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"Next!" Puck Magazine, 1904. Source: Wikipedia |
Magazines such as
Puck and
Harper’s Weekly established themselves as signature publications of the Progressive Era through their
opinion-making political cartoons and
celebrity artists. A good political cartoon succeeds based on its combination of image design and concise information delivery. The two essential questions to ask students when interpreting a cartoon are:
- What do we see in this image?
- What do these symbols and words tell us about the artist's opinion?
Online archives offer great tools to examine past events through primary sources.
Cartoons today are also invaluable in comparing points of view about national news stories and teaching perspective and opinion to young learners.