhino”
Could it get any sadder? In the middle of February old Sumpter’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of 110 year old clips of TR in Africa. Although I should point out that one of the silent film’s titles that appears on the screen something like a PowerPoint slide reads “Zulu Belles.”
I didn’t really understand all the allusions in the Harper’s Weekly cupid cartoon, but I’m pretty sure the German is lying a stein of beer. It almost makes wish I had attended Oktoberfest last fall with the Bill and Hillary. You can see more pics at the Daily Mail
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The cupid cartoon could have been Harper’s take on the wide world of love, but it seems more likely it was meant to represent ethnic groups within America. I’m pretty sure large numbers of Germans and Irish arrived in the United States during the first part of the 19th century (“I’m going to fight mit Sigel”; the 69th New York Infantry). I sorta wish there was a redux about 50 years later because I’ve heard that “amore” involves a big pizza pie. I noticed that the cartoon noticed Africans but not the most native Americans.
You can see the material from Harper’s Weekly in February 1869 at the Internet Archive. Search results at The New-York Times for “Valentine” on February 15, 1869 returns an article about the rush of Valentines at the Post Office continuing with full fury on the 14th. A clerk called it a “red-hot time.” From the Library of Congress: Valentine’s 1861 (I was happy to have a reason to check out the Son of the South to get a better view and find out that image was published in the February 16, 1861 issue of Harper’s Weekly); Puck February 10, 1909; adventure (it seems that Theodore Roosevelt’s son Kermit took many of the photographs of the African expedition); hippo and bull rhino
You can read the real seasonal quote at the Poetry Foundation
I can’t get started (YouTube)
