These resources are meant to assist teachers in preparing lesson plans for teaching with cartoons.
Web Resources:
American Association of Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC). Daily political cartoons by members of the AAEC and Cartoons for the Classroom.
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum houses the world’s largest collection of materials related to cartoons and comics, including original art, books, magazines, journals, comic books, archival materials, and newspaper comic strip pages and clippings.
Cartoonists Rights Network, International monitors and supports the well-being of political cartoonists who find themselves in trouble because of the power and influence of their professional work.
These standards-based, teacher-created, primary source lessons are based on editorial cartoons covering more than a century of American history.
The Hale Scrapbook (so designated by historian and collector Draper Hill, from whom it was acquired) dates from approximately 1746 to 1830 and includes engravings by the leading artists of Georgian England, letters, newspaper clippings, woodcuts, broadsides, sketches, paintings, and other miscellaneous materials. This is a digital album of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum.
HarpWeek. A manual index of Harper’s Weekly
Herbert L. Block (Herblock) Collection. The bulk of the 14,000 original ink and graphite drawings in the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division date from 1946 through 2001, when Herblock worked for the Washington Post. Approximately 1,300 drawings represent his earlier work for the Chicago Daily News and the Newspaper Enterprise Association.
Mark Fiore's Animated Cartoon Site. View animated political cartoons from Pulitzer Prize-winner Mark Fiore, comment on a particular cartoon, and discuss issues with other site visitors or with the cartoonist.
Mike Thompson, Editorial Cartoonist for the Detroit Free Press.
The Palladium of Liberty. Oldest known black newspaper in Ohio, published weekly in Columbus, 1843 - 1844. Accessible online through the Ohio History Connection "The African American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920."
Sam Milai of the Pittsburgh Courier. A digital exhibit of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. Sam Milai was an artist and cartoonist for the Pittsburgh Courier for 33 years. He won the National Newspaper Publisher's Association Russwurn trophy for the best cartoon 8 times during his career. Milai also created a feature titled Facts about the Negro that celebrated the accomplishments of people of color.
Slowpoke Comics by Jen Sorensen. Slowpoke made its debut as a weekly strip in 1998, and has since won six awards from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.
Recommended Reading:
American political prints, 1766-1876: a catalog of the collections in the Library of Congress. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1991.
The house that Jonathan built, or, Political primer for 1832 ... With twelve cuts ... Philadelphia, P. Banks, 1832.
Darnton, Robert. The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. New York: Basic Books, 1984.
Dower, John W. War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. New York : Pantheon Books, 1986.
Harkins, Anthony. Hillbilly: A cultural History of an American Icon. New York : Oxford University Press, 2004.
Keen, Sam. Faces of the Enemy: Reflections of the Hostile Imagination. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986.
Klausen, Jytte. The cartoons that Shook the World. New Haven, [Conn.]: Yale University Press, 2009.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York : HarperPerennial, 1994.
Press, Charles. The Political Cartoon. Rutherford [N.J.]: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1981.
Reilly, Bernard. American Political Prints, 1766-1876: A Catalog of the Collections in the Library of Congress. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1991.