Grand Fantastical Parade, New-York, December 2, 1833
Attributed to David Claypoole Johnston American
Publisher Endicott & Swett American
Not on view
This caricature satirizes militia parades held in New York during the eighteen-thirties and responds to President Andrew Jackson's reelection campaign in the summer of 1833. The image makes fun of the eldery president's continuing reliance on a militiary reputation established decades earlier. A clown-like figure resembling Jackson leads the parade on horseback, holding an oversized sword. The crowd that follows is composed mostly of clowns and carnival types, and includes figures who resemble Don Quixote and Napoleon. As a group, they fail to demonstrate military preparedness. Quotes in the lower margin from Shakespeare's Henvy VI, part II and Henry IV, part I, underscore the message, while the signature at lower right, "Hassan Sheepshanks," is a pseudonym which scholars have connected to the leading American caricaturist David Claypoole Johnston who was known as the "American Cruikshank" (comparing him to his British contemporary, George Cruikshank).
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