The Mikado
date: label: Date made
content: n.d.
name: label: maker
content: Enquirer Show Print
notes: label: Description
content: This colored print depicts a man with Caucasian eyes and a Japanese hairstyle dressed in a kimono and holding an illustration from the operetta <i> The Mikado. The illustration shows three young women with similar Caucasian features wearing kimonos and ornamental sticks in her hair. The woman in the center holds a red parasol and the other two have fans. There is a structure on the left and a hanging paper lantern on the upper right. The lower portion of the print has a green dragon and a banner reading “Three Little Maids from School are We,” the title of a song from the operetta.
label: Description
content: <i> The Mikado </i> was written by the British librettist W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911) and the British composer Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900). It made its London debut in 1885 and opened in New York later that same year. The production ran for 250 performances, becoming one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular and enduring works. Although set in the mythical Japanese village of Titipu, the operetta's farcical mishaps and bumbling intriguers have been interpreted as satires of British political and social mores of the time.
label: Description
content: Operettas rose to popularity in Europe in the second half of the 19th century and continued to draw large audiences for the next five decades. While grand opera was often seen as an art form for the elite, operettas aimed for greater mass appeal. Their major practitioners, including Johann Strauss II (1825-1899) in Vienna, Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) in Paris, and Gilbert and Sullivan in London, each had their own trademark style and subject matter. Their works generally were more lighthearted in tone, more farcical in plot, and might also include dancing and spoken dialogue. Gilbert and Sullivan focused on the absurdities of modern society in tales that featured star-crossed love, mistaken identity and class snobbery. With the celebrated New York debut of their operetta <i> H.M.S. Pinafore </i>in 1878, they helped generate some of the same enthusiasm for operetta in the United States that was already taking hold in Europe, anticipating the classic American musicals that would become so popular in the 20th century.
label: Description
content: This lithograph was produced by the Enquirer Job Printing Company, a branch of the <i> Cincinnati Enquirer </i>newspaper in Cincinnati, Ohio. It specialized in circus and entertainment prints and was especially known for creating large billboards for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Ohio, Cincinnati
topic: label: Subject
content: Costume
label: Subject
content: Adornment
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: Advertising
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content: Art
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content: Peters Prints
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.3048
label: catalog number
content: 60.3048
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 25 in x 17 1/4 in; 63.5 cm x 43.815 cm