Returned to owner: Century-old piece of political satire remains relevant

Historic cartoon by famous artist is Kurtz treasure from Windsor days

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ELIZABETHTOWN | A powerful old cartoon circa 1900 returned early this year to its owners.

It has been in Elizabethtown for decades and never traveled far, but its arrival here generations ago remains something of an unknown.

Al and Annabelle Kurtz obtained the historic Homer C. Davenport illustration upon taking reins at the Windsor Hotel over 50 years ago.

For over half a century even then, the Windsor had served host and summer home to many well-heeled New York City residents seeking refuge in the cool shade of Adirondack forests.

The other glaring character, labeled “Coal Trust,” has a gleaming gem affixed to his shirt, a hallmark caricature of greed in early political cartoons.

Former Windsor Hotel owner Guy Davenport might have been a distant relative of Homer Davenport, but that is not clear.

Homer Davenport was a very famous turn-of-the-century political cartoonist, who came from a long family heritage in Oregon. 

Guy Davenport’s family were well-respected farmers for many generations from Accord, New York.

Mr. Kurtz wasn’t sure how the illustration arrived in Elizabethtown or in what era.

“It came with the hotel,” Mr. Kurtz smiled.

He and Mrs. Kurtz were reunited with their artwork after Alta Jo Longware located it among her mother Gretna Longware’s historic World War I poster collection.

AJ was pulling together posters for the World War I exhibit at the Adirondack History Museum.

“It was stored with my mom’s World War I posters,” AJ said of the find.

A small tag, apparently typewritten by AJ’s mother Gretna Longware and pasted on the frame, indicates the original cartoon was “On loan from Al Kurtz.”

“I gave it back to Al,” AJ said.

The cartoon points to a rather turbulent time in American politics and policy, through the stark fraudulence of Tammany Hall as President William McKinley rose through the ranks of “dark” monies with promises to enact protectionist tariffs on foreign trade.

“It’s amazing how relevant the cartoon is today,” AJ said.

The poster-sized original illustration is a unique Davenport. 

There are faded handwritten notes on the top and Davenport’s striking signature lower left.

Historian Gus Frederick in Silverton, Oregon established The Davenport Project dedicated to research on Homer Davenport’s family, life, work, style and interests.

Asked for expertise to help date the cartoon and identify its characters, Mr. Frederick said he had not previously seen this particular illustration.

“The ‘Trusts’ appear to be generic plutocrats, so they probably don’t represent real people, but rather their respective industries,” Frederick told The Sun via email having seen images of the Kurtz’s cartoon.

Providing further context, Frederick said Davenport did a series of “Ice Trust” related illustrations that were included in a book of Davenport cartoons titled ‘The Dollar or the Man? The Issue of To Day’ (Published in 1900 by: Boston — Small, Maynard & Company).

“However, the ‘Ice Trust’ represented (in the book) is Davenport’s ‘Trust Brute’ that he used interchangeably between the different trusts (Coal, Steel, Ice, etc.) but not as ‘politicians’ (lobbyists?) in that series,” Frederick said.

“The timing would have been in spring/summer of 1900, as Hearst’s New York Journal, where Davenport worked, launched a campaign against the ‘Ice Trusts of NYC,’ which had apparently doubled the cost of ice in the city in a single year, impacting mainly the poor.”

Frederick provided The Sun with a copy of an historic article from the New York Times dated May 18, 1900, providing context of the Ice Trust controversy. 

People relied entirely on ice to preserve foodstuff and to cool their drinks in summer and doubling the price was a hardship for many.

“So I would suspect the timing would be similar to this article,” Frederick said.

Frederick’s extensive research on Homer C. Davenport is collected online:  davenport.liberaluniversity.org

He also maintains a very active Facebook page: The Davenport Project.

One interesting side note about Homer Davenport was his affinity for collecting and breeding Arabian horses. He found them via travel to Syria and other Middle Eastern regions. President Theodore Roosevelt helped facilitate such a trip by Davenport to Turkey.

On The Davenport Facebook page, Frederick shared a little known fact about Davenport’s horses: 

“The great equine actor Bamboo Harvester, also known as ‘Mr. Ed’ (of television fame) was a direct descendant of Wadduda, the first Arabian mare gifted to Homer Davenport by Sheikh Ahmet Hafiz of Aleppo, Syria in 1906.”

ABOUT HOMER C. DAVENPORT

The Oregon Historical Society also chronicled the rise of their prominent native son, Homer C. Davenport.

“Davenport was part of (William Randolph) Hearst’s team that took control of the New York Journal in 1895, launching the so-called Yellow Journalism Wars, a competition among New York City daily newspapers who tried to outdo each other with increasingly sensational news and illustrations,” the Historical Society outlines in the Oregon Encyclopedia. 

“During the 1896 presidential campaign, (Davenport) focused on William McKinley’s wealthy industrialist campaign manager, Marcus Hanna, whom he depicted as a hulking brute wearing ‘plutocratic plaid’ with a tiny dollar mark in each square. A year later, Davenport’s work inspired a failed Anti-Cartoon Bill in the New York State Assembly.”

(oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/davenport_homer/#.W6PcRntJGDI)

Additional biographical information about Homer Davenport is available via the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission: www.ochcom.org/davenport/