The modern sword of Damocles – Vintage Print
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
This antique lithograph of The modern sword of Damocles brings a moment of history to your wall. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.
Choose the framed print, ready to hang the day it arrives, or the unframed print for a frame of your own. A fine choice for anyone who loves history, and a gift that gets noticed. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past, founded in 2001, has served tens of thousands of customers worldwide.
The modern sword of Damocles
Order a print
Thank you. Your order went through, and a receipt is on its way by email.
Secure checkout · SSL encryptedPowered by Stripe and PayPal
Free shipping in the lower 48 states. The checkout page shows the picture, size and price before you pay.
The cover of Puck for February 4, 1903 carries this lithograph by Joseph Keppler, who helped build the magazine into one of the most influential American humor weeklies of its day. Its title borrows the old legend of Damocles, the courtier who sat beneath a sword hung by a single hair, and applies it to the labor unrest of the period. The caption tracings point to strikes and the coal industry, so the cartoon likely treats a coal dispute as a danger hanging over the public. Keppler's pictorial cover cartoons often used such classical allusions to comment on current affairs, which makes this a useful example of how the press framed industrial conflict in the early twentieth century.
| Created / published | 1903 |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 print : lithograph. |
| Subjects | Lithograph by Keppler. Illus. in: Puck, 1903 Feb. 4, v. 52, cover. This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Caption card tracings: Mythology--Damocles; Strikes; Industry--Coal; Industry--Misc.; Publ. Ind.; Cartoons, U.S.; Shelf. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 1,181 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-141896 |
More from the Historic Print Archive collection
Snapshots of the Past helps heritage brands, museums, historians and storytellers tell stories with history: historic prints, image licensing and historical storytelling drawn from more than 25 years of research and curation.
![[Anti-trust cartoons]: Nursery Rhymes for Infant Industries, No. 15: 'O' is the Oil Trust, a modern Bill Sikes; he defies the police, and does just as he likes](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/6a/6a0bc47edfa8-400.webp)
![[Man holding sword and head of decapitated, dismembered body in background]](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/86/86031814f66a-400.webp)
![[Advertisement for Westinghouse automatic engine]](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/48/48a88d06ac3f-400.webp)
