<Go back to the People Index results>


NORTH BEND GAME COCK.
   
Complete Explanation:
A Whig campaign print glorifying presidential candidate William Henry Harrison. The title derives from the candidate's farm on the North Bend of the Ohio River. The game cock has a dual significance: as an allusion to Harrison's military virtue and as a Whig party symbol.

A formidable-looking gamecock stands with one foot on a large ball (inscribed "Stop That Party Bawl") and crows, "Tippecanoo Canoo-oo-oo." The giant ball was a Democratic symbol initially associated with Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton. (See "N. Tom O' Logical Studies," no. 1837-14.)

In the sky overhead is an eagle with an American flag and the words, "The Nation Is Whig! Tell Chapman to Crow." In the middle ground is a log cabin, and in the distance a neoclassical building--presumably the White House--flying a flag with the motto, "Union of the Whigs for the sake of the Union."

The print is signed "Nosey," evidently another of Napoleon Sarony's pseudonyms. The broad-crayon lithographic technique is a distinctive feature of Sarony prints like "The New Era or the Effects of a Standing Army" (no. 1840-3). The present work is dedicated to "Robert C. Wetmore Esq. President of the North Bend Association of New York" by the publisher.


Website design © 2010 HarpWeek, LLC
All Content © 1998-2010 HarpWeek, LLC
Please submit questions to webmaster@harpweek.com