Monday, March 31, 2014

Protest and Propaganda



“EVERY NEGRO in the South knows that he is under a kind of sentence of death; he does not know when his turn will come, it may never come, but it may also be at any time.” – John Dollard, Caste and Class in a Southern Town, 1937
 
Protest and Propaganda; W.E.B. Du Bois, the Crisis, and American History, edited by Amy Helene Kirschke & Phillip Luke Sinitiere, 270 pages, 6.125 x 9.25, 32 illus., index, University of Missouri Press 2014

Daniel Coit Gilman, the founder of the oldest university press in the United States (1878) defined the role of the university press role as “to advance knowledge, and to diffuse it not merely among those who can attend the daily lectures – but far and wide.” The University of Missouri Press, founded in 1958, has just published a notable example of advanced knowledge diffusion with Protest and Propaganda, W.E.B. Du Bois, The Crisis, and American History containing ten essays by a diverse set of contributors with background in History, African-American Studies, Art History, English, Political Science, Biblical Studies and Communications Arts & Sciences. 

Modern technology allows the reader to augment the essays by online study of archived runs of The Crisis on digital libraries. Copies from the 1910s and 20s can be browsed at HathiTrust and Open Library. Contemporary issues are available at Google Books.

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) was the founder, editor and chief writer of The Crisis; A Record of the Darker Races, a Negro magazine begun November 1, 1910,which made use of “positive propaganda,” verbal and visual, to fight for black civil rights in a white supremacist society. Du Bois guided The Crisis through World War 1 and left the magazine 1n 1934. It was envisioned primarily as a newspaper, also a historical record of the brutal suffering of blacks under Jim Crow, mob violence and lynching.

The Crisis,Vol 10, No 2, June 1915 
The essays speak to a variety of interests including philosophy, propaganda in art and text, the Great War, women’s suffrage, religion, prophecy and The Crisis children’s page. The articles are as follows.

1  W.E.B. Du Bois and Positive Propaganda – A Philosophical Prelude to His Editorship of The Crisis

2  W.E.B. Du Bois as Print Propagandist

3  Art in Crisis during the Du Bois Years

4  “We Return Fighting” – The Great War and African American Women’s Short Fiction

5  W.E.B. Du Bois and The Crisis of Woman Suffrage

6  The Crisis Children’s Page, The Brownies’ Book, and the Fantastic

7  God in Crisis – Race, Class, and Religion in the Harlem Renaissance

8  W.E.B. Du Bois’s Prophetic Propaganda – Religion and The Crisis, 1910-1934

9  The Crisis Cover Girl – Lena Horne, Walter White, and the NAACP’s Representation of African American Femininity

10   The Crisis Responds to Public School Desegregation


A catalog of University of Missouri Press books can be browsed HERE.

   

Thursday, March 27, 2014

The Dancing School by Heinrich Kley



Dancing Teacher, Elephant, Crocodile…

Simplicissimus-Bilderbogen, single-sheet comic strips, were regularly published by Albert Langen in his Simplicissimus before World War I. Most of these comic pages were drawn by Thomas Theodor Heine and Olaf Gulbransson. Heinrich Kley (1863-1945), pen-and-ink master, was a frequent contributor to the weekly papers Jugend (1897-1938, 231 times) and Simplicissimus (1908-44, 141 times.) Kley also drew at least one of the Simplicissimus-Bilderbogen. This two-page example was Number 5 and inserted in Volume 16, Number 51, May 18, 1912. Its title ‘Die Tanzschule,’ translates to The Dancing School. The text in rhyme was written by Karl Borromäus Heinrich (b.1884).


[1] front
[2] back

Ein Krokodilweib kokettierte
Mit einem Elefantentier,
Teilweise wohl aus Lust am Flirte —
Doch grösernteils aus Bildungsgier.



Our thanks to the
Simplicissimus Project


Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Wilhelm Schulz in Simplicissimus, Munich


1 [1907, Jan 21] Michel, wake up! (Michel, wach auf!), Wilhelm Schulz cover of Simplicissimus 43, Vol. 11, p.685

ARTIST Wilhelm Schulz (1865-1952), of Lüneburg, Germany, was a contributor to Simplicissimus almost from the start on April 4, 1896. His first of nearly 2500 contributions was in issue number 5 of May 2. Simplicissimus was a prominent satirical weekly founded in Munich by its publisher Albert Langen (1869-1909) and artist Thomas Theodor Heine (1867-1948).  

