BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Library of Congress -- Exhibit: Herblock Gallery (2014)

DC -- Library of Congress -- Exhibit: Herblock Gallery (2014):

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Description of Pictures: Herblock Looks at 1964: Fifty Years Ago in Editorial Cartoons, Part I
Exhibition dates: April 5, 2014–September 13, 2014
During the first year of his presidency, Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973) made the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a priority, honoring slain President John F. Kennedy’s (1917–1963) legacy. The legislation continues to prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin and dominates the memory of American life fifty years ago. Herblock had long championed equality and civil rights for African Americans through his political cartoons.
After Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, however, Herblock did not attack Johnson or his policies. His attention was drawn to the Republican Party and its internal discord between the moderate course favored by Nelson Rockefeller (1908–1979) and the right-wing politics of Barry Goldwater (1909–1998). Their rancor came to the fore in the 1964 presidential campaign. Herblock also emphasized the need for gun control to protect America’s children. Having quit smoking after a heart attack in 1959, the cartoonist also frequently used his pen as a weapon against the tobacco industry. Internationally, Herblock understood the different interpretations of communism in China and the Soviet Union, which led to increased political tension in the world.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 3.135.190.232 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

Share: Facebook Twitter Digg
[1] LOCHER_140429_001.JPG	[2] LOCHER_140429_004.JPG	[3] LOCHER_140429_010.JPG	[4] LOCHER_140429_017.JPG	[5] LOCHER_140429_024.JPG
[6] LOCHER_140429_031.JPG	[7] LOCHER_140429_040.JPG	[8] LOCHER_140429_045.JPG	[9] LOCHER_140429_049.JPG	[10] LOCHER_140429_060.JPG
[11] LOCHER_140429_067.JPG	[12] LOCHER_140429_070.JPG	[13] LOCHER_140429_074.JPG	[14] LOCHER_140429_080.JPG	[15] LOCHER_140429_086.JPG
[16] LOCHER_140429_088.JPG	[17] LOCHER_140429_091.JPG	[18] LOCHER_140429_094.JPG	[19] LOCHER_140429_102.JPG	[20] LOCHER_140429_106.JPG
[21] LOCHER_140429_117.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. LOCHER_140429_004.JPG: CIGARET BOX Herblock suffered a major heart attack in 1959 and quit smoking during his recovery. In 1964, his bold image of a coffin-shaped cigarette box dramatically linked smoking to death. As a reformed smoker, he raised public awareness of the negative health issues related to tobacco use. Here, he reinforced the message of a lengthy report issued by a special advisory committee to Public Health Service Surgeon General Dr. Luther L. Terry (1911–1985). The report documented how cigarette smoking can cause cancer and other debilitating illnesses. Cigaret Box, 1964. Published in the Washington Post, January 14, 1964.
2. LOCHER_140429_010.JPG: “HEY, LISTEN—FOR JUST A LITTLE MORE WE CAN GET A REAL ONE” By depicting two children looking at both a sales catalog for real guns and a store window display of toy guns, Herblock pointed out the continuing problem of unregulated mail-order purchases of firearms. Just four months earlier, President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, using a weapon that he had ordered through the mail. Connecticut Senator Thomas J. Dodd (1907–1971) attempted to introduce legislation to inform local police of mail order purchases but found no congressional support. “Hey, Listen—For Just a Little More We Can Get a Real One,” 1964. Published in the Washington Post, February 21, 1964, as “Hey, Listen—For Just a Little Bit More We Can Get a Real One.” Reprinted in 1971.
3. LOCHER_140429_017.JPG: DARKNESS AT HIGH NOON After learning that Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong (1893–1976) had called Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) a “capitulationist” for his policy of peaceful co-existence with the West, Herblock expected a showdown between the two great Communist leaders. Khrushchev retorted “There are some people in the world calling themselves Communists, . . .who do not consider it important to strive for a better life, but call only for the making of revolution.” Both men heavily affected countries under their sphere of influence, but no outright war between China and the Soviet Union occurred. Darkness at High Noon, 1964. Published in the Washington Post, April 7, 1964.
4. LOCHER_140429_024.JPG: APPROACHING MOMENT OF TRUTH Herblock represented the use of a filibuster to prevent a vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, with a bullfight metaphor evoking the sword of cloture as the weapon to end the non-stop talking. Herblock anticipated the Senate vote to pass the legislation. However, Republicans refused to vote for cloture until after the California primary, when Senator Barry Goldwater had secured enough votes for his nomination. The Senate, feeling enormous public pressure, finally approved the legislation and sent it back to the House on June 19, 1964. Approaching Moment of Truth, 1964. Published in the Washington Post, May 22, 1964.
5. LOCHER_140429_031.JPG: GREAT DEBATE Republican senators Thomas H. Kuchel (1910–1994) of California and Jacob K. Javits (1904–1986) of New York, feared that nominating Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater for the 1964 presidential election would be suicide for the Republican Party. The liberal Republicans promised to sit out the election if Goldwater received the nomination. Herblock echoed the fears of a Washington Post editorial, “If the Republican Party shrinks into its own extremist, right-wing fragment, it will be dangerous to our whole political system.” Great Debate, 1964. Published in the Washington Post, May 12, 1964.
