This comic strip from 1909 is on display at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History:

I’m struck by the comic’s overt anti-semitism and the contradiction it reveals in the thinking of a turn-of-the-century anti-semite. The first two panels could be used to support a modern interpretation of the displacement of Native Americans by European settlers; the Uncle Sam character is violently murdering the Native American character. But the remaining panels reveal a darker reality of the comic’s perspective: that the author is fearful of being “replaced” by Jews.

The fact that this comic was featured in a mainstream publication in 1909 reveals that anti-semetic views were mainstream and deemed acceptable by a large portion of American society. And that many people were afraid of having their jobs and resources “taken” by Jews (views which are the precursor to the Great Replacement Theory).

What I can’t wrap my head around is how this artist can portray the second half of the comic as negative and the first half of the comic as positive. From the artist’s perspective, Uncle Sam displacing Native Americans is a good thing, while Jews displacing Uncle Sam (and the white, non-Jewish Americans he represents here) is a bad thing. How can they hold both of these contradicting views?

The theme that has stood out to me in the first two days of class is the overall attitude of the Inter-War Period.  This has stood out to me mostly because I have never thought about those years as interwar, but rather post-war and pre-war.  The worry free feeling and an appreciation of the time we have on earth (especially after WWI and so many casualties) was most striking to me. 

Chrysler Building is one of the best examples of art Deco building.

I really enjoyed the art deco architecture tour this morning with John Pron and I loved to see that so many details were preserved (though of course not all) on Philadelphia's historic 1920s and '30s buildings. These highly decorative mail boxes, lights, elevators and iron grates show that high society valued design in their buildings.  Those who could afford it, showed it off.  I took a photograph of the mailbox inside the Icon building at 1616 Walnut St. but was unable to include it here, so this is an image of the decorative iron grate.  Today, the lights behind the iron work change color every few seconds, hopefully inspiring others to look up and admire its beauty.

This image is titled "Protest against child labor in a labor parade" and was displayed in a section of the Weitzman Museum in a section about labor movements.  The description on LOC states, "Photograph shows half-length portrait of two girls wearing banners with slogan "ABOLISH CH[ILD] SLAVERY!!" in English and Yiddish, one carrying American flag; spectators stand nearby. Probably taken during May 1, 1909 labor parade in New York City."

     This piece deepens my understanding of the time on a few different levels.  On the one hand, this shows that the exploitation of children as cheap labor was a part of the business model at the time. Children were a part of the work force often out of necessity, either to support themselves or to contribute financially to their family.  In turn, this took many children out of school and a logical conclusion would be that this prevented them from further upward mobility in terms of financial and social status. 

     This image also demonstrates the fact that workers were beginning to protest and unionize in an effort to avoid exploitation, have safe working conditions, reasonable hours and fair compensation. Not only are these children who are protesting, but they are also girls--many of whom were factory workers in the garment industry. I found it interesting to see young girls asserting themselves for their rights so proudly.  

   Another aspect of this photo that I found interesting was that the sashes the girls are wearing are in both Yiddish and English.  I interpret this as a sense of pride and identity.  The placard at the Weitzman mentioned that,"Masses of  "Jewish workers associated their political activism with their identity as Jews." 

I would assume this item was created to be published in the newspaper in order to being about awareness of the labor movement and/or child labor movement. I would love to explore this image further to learn more about child labor, as well as the political activism of young women at the time.

Both the Weitzman and Rosenbach museums were powerful experiences to partake in today and yesterday. The sources that sparked deeper interests from me were the rare book materials we reviewed at Rosenbach and the text excerpts that were reviewed and read, specifically the poem “Ode To Ethiopia” (1893) by Paul Laurence Dunbar and the excerpt from Langston Hughes’ Autobiography, “The Big Sea” (1968). There is something that immediately relates in the writing. Even though they are decades apart, the spirit of the 1920s is felt – the loud celebration of deep emotions is roaring! These writings celebrate “O Mother Race!” and celebrate themselves in ways they couldn’t before. There is an intellectual thread throughout the writings that we discussed and I was drawn to both pieces, especially the poem, because I read a lot of poetry books and this feels like a finale poem that is here at the start of the book kicking it off with bright fireworks instead. It’s a beautiful piece and it is a great lead into the 20s with directions to: 

“Go on and up! Our souls and eyes 

Shall follow thy continuous rise; 

Our ears shall list thy story 

From bards who from thy root shall spring, 

And proudly tune their lyres to sing

Of Ethiopia’s glory.”

Hughes notes in his autobiography how when he was 21 in 1920, he also was celebrating becoming a man, “inside and out.” He continues, “You see, books had been happening to me. Now the books were cast off back there somewhere in the churn of spray and night behind the propeller. I was glad they were gone.”

These pieces from Dunbar and Hughes’ reveal the freedom that people are exploring in text and writing about, black people in particular, and they are asking for those readers to come along with them. Their portraits are attached above from the LOC.