Thomas Nast: The Great Refracting Telescope at Washington, D.C.

In May of 1881, Thomas Nast took on the Star Route scandal in Harper's Weekly. Postmaster-General James is shown using the 26-inch aperture "Great Equatorial" telescope to investigate "The Star Route Ring." Nast urges him to find "the whole truth, even if the heavens fall." The cartoonist offers up an elaborate zodiac where Gemini is represented by the twins "Tweed Ring" and "Star Ring." Nast's readers, of course, would be familiar with his frequent criticism of Tammany Hall's "Boss" Tweed, so here he gets to equate the two scandals.

Thomas Nast
The Great Refracting Telescope at Washington, D.C.
Postmaster-General James, let us have the whole truth, even if the political heavens fall.
Harper's Weekly, May 28, 1881, p. 352

The page is offered for sale by the Argosy Book Store in New York:

Thomas Nast
Argosy Book Store listing accessed June 21, 2025

https://www.argosybooks.com/pages/books/321557/thomas-nast-harpers-weekly/the-great-refracting-telescope-at-washington-d-c

Note:  For more information, follow the aqua link to Wikipedia's page on the Star Route scandal. There's also more to be learned about the 26-inch "Great Equatorial" telescope that was once located in Washington, D.C.

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Charles E. Martin: Observed in the Observatory

Original New Yorker art by cartoonist Charles E. Martin, or C.E.M., was auctioned by Bonhams on December 5. It dates from 1971, a time when it was not unusual for drawings to take up three-quarters, or even more, of the printed page. The elaborate cartoon depicts a large telescope within an observatory. Two small figures, evidently astronomers, stand on an elevated platform, one of them looking through the eyepiece and reporting his observation. Large cartoons like this one have seemingly disappeared from the magazine in recent years. As a result, such a grand representation of scale is difficult for artists to convey today in The New Yorker anywhere but on the cover. Yet scale can be deceiving, as the caption reveals.

"I seem to be eyeball to eyeball with a Canada goose."
Charles E. Martin
Original art
The New Yorker, May 8, 1971, p. 41

"I seem to be eyeball to eyeball with a Canada goose."
Charles E. Martin
Framed original art
The New Yorker, May 8, 1971, p. 41

Charles E. Martin
Freeman's listing accessed November 20, 2022

https://www.freemansauction.com/auction/lot/lot-39-charles-martin-american-1910-1995/?lot=577768&so=0&st=&sto=0&au=5654&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=0&pp=96&pn=1&g=1

"I seem to be eyeball to eyeball with a Canada goose."
Charles E. Martin
Original art
The New Yorker, May 8, 1971, p. 41

Verse by W. H. Auden, a spot drawing, and a cartoon by Charles E. Martin

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1971-05-08/flipbook/040/

The Martin cartoon sold yesterday at auction for $882, less than the low estimate even with the premium.

Spot drawing
Artist unidentified

Note:  Kindly identify the spot artist, above, for me if you can and then I will be able to do the same for everyone. That spot artist handles the small scale as well as Charles E. Martin handles his large-scale composition. Images of other original art by CEM (I'll leave the periods to him) would be welcome for use on the blog in future posts.

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