Joseph Keppler: America’s Brilliant Political Cartoonist

In this installment of ‘Profiles in History,’ we meet an Austrian artist who immigrated to America and founded one of the most influential political magazines.

A cartoon showing the artist Joseph Keppler sleeping and dreaming of 10 well-known people of the time, including Ulysses S. Grant and Peter Cooper, painting portraits of themselves. 1881. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Public Domain

After the Revolution of 1848 ended in Vienna, Johann Keppler moved to America. A baker by trade, it was his political beliefs and actions during the failed revolution that forced his immigration away from his home country and wife and four children. Among those children was Joseph Keppler (1838–1894), who eventually followed his father to the United States and become one of the nation’s most influential and popular political cartoonists.

Creative Endeavors

Keppler attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna as well as the Elementary Drawing and Modeling School, where he learned to art skills. His first illustrations were published in the relatively well-known Austrian humor magazine Kikeriki. He attempted to earn a living as a painter, but without his father, the family’s finances were meager. He was forced to pursue more profitable avenues.

He joined a theatrical troupe, where he painted set designs for its shows and contributed to the group as a comedian every so often. While he toured Germany and Italy with the troupe, he found side jobs restoring old paintings. In 1864, he married Minna Rubens. Now with a family, he decided it was time to seek better opportunities outside of Europe. The Kepplers moved to America in 1867.

Moving to America

Austrian-American cartoonist Joseph Ferdinand Keppler. Library of Congress. Public Domain

Keppler moved close to his father in Missouri. His father had opened up a general store, but Keppler began his American career as an actor. He maintained his affinity for painting and illustrations and launched his own weekly German-language humor magazine in St. Louis called Die Vehme. His first issue was published via lithograph on Aug. 28, 1869. A year later the magazine was bankrupt. He tried again with Frank und Frei, which performed even worse, only lasting about six months.

He attempted a third German humor magazine with business partner Adolph Schwarzmann in March 1871 called Puck, named after Shakespeare’s mischievous sprite in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” It performed better than the previous two, lasting until he moved to New York in the fall of 1872.

The young Austrian joined Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, one of New York City’s more successful publications. He became a political cartoonist for it, and over the following four years honed the craft that would make him famous. By 1875, he became Frank Leslie’s primary cartoonist, creating many of the magazine’s cover art.

Puck for New York

With his success as an artist, Keppler believed himself in a good position to start again on his own. He decided to revive Puck for the German-speaking New Yorkers. Leaving Frank Leslie’s, he launched Puck with its first issue—a 12-page magazine—coming out on Sept. 27, 1876. About six months later, he launched an English version of the magazine with Schwarzmann on March 14 with the Shakespearean quote “What fools these mortals be!” as its slogan. The German edition lasted until the end of the 1880s, but the English version continued until 1918.

"Our Mutual Friend," Jan. 7, 1885, cover warning of the dangers of color additives used in candy. Public Domain

Keppler’s Puck focused primarily on politics, as well as the social ills of the day. The illustrator was not only talented artistically but also satirically. His gift for comedic angles along with incredibly detailed and beautifully drawn cartoons quickly garnered readers throughout New York City, making it a primary competitor with Frank Leslie’s and Harper’s Weekly, and one of the nation’s largest subscription magazines.

Many of his initial cartoons attacked the corruption within the administration of Ulysses S. Grant. The highly controversial 1876 election also gave his magazine plenty of material to work with. Puck magazine was a pro-Democrat and anti-big business publication, though this didn’t stop the publication from highlighting issues within the Democrat Party or targeting socialists and worker strikes.

Puck magazine proved a rather fair publication when pinpointing the “fools” of society. According to the Smithsonian Institution, Puck’s coverage of the 1880 election had placed it in the “position of chief interpreter of the American scene.”

Political Influence

Puck magazine had gained such notoriety and a large readership that, according to the U.S. Senate, “its pro-Cleveland cartoons in 1884 may well have contributed to the Democratic candidate’s narrow victory in the presidential election.”

On Jan. 23, 1890, Keppler published one of his, if not his most, iconic cartoons with “The Bosses of the Senate.” The cartoon was of the Senate chambers with tiny senators sitting in their assigned places. Above and behind them were men, their bodies made of bags of money, who loomed large over the senators. On their moneybag bellies were written their names: Sugar Trust, Standard Oil Trust, Copper Trust, Nail Trust, Steel Beam Trust, and so on. At the top left of the cartoon was the People’s Entrance with the door bolted shut and a “Closed” sign over it.

Keppler's 1889 cartoon depicts monopolists as dominating American politics as the "Bosses of the Senate." Public Domain

“Keppler’s cartoon reflected the phenomenal growth of American industry in the 1880s, but also the disturbing trend toward concentration of industry to the point of monopoly, and its undue influence on politics,” the U.S. Senate’s website notes. “This popular perception contributed to Congress’s passage of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1890.”

Some of Puck’s cartoons were anti-Catholic, critical of the women’s suffrage movement, and were at times racially charged, especially during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Primarily, though, under Keppler’s leadership, the magazine focused on taxes, wealth disparity, business versus worker, and political corruption.

In 1881, several artists left Puck magazine to launch the rival publication, Judge. In 1885, this magazine was purchased by publisher William J. Arkell to support the Republican Party. Nonetheless, it was Keppler who helped launch the careers of many influential political cartoonists, like Louis Dalrymple, Bernhard Gillam, Frederick Burr Opper, and Eugene Zimmerman.

The Final Effort

When Chicago hosted the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Keppler and Schwarzmann were chosen to create a weekly edition of Puck for the world’s fair. While the Puck magazine continued in New York City, Keppler and Schwarzmann established a printing office at the elaborately designed pavilion where they demonstrated their chromolithography printing method. The Puck Building, located between the Horticultural Building and the Women’s Building, was designed by the esteemed architectural design firm, McKim, Mead & White.

The 26 issues published during the World’s Fair proved so demanding that it ultimately took an immense toll on Keppler’s health from which he never recovered. Keppler died the following year. His magazine, however, continued, and was later placed under the artistic management of his son Udo, who changed his name to Joseph in honor of his father.

More than a century later, the Puck Building in Manhattan, where the magazine was published, still stands with a golden version of the magazine’s mascot, Puck, with his top hat, hand mirror, fountain pen, and a book with the motto inscription for the magazine—a lasting memorial to the Austrian immigrant who transformed the American political cartoon.

The Lafayette Street entrance of the Puck Building in Manhattan with a gilded statue of Puck over its entrance. Another Believer/CC BY-SA 3.0

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