Content note: 1884 cartoon with a minstrel-style caricature of a Black valet. This object is shown as it was published. Why
The bogus workingman and his lonsome boom
Puck cover by Frederick Burr Opper, 10 September 1884: Benjamin F. Butler in a patched workman's shirt beside a box of 'Tools for Exhibition Purposes', handing his valet the instruction 'Keep an eye on the valuables, while I go out and address the mass-meeting', with bonds, 'R.R. Stock' and 'Monopolists' fees' at his feet and a thinly attended 'Grand Butler Mass-Meeting' outside.
- Date
- September 10, 1884
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Puck (Keppler & Schwarzmann, New York); artist Frederick Burr Opper
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Arthur Administration
- Leader
- Chester A. Arthur
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Event
- 1884 US Election
- Techniques
- Name-callingPlain folks
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain by age (published 1884); LOC rights advisory: No known restrictions on publication
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
