Why don't you take it?
Item Information
- Title:
- Why don't you take it?
- Description:
-
A bull dog and a greyhound representing Winfield Scott and Jefferson Davis respectively. Scott is guarding kegs of corn, flour, bags of money, and a cannon barrel. Davis is guarding bales of cotton. Between them is a piece of beef inscribed, "Washington Prize Beef." In this political cartoon published by Currier & Ives, Gen. Winfield Scott, the first commander of the Union armies, is depicted as a fierce bulldog fronting the might of the North. Supported by supplies, munitions and financial resources, he taunts the sheepish greyhound “Jeff.“ A great juicy bone labeled “Washington Prize Beef“ rests between them, and Scott asks “Why don't you take it?“ as the Confederate leader slips away with his tail between his legs toward his meager supply of cotton. The cartoon suggests that the South had cotton but not many other resources, and did not have the means to seize the bone, or the capital city of Washington.
- Date:
-
[1861]
- Format:
-
Prints
- Location:
-
Boston Public Library
Arts Department - Collection (local):
-
Fine Arts Department Collection
- Subjects:
-
Political satire, American--19th century--Pictorial works
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889
Scott, Winfield, 1786-1866
- Extent:
- 1 print : lithograph, b&w ; image 18.7 x 38 cm., sheet 34.2 x 45.5 cm.
- Terms of Use:
-
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
- Publisher:
-
New York :
s.n
- Language:
-
English
- Notes:
-
The Boston Athenaeum has a similar version of this cartoon by the same title but less refined and printed in reverse.
Probably published as a single sheet in 1861.
- Notes (date):
-
This date is inferred.
- Notes (exhibitions):
-
Exhibited: "Torn in Two: The 150th Anniversary of the Civil War" organized by the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library, 2011.
- Identifier:
-
06_01_007181
- Call #:
-
E647 .W49 1861
- Barcode:
-
39999065690529
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