Fifty Cents
date: label: Date made
content: 1837
name: label: depicted
content: Van Buren, Martin
label: depicted
content: Jackson, Andrew
label: depicted
content: Biddle, Nicholas
label: depicted
content: Benton, Thomas Hart
label: maker
content: Robinson, Henry R.
label: artist attribution
content: Clay, Edward Williams
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This 1837 print is a mock shin plaster, satirizing the growing banking crisis known as the Panic of 1837. Shin plasters were an illegal source of currency popularized in the American Frontier where money was scarce, and adopted more widespread following the suspension of non-specie currency by Andrew Jackson in 1836. They were called shin plasters because the cheap quality of the paper and their lack of a concrete monetary value made them good for not much more than mixing with water to make a material to wear under socks for warmth. On this particular “shin plaster,” Andrew Jackson is depicted riding a pig and chasing a “gold humbug,” a common symbol for Jackson’s desire for a currency system relying entirely on gold and silver. Jackson is followed closely behind by Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, riding a donkey, the symbol for the Democratic Party. Benton helped Jackson idealize the Specie Circular, the Executive Order that halted the use soft money in favor of specie currency (gold or silver). While Van Buren is also chasing after the “gold humbug,” he is using a different path saying, “Although I follow in the footsteps of Jackson, it is expedient at this time to deviate a little.” Jackson is heading straight towards a cliff, so by Van Buren going a safer route, it symbolizes how his approach to financial policy differed from his influential predecessor. In the far right of the print, the President of the Second National Bank of the United States, Nicholas Biddle, stands on the roof of the bank, watching to see how Van Buren will chase after the “gold humbug.” Along the bottom of the print, the publisher, Henry Robinson, issued an IOU to Thomas Hart Benton, promising to pay in counterfeit caricatures.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The lithographer of this print is Edward Williams Clay (1799-1857). Clay was a caricaturist, engraver, lithographer, and etcher, as well as a portrait painter. Before his career as an artist, Clay was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar, but quickly left to pursue art in New York City. After losing his eyesight he retired from art and held minor office in Delaware before his death in December of 1857.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The publisher of this print is Henry R. Robinson (1827-1877). Robinson worked in New York, and had a store to sell his prints. In 1842, he was arrested for selling obscene pictures and books leading to the September 28, 1842 court case, People vs H. R. Robinson found in the District Attorney Indictment Papers, Municipal Archives. He was politically affiliated with the anti-Jackson Whig party which was made obvious by the wig silhouette used in 1838 as an advertising logo for his shop.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Architecture, Commercial Buildings
label: Subject
content: Economy
label: Subject
content: Wild Animals
label: Subject
content: Political Parties
label: Subject
content: Livestock
label: Subject
content: Chronology: 1830-1839
label: Subject
content: Political Caricatures
label: Subject
content: Games
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: Peters Political Prints
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content: Art
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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.60.3398
label: catalog number
content: 60.3398
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: image: 10 1/4 in x 17 3/8 in; 26.035 cm x 44.1325 cm