Growing up, there was one other place in the Vindicator I would go beside the comic section for cartoons and that was the editorial page for the political cartoons. Political cartoonists taught me that politicians made some of the best comic figures, often because they took themselves too seriously, and didn’t realize how funny this might look to others.

Not until this week did I know that one of the great American political cartoonists of all time grew up in Youngstown. Grant E. Hamilton was born in the city on August 16, 1862. He was the son of Homer and Adeline Hamilton, an old Youngstown family, who lived at 111 Woodland Ave. There is little information about his growing up years and it appears that by age 20 he was in New York City. The earliest cartoon online is from January 17, 1883 in the New York Daily Graphic. By 1884, his work appears in Judge, a New York magazine of political satire allied with the Republican party. He worked for the magazine over twenty years, becoming its art editor.

He supported the candidacy of William McKinley, who had strong ties to the Mahoning Valley, in both 1892 and 1896. Perhaps his most famous cartoon (which I could not find online) was his “full dinner pail” cartoon in support of McKinley, against William Jennings Bryan. Here is a sampling of his cartoons:

The one on the left appeared in Judge in 1884 showing Tammany Hall’s “Boss” Kelly in the aftermath of the 1884 Democratic convention that chose Grover Cleveland, perched on Kelly’s right arm. The center cartoon attacks William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speeches during the 1896 campaign against McKinley. The caption underneath (not visible here) reads “The Sacrilegious Candidate. No man who drags into the dust the most sacred symbols of the Christian world is fit to be president of the United States.” The one on the right is from 1899, showing an unhappy baby (with a spear no less!). The caption reads “The Filipino’s First Bath. McKinley–‘Oh, you dirty boy!’ ” After the Spanish-American war in 1898, the Philippines, following a rebellion seeking independence under Emilio Aguinaldo, essentially became an American colony. McKinley saw our mission as one of uplift, to have a civilizing and Christianizing influence on the islands, hence the bath of “the dirty boy.” The baby is thought to be a caricature of Aguinaldo.

Obviously, Hamilton could be as biting in his political satire as any political cartoonist today. His services were much in demand and he was art editor at points for Leslie’s Weekly and The Graphic as well. He also contributed cartoons for Puck and Life. During World War I, he was chief of the government art bureau. By the 1920’s he was in ill health and left New York around 1924 to move to California, hoping the climate would rejuvenate his health. He died two years later, on April 17, 1926. At the time of his death, he had two brothers living in Youngstown, John and Nick, and a brother Scott, living in New Castle.

Hamilton’s story is one largely in outline and much of what we know of him is associated with his work. It would be a fascinating project to learn about his Youngstown years and how he got his start in political satire.

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!