Uncle Sam looks at "Cuba" holding a "Cuban Revolutionist" baby (Bartholomew cartoon, April 1898)
A startled Uncle Sam on the left looks at a woman labelled 'Cuba' holding a crying baby marked 'Cuban Revolutionist'. The tell: the infant stands for a young cause and the woman for the island, so a debate over recognising a government is staged as a household decision.
Cartoonist Charles L. Bartholomew drew this American cartoon in April 1898, the month Congress authorised force against Spain, though the publication is not recorded. A startled Uncle Sam looks at a woman labelled "Cuba" who holds a crying baby marked "Cuban Revolutionist". The catalogue notes suggest it concerns whether the United States would recognise the Cuban revolutionary government, but the cartoon does not say so itself. Turning a question of state recognition into a household scene invites sympathy for the child and the mother, which is the appeal to emotion, in place of an argument about the political question.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- April 1898
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Charles L. Bartholomew (cartoonist; publication not recorded)
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
- Individual
- Regime
- Mckinley Administration
- Leader
- William Mckinley
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- War and the military, Empire and colonialism
- Event
- Spanish American War
- 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 1898, before 1931); LoC: no known restrictions on publication
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LCCN 2016678216. Uncle Sam looks at "Cuba" holding a "Cuban Revolutionist" baby (Bartholomew cartoon, April 1898)
