Young American Speaker
date: label: date book published
content: 1901
label: date comic published
content: 1898
name: label: maker
content: McLoughlin Bros., Inc.
notes: label: Description
content: <i>Young American Speaker</i> is a children's book with a glazed, dark red cloth spine and pictorial boards. On the cover is a chromolithograph that features four children, 2 boys and 2 girls, standing and sitting around an Uncle Sam character as they listen to one boy speak. The back cover of the book features a blue offset lithograph depicting two girls, one playing the piano in front of a Christmas tree, giving a recital to an audience of dolls. The book is 75 pages but was not paginated. There is an offset lithograph frontispiece; compilation of verses and songs with black and white illustrations. The endpapers feature four frames of "Foxy Grandpa" kicking a football bordered by a rabbit standing dressed in women's clothing in the corners. Inserted inside the front of book is paper cover from "The FUNNY HOUSEHOLD / COMIC / ANIMAL / SERIES", depicting a lion in crown and smoking slippers, seated in a rocking chair and rocking a cradle as he smokes a cigar and reads the paper; reverse features verse about "MR. APE" and is inscribed in graphite pencil in script "Presented by Grandma Middleton to Chester Taylor" indicating this as a common gift to grandchildren by their grandmothers.
label: Description
content: The book was bound and printed by M. A. Donohue of Chicago in 1898 and 1901 and published by McLoughlin Brothers of New York.
label: Description
content: Uncle Sam is a personified character representing the United States in cartoons and images. The figure is often depicted as an elderly man with white hair and a beard, dressed and striped trousers, a tail coat and top hat all in red, white and blue. He was supposedly based on two earlier characters, Yankee Doodle and Brother Jonathon with some characteristics from real person "Uncle Sam" Wilson, a merchant to American troops during the War of 1812. The character can be found in prints throughout the 19th Century but was popularized by illustrator Thomas Nast in the 1870's and then by James Montgomery Flagg for recruitment during World War I.
label: Description
content: M. A. Donohue & Company is listed in Chicago directories at 407-429 Dearborn Street beginning in 1901 as successor to Donohue & Henneberry. The firm exclusively published children's books. "Foxy Grandpa" first appeared in the New-York Herald in 1900.
label: Description
content: McLoughlin Bros., Inc. was a New York publishing firm active between 1858 and 1920. The company was a pioneer in color printing technologies in children's books. The company specialized in retellings of stories for children. The firm's publications served to popularize illustrators including Thomas Nast. In 1851, John McLoughlin, Jr. took over his father’s printing business and started to publish picture books under his own name. In 1858, he formed a partnership with his brother Edmund and the company became known as McLoughlin Brothers, based in Manhattan. By the 1880s, McLoughlin books were regularly featuring titles in folio formats, illustrated by chromolithographs. The firm also published a wide range of items including cheap chapbooks, linen books, puzzles, games and paper dolls.
label: Description
content: In 1920, McLoughlin Bros., Inc. was sold to Milton Bradley, and continued to publish children’s books until World War II. The McLoughlin line of children's books was sold to Grosset & Dunlap in 1954. Since that date, several books bearing the McLoughlin Bros. imprint were issued, but the name dropped out of print by the 1970s. Since 1970, McLoughlin products have enjoyed great popularity with collectors, and their visibility continues through displays at book fairs and in catalogs.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place book published
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
label: place comic published
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Children's Literature
label: Subject
content: Uncle Sam
label: depicted
content: Children
label: depicted
content: Christmas
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Education
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Mrs. Bessie Pierce
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.65.0163
label: catalog number
content: 65.0163
label: accession number
content: 256634
objectType: label: Object Name
content: book
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cloth (spine material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (covers; text block material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (covers; text material)
label: Physical Description
content: pasteboard (covers material)
label: Physical Description
content: thread (binding material)
label: Physical Description
content: graphite (inscription material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1/2 in x 7 3/4 in x 9 7/8 in; 1.27 cm x 19.685 cm x 25.0825 cm