Cartoon of successful businessmen whose ancestors were immigrants refusing entry to an immigrant
Offset lithographic centerfold image printed on off-white paper from the magazine “Puck.” It depicts an image of an immigrant walking off the docks, being stopped by 5 native businessmen. The immigrant has blonde hair and wears a patched green jacket with a hat, and dark gray and black striped pants. He also has a knapsack with a tea kettle, and pots slung over his right shoulder. Standing in front of him in a line are five businessmen wearing black suits, and top hats with expensive looking coats. Several of them have their arms and hands raised in a stopping motion. The businessmen’s shadows are caricatured images of their ancestors, wearing baggy and ragged looking clothes. The left inside shadow is a caricature of a Jewish peddler with a large hooked nose, curled sidelocks, and a tray hanging from his neck. The reverse has several black and white images that correspond with several farcical or inappropriate jokes, poems, and comical stories written out on the pages. A worn, vertical crease with small holes near the bottom is located in the center. There are strips of white tape adhered to the top and bottom edges of the paper and foxing stains along the edges. back, bottom left, handwritten, pencil : 1/11/93 back, bottom, right, handwritten, pencil : 1/11/93
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The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.
The print was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
overall: Height: 13.625 inches (34.608 cm) | Width: 20.500 inches (52.07 cm)
Cartoon from the magazine “Puck,” depicting an immigrant being stopped from disembarking on an American dock by nativist businessmen, whose shadows show their ancestors’ own immigrant roots. One of the businessman’s shadows is a stereotypical image of a Jewish peddler. The Jewish peddler is an antisemitic canard that originated from the economic and professional restrictions placed on early European Jews. They were barred from owning land, farming, and military service. These restrictions limited Jews to the occupations of retail peddling, hawking, and moneylending. Even as these restrictions eased over time, the canard persisted through various mediums. Puck was an American humor magazine, founded by Joseph Keppler and published from 1876-1918. The magazine was named after the character Puck from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and began as a German-language publication before transitioning to English. The magazine mocked and satirized politicians and religious figures, along with political and social issues of the day. Between 1880 and 1920, the United States received over 20 million immigrants. Beginning in the 1890s, the majority of arrivals were from Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe. The new wave of immigration sparked anti-alien protests by Americans who viewed the new immigrants as too Jewish or too Catholic, and feared they would never assimilate into U.S. culture. This cartoon is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.
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