Political cartoon entitled “Busted," featuring Oswald Ottendorfer, 1899

1899 chromolithographic political cartoon entitled “Busted.” It appears in the December 20 edition of Puck magazine. The cartoon depicts defeated anti-imperialists leaving Washington, DC, on foot, while a triumphant President William McKinley rushes towards the capital on the “expansion train.” The group of anti-imperialists is headed by prominent Democrat politician William Jennings Bryan and includes newspaper editors Joseph Pulitzer, Carl Schurz, and Oswald Ottendorfer of the New Yorker Staatszeitung. The cartoon highlights McKinley and his fellow expansionists’ success in securing US imperial control of the Philippines and Puerto Rico after the 1898 Spanish-American War. Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann, New York, December 20, 1899.