“Those Little Whatcha-Call-Ems” (12/05/1932)
by Albert T Reid (1873-1958)
10 x 10 in., ink on light board
Coppola collection

Devils at the start of the holiday season – perfect for Halloween and Christmas (just like it is, apparently, at the local department stores).

A little boy is making out his Christmas list for Santa, and he is plagued by the little deamons of doubt. Reid was an editorial cartoonist. It’s interesting to think: who was the target audience for this cartoon?

Albert Turner Reid was a successful businessman, a staunch supporter of the American farmer, a composer, a painter of murals and a teacher of art. The art school which he started with George Stone in Topeka was the beginning of Washburn University’s Art Department. Although a talented artist and successful newspaper publisher, Albert T. Reid is probably best remembered for his political cartoons. Reid sold his first cartoon to the Topeka Mail & Breeze in 1896. For the next 30 years, his cartoons appeared regularly in Kansas City, Chicago, and New York newspapers and several national magazines. They remain today a major contribution to the history of American politics. A large collection of his work is in the collections of the Kansas Historical Society.

His original target was Populism, but he soon extolled the virtues of Theodore Roosevelt and the Bull Moose cause. He recorded public reaction to the Spanish-American War and Carry Nation’s campaign against saloons. If he had been active in larger political centers, he probably would have received even more recognition. As it was, by the time of his death in 1958, he had accumulated countless honors, prizes and medals and was a widely known spokesman for American artists.