It started only months after a similar German paper was launched in January with the title Jugend that sparked the name Jugendstil (from Jugend: youth + Stil: style); a paper published by Georg Hirth (1841-1916) and first introduced as ‘Münchner illustrierte Wochenschrift für Kunst und Leben’ (Munich illustrated weekly for Art and Life). A vital ingredient in both Jugend and Simplicissimus was exciting graphic art, including comics art.

2 [1896, Oct 31] To no avail (Umsonst), Wilhelm Schulz strip, full backpage of Simplicissimus 31, Vol. 1, p.8
3 [1897, Jan 9] Guardian angel Aegir (Schutzengel Aegir), Wilhelm Schulz strip, full page in Simplicissimus 41, Vol. 1, p.4
4 [1898, Jul 30] The boat trip (Die Bootpartie), Wilhelm Schulz strip, full page in Simplicissimus 18, Vol. 3, p.141
5 [1902, May 20] In the Wood (Im Wald), Wilhelm Schulz drawing and poem, full page of Simplicissimus 8, Vol. 7, p.61
6 [1904, Dec 20] Christmas in Asia (Weinachten in Ostasien), Wilhelm Schulz cover of Simplicissimus 39, Vol. 9, p.381
7 [1913, Nov 24] From the north country (Aus der Nordmark), Wilhelm Schulz cover of Simplicissimus 35, Vol. 18, p.569. On the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen.
8 [1917, Jan 2] Panic in the munition trade (Panik im Munitionsgeschäft), Wilhelm Schulz, full page of Simplicissimus 40, Vol. 21, p.508. Uncle Sam deals with Death.
9 [1917, Nov 13] In the Land of Freedom (Im Lande der Freiheit), Wilhelm Schulz, full page of Simplicissimus 33, Vol. 22, p.416
10 [1919, Dec 10] The Board of Inquiry (Der Untersuchungsausschuß), Wilhelm Schulz cover of Simplicissimus 37, Vol. 24, p.521
11 [1920, Oct 13] The Paper Flood (Die Papiersintflut), Wilhelm Schulz cover of Simplicissimus 29, Vol. 25, p.377
12 [1920, Dec 15] Beethoven, Wilhelm Schulz cover of Simplicissimus 38, Vol. 25, p.501
13 [1920, Dec 22] German Christmas (Deutsche Weihnacht), Wilhelm Schulz cover of Simplicissimus 39, Vol. 25, p.517

The first Simplicissimus ran from April 1896 to September 1944. It was revived under the abbreviated title Der Simpl in 1946-50 (subtitle: ‘Kunst - Karikatur - Kritik’), and then as Simplicissimus again, by illustrator Olaf Iverson, in a final series that lasted from 1954 until 1967. Jugend ran from 1896 to 1940.

 

Our thanks to Eckart Sackmann

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Seven Men Who Draw Funny Pictures –


August 28, 1919
Seven Men Who Draw Funny Pictures
The Literary Digest, August 14, 1920




The Bookseller and Stationer, April 1, 1921
April 2, 1920

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Le Petit Moniteur’s affiches


[1] 1874, for L’Ogresse written by Paul Féval.
Le Petit Moniteur was founded in 1869 by Léo Lespès, known as Timothée Trimm, along with printers Pointel and Dalloz. The weekly paper reportedly reached a circulation of 300,000 by February 1870. It was one of the favorite organs of the working-classes, due mostly to its low price but also to the quality of its feuilletons or serials and Timothée Trimm’s popularity. 

Colorful affiches or posters – typeset, wood engraved, lithographic – were utilized to advertise serials in Paris kiosks and on wall hoardings.

[2] 1875, for Les Mystères du Nouveau Paris written by Fortuné du Boisgobey. The Paris coach is driven by a batman.
[3] 1876, title page of L’Omnibus du Diable written by Fortuné du Boisgobey.
[4] 1876, Recent publications of É. Dentu, Editeur in Paris.
[5] c.1875, for Les Voleurs du Grand Monde written by Ponson du Terrail.
[6] 1870, for Séquestre written by Elie Berthet.
[7] 1873, poster Who Was It? The Iron Mask.
[8] 1880, for La Déesse Raison written by Alph. Brot & Saint-Véran.
[9] 1881, for Le Cochon d’Or written by Fortuné du Boisgobey.
[10] 1875, Le Petit Moniteur (the little monitor), ‘A Million Readers’ poster.
[11] c.1885, for Les Cravates Blanches written by Adolphe Belot.
[12] c.1875, for Les Voleurs du Grand Monde written by Ponson du Terrail.

All images courtesy Gallica
♪♪♪