Old Words to a New Air

Date1909

Artist Frank Arthur Nankivell (American, born in Australia, engraver and printer, 1869–1959)

Illustration CitationPuck, January 6, 1909

MediumCommercial lithograph with hand-coloring

Dimensionscomposition: 11 13/16 × 9 in. (30 × 22.9 cm)
sheet: 14 1/4 × 11 7/16 in. (36.2 × 29.1 cm)

Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1978

Object number1978-94

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPRINT

Label TextFrank Nankivell depicts John Bull, the personification of England, standing with one foot on Great Britain and the other on Ireland, as a puppeteer controlling ships of the British Empire while looking overhead at various aircrafts flying foreign flags. The phrase "Britannia needs no bulwarks" is from Thomas Campbell's poem "Ye Mariners of England: A Naval Ode," written in 1800 when the British feared a Russian invasion. In 1909, England was engaged in a power struggle with the German Empire.

Founded by Austrian-born cartoonist Joseph Keppler and his partners as a German-language publication in 1876, Puck derived its name from the impish character in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, whose motto was: “What fools these mortals be!” Puck used lithography, not wood engraving, which gave it a different look. Initially printed in black and white, its cartoons later appeared in color. When the magazine favored the successful Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland in the 1884 presidential election, several Republicans purchased Puck’s rival, Judge, and hired a group of Puck staff members. Within a few years, Judge surpassed Puck as the nation's leading humor magazine.