Teaching with Primary Sources at Pop Culture Con

On May 31st and June 1st at Denver Pop Culture Con, Teaching with Primary Sources Western Region presented two interesting topics on using historical comics in the classroom. The first presentation, What the Yellow Kid and early comics can tell us about fake news, examines two news publications in New York at the turn of the 19th century and the height of Yellow Journalism.

The Back Story:

Joseph Pulitzer owned and published New York’s largest and most widely read newspaper, the New York World, from 1883-1911. Deciding to enter the Eastern US market, William Randolph Heart acquired the New York Journal and began in a circulation war with Pulizter’s paper.

The big type war of the yellow kids: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/95508199/

In an interview in 1902, Outcault notes, “The Yellow Kid was not an individual but a type. When I used to go about the slums on newspaper assignments I would encounter him often, wandering out of doorways or sitting down on dirty doorsteps. I always loved the Kid. He had a sweet character and a sunny disposition, and was generous to a fault. Malice, envy or selfishness were not traits of his, and he never lost his temper.” In the middle of this war was the technical drawing artist, R.F. Outcault, who originally worked for Pulizter and was poached by Hearst in 1896. During his time at the World, Outcault created the Yellow Kid comic character and setting after spending time in the New York tenements on and around Mulberry Street. It is important to note, as well, that the Yellow Kid comics were widely read by the resident immigrants of the New York tenements, and was praised for not just being social commentary, but as a comedic representation of everyday life. It looked at New York the same way that the common citizens saw it, unlike other more high-brow publications. The Yellow Kid made people laugh about their own lives, no matter how poor it was for some. The Yellow Kid first appeared on June 2, 1894 in Truth Magazine as a secondary character in the single panel comic, “Feudal Pride in Hogan’s Alley.” He was a racist caricature of an Irish immigrant, though a stereotype we no longer recognize today. Named Mickey Dugan, he is known for his small beady eyes, big ears, missing teeth, and bald head because of the rampant lice problem in the New York tenements. It wasn’t until after newspapers were able to print in color that Mickey Dugan’s oversized shirt was given the color of yellow, thus deeming him the Yellow Kid, and subsequently helping to coin the term ‘Yellow Journalism’. Unsuccessful copyright request when Outcault moved to the Journal.

Yellow Journalism:

Yellow Journalism is essentially what we call fake news today. It is sensationalist, misleading, and often out-right false news published for a particularly bias purpose, typically for the sake of selling newspapers, though often with a political agenda as well. It can be easily compared to clickbait, photoshopped images, and in-your-face narratives that lend itself to one side over the other.

The yellow press / L.M. Glackens.

https://www.loc.gov/item/2011647630/ “The time is at hand when these journalistic scoundrels have got to stop or get out, and I am ready now to do my share to that end. They are absolutely without souls. If decent people would refuse to look at such newspapers the whole thing would right itself at once. The journalism of New York City has been dragged to the lowest depths of degradation. The grossest railleries and libels, instead of honest statements and fair discussion, have gone unchecked.”– From Mayor Gaynor’s letter published in the New York Evening Post.

Historical Context – Sinking of USS Maine – Spanish American War

  The second presentation, Teaching in the Gutter: Integrating Comics and Primary Sources, contains some useful resources on historical comics and activities to use in the classroom. Teaching in the gutter means findings spots to add in primary sources to help fill in historical contextual information to help build student’s understanding and knowledge of the time period under study.

Extra Teaching Activities Using Comics:

• Zoom in with the Yellow Kid
• Pop Culture Classroom’s Colorful History
• Japanese Incarceration Comic
  • Primary Source Connection
• Buffalo Bill Comic
  • Primary Source Connection
• Chief Ouray – Ute Peacemaker Comic
  • Primary Source Connection

Comics at the Library of Congress:

• Chronicling America
• New York Journal
• Puck Collection
• Webcomics Archive
• Cartoon Drawings
• Swann Collection of Caricature and Cartoon
• Beyond Words
• Colorado Encyclopedia

The Yellow Kid at the Library of Congress:

• [The Yellow Kid, he meets Tige and Mary Jane and]
• The Yellow Dugan Kid
• [McFadden’s Row of flats inauguration of the football season in McFadden’s Row] / R.F. Outcault.
• The Sunday World Oct. 18
• Before Bang! Pow! Zap!
• Image 8 of New York journal (New York [N.Y.]), January 3, 1897, (American Humorist)
• New York journal and advertiser (New York [N.Y.]), November 21, 1897
• New York journal (New York [N.Y.]), November 1, 1896
• Image 43 of New York journal (New York [N.Y.]), November 1, 1896, (AMERICAN HUMORIST)
• Image 45 of New York journal (New York [N.Y.]), November 1, 1896, (AMERICAN HUMORIST)
• Image 4 of New York journal and advertiser (New York [N.Y.]), October 31, 1897, (AMERICAN HUMORIST)
• Image 8 of New York journal and advertiser (New York [N.Y.]), April 4, 1897, (AMERICAN HVMERIST)
• Image 4 of New York journal and advertiser (New York [N.Y.]), April 4, 1897, (AMERICAN HVMERIST)
• Honor to McKinley! / Keppler.
• The Lucrezia Borgia of journalism
• The yellow press / L.M. Glackens.
• The fin de siècle newspaper proprietor / F. Opper.