Content note: 1896 cartoon drawing Cuba and the Philippines as stereotyped dark-skinned children, shown as published. This object is shown as it was published. Why
"She Is Getting Too Feeble to Hold Them" (Puck cover, 16 November 1896)
The Queen Regent of Spain, in crown and ruff, struggles to hold back two dark-skinned boys labelled 'Cuba' and 'Philippine Islands', who are armed and straining to break free. The tell: the colonies are drawn as stereotyped children and Spain as a worn-out guardian, so independence reads as a household accident.
The cover of Puck for 16 November 1896, published by Keppler & Schwarzmann in New York for a domestic readership, shows the Queen Regent of Spain in crown and ruff struggling to hold back two armed, dark-skinned boys labelled 'Cuba' and 'Philippine Islands'. The colonies are drawn as stereotyped children in the racial caricature of the period, and Spain as a worn-out guardian. The caption treats colonial independence as a household accident. Name-calling works through the child figures, which diminish both the colonies and Spain.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- November 16, 1896
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Puck (Keppler & Schwarzmann, New York)
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Cleveland Administration
- Leader
- Grover Cleveland
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Empire and colonialism, War and the military
- Event
- Cuban War of Independence
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, retrieved October 10, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1896, before 1931); LoC: no known restrictions on publication
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LCCN 95523064. "She Is Getting Too Feeble to Hold Them" (Puck cover, 16 November 1896)