6. LOCHER_140429_040.JPG: Herblock Gallery Herblock Looks at 1964: Fifty Years Ago in Editorial Cartoons During the first year of his presidency, Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973) made the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a priority, honoring slain President John F. Kennedy's (1917–1963) legacy. The legislation continues to prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin and dominates the memory of American life fifty years ago. Herblock had long championed equality and civil rights for African Americans through his political cartoons. After Kennedy's assassination in 1963, however, Herblock did not attack Johnson or his policies. His attention was drawn to the Republican Party and its internal discord between the moderate course favored by Nelson Rockefeller (1908–1979) and the right-wing politics of Barry Goldwater (1909–1998). Their rancor came to the fore in the 1964 presidential campaign. Herblock also emphasized the need for gun control to protect America's children. Having quit smoking after a heart attack in 1959, the cartoonist also frequently used his pen as a weapon against the tobacco industry. Internationally, Herblock understood the different interpretations of communism in China and the Soviet Union, which led to increased political tension in the world.
7. LOCHER_140429_045.JPG: “SAFE!” Baseball was one of Herblock’s favorite visual metaphors for the game of politics. Here he used the slide into home plate as a celebration for the end of the 54-day filibuster that delayed passage of the Civil Rights Act in the Senate until June 19, 1964. The House agreed to the Senate’s language and ended the era of Jim Crow legalized segregation. President Johnson signed the bill into law on July 2, 1964. “Safe!” 1964. Published in the Washington Post, June 21, 1964.
8. LOCHER_140429_049.JPG: HANDWRITING ON THE WALL Taking his quote directly from the Supreme Court decision that ruled against the closing of public schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia, on May 25, 1964, Herblock warned that local tactics could not undo the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that supported integration. Angered by the actions of the Virginia segregationists, Herblock later wrote that the denial of education to African American children for four years “stands as one of the most wanton and cruel acts ever performed by any political machine in the entire history of our nation.” Handwriting on the Wall, 1964. Published in the Washington Post, May 31, 1964.
9. LOCHER_140429_060.JPG: “THIS IS THE END OF ANTI-CIVILIZATION AS WE’VE KNOWN IT” Herblock showed pro-segregation advocates as jailers with instruments of torture. After the Supreme Court ruled against the School Board of Prince Edward County on May 25, 1964, West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd (1917–2010) refused to vote for cloture to end the filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Prince Edward County schools, located southwest of Richmond, were closed for four years to prevent desegregation. By 1964, ten years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, 10% of schoolchildren south of the Mason Dixon line still experienced desegregation. “This Is the End of Anti-civilization As We’ve Known It,” 1964. Published in the Washington Post, May 26, 1964.
10. LOCHER_140429_067.JPG: "A cartoon does not tell everything about a subject. It's not supposed to. No written piece tells everything either. As far as words are concerned, there is no safety in numbers. The test of a written or drawn commentary is whether it gets at an essential truth." -- Herblock
11. LOCHER_140429_070.JPG: HALF SLAVE AND HALF FREE Herblock waited for Senate approval of the 1964 Civil Rights, portraying the bill as a slave in limbo, half-free by the House of Representatives approval of the legislation on February 10. He used the visual metaphor of a ball and chain to represent Southern resistance to the Senate filibuster that began on March 9. On June 10, 1964, three months later, the filibuster ended when the majority of senators agreed to vote for cloture. President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law on July 2, 1964. Half Slave and Half Free, 1964. Published in the Washington Post, February 13, 1964.
12. LOCHER_140429_074.JPG: “AND, OVER HERE, THE ENEMY —PEOPLE” After an incident in which police used fire hoses and clubs to beat back a student demonstration on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Herblock accused law enforcement of targeting African Americans as the enemy. On February 26, 1964, police attacked students from the historically black Maryland State College (now University of Maryland Eastern Shore) when they marched to desegregate restaurants in the town of Princess Anne. Fifty-seven students were injured from dog bites, hosing, and billy stick wounds. The local Student Appeal for Equality (SAFE) invited Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Chairman John Lewis (born 1940) to visit and report the police brutality. “And, Over Here, the Enemy—People,” 1964. Published in the Washington Post, February 28, 1964.
13. LOCHER_140429_080.JPG: Herbert Lawrence Block (1909-2001), who signed his editorial cartoons as "Herblock," graced newspaper editorial pages for seventy-two years starting in 1929. His career began at the Chicago Daily News and the Newspaper Enterprise Association Service (NEA). During World War II, Block worked as an artist in the Army. In 1946, he moved to Washington DC, where he became a featured contributor at the Washington Post for more than fifty-five years. While at the Post, Herblock won three Pulitzer Prizes and numerous other awards for his work. Politically independent and a champion of the little guy, Herblock spared no one from the wrath of his art. His pointed commentaries offer an opportunity to reflect on history and culture -- how much has changed and what remains the same. This gallery's rotating selection of ten cartoons also highlights Block's mastery of pencil and ink brush drawing.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Description of Subject Matter: Herblock Gallery
March 18, 2011–Ongoing
The Herblock Gallery celebrates the work of editorial cartoonist Herbert L. Block—better known as "Herblock"—with an ongoing display of ten original drawings, to change every six months, drawn from the Library's extensive Herbert L. Block Collection.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].