The civil rights battle you don’t know

Graphic of a young Black girl looking out the window of a bus at the Glen Echo Amusement Park.

Veteran filmmaker Ilana Trachtman spent a decade researching and documenting the 1960 protest at Glen Echo Amusement Park, one of the nation’s earliest organized demonstrations to end segregation. The artist’s labor of love peaked when she discovered essential footage of a dramatic confrontation that matched an audio recording she’d been holding for years.

  1. A piece of history

    Our first U-M History column tells the story of one of our crown jewels: the Clements Library

  2. Hail Satan!

    When students come to the university, they face a new world that can shake up their whole way of life. Some fear that even their religious faith will be under siege. But surveys – and students themselves, like Lizzy Lovinger (right) – say that keeping the faith is both a challenge and a blessing.

  3. Exactly how much housework does a husband create?

    Having a husband creates an extra seven hours a week of housework for women, according to a U-M study of a nationally representative sample of U.S. families. For men, the picture is very different: A wife saves men from about an hour of housework a week.

  4. Sensors for bat-inspired spy plane under development

    A six-inch robotic spy plane modeled after a bat would gather data from sights, sounds and smells in urban combat zones and transmit information back to a soldier in real time. That’s the Army’s concept, and it has awarded the University of Michigan College of Engineering a five-year, $10-million grant to help make it happen.

  5. Video: U-M 'ballast-free ship' could cut costs while blocking aquatic invaders

    University of Michigan researchers are investigating a radical new design for cargo ships that would eliminate ballast tanks, the water-filled compartments that enable non-native creatures to sneak into the Great Lakes from overseas.

  6. JFK at the Union

    On the anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s ‘Peace Corps’ speech, we look back at how U-M students picked up his challenge to change the world.

An Ungentle Art

Starting in 1990, Australian-born political satirist Pat Oliphant began spending annual periods in residence at U-M’s Wallace House Center for Journalists, where he sketched a wide range of American political figures. A sampling of these images, courtesy of the Wallace House, are displayed in the Clements Library exhibit “An Ungentle Art: Pat Oliphant and the American Tradition of Political Satire.” The sketches provoke conversation around four key themes in American politics: capability, character, corruption, and humiliation. This gallery and text come from the larger online exhibit, which contextualizes Oliphant’s satire with examples of political art from the Clements Library collection, dating from the 1700s to 1900. Click on any image to enlarge.

  • Richard Nixon, charcoal sketch, 2008

    Almost every politician in America loses at some point, and does so very publicly. How candidates handle defeat is presented as a measure of the kind of leader — and person — they are. Political defeat offers satirists a golden opportunity to skewer politicians. Richard Nixon has for several decades served as a useful visual shorthand for political humiliation — even if, as in Pat Oliphant’s sketch here, Nixon was defiantly unrepentant as he was forced to resign.

    Pat Oliphant sketch of Richard Nixon

  • Jimmy Carter and the “Killer Rabbit,” charcoal sketch, 2009

    How do we know who will be a capable leader? Who is ever truly ready to be President? The theme of capability and preparation has been a key touchstone for visual satirists throughout American history. Oliphant deftly skewered candidates who he felt showed themselves incapable of being strong leaders, in this case portraying Jimmy Carter cowering from the “killer rabbit” he encountered while fishing in Georgia in 1979.

    Pat Oliphant charcoal sketch of Jimmy Carter and the “Killer Rabbit,” 2009.

  • George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, charcoal sketch, 2009

    Political satire is not a gentle art — it is meant to leave a mark. Since the heyday of James Gillray and William Hogarth in 18th-century England, visual satirists have been able to “say” things about political leaders in their illustrations that would get writers censored (or worse). As such, it has played an important role in American political culture for over two centuries. Here, Oliphant depicts President George W. Bush as an incompetent child entirely under the command of his older Vice President Dick Cheney.

    Pat Oliphant sketch of George W. Bush being led around by Dick Cheney.

  • Spiro Agnew, charcoal sketch, 2009

    Corruption has long been one of the most appealing themes to political satirists. Few failings are as clear-cut as the use of political power for personal enrichment, and few acts are such explicit betrayals of the public trust. Oliphant frequently pointed to exchanges of money for political favors. Spiro Agnew was an easy target. Agnew resigned as Vice President in 1973 after a trial exposed kickbacks he accepted while governor of Maryland.

    Pat Oliphant, Spiro Agnew, charcoal sketch, 2009.

  • Bob Dole’s eyebrows, charcoal sketch, 1996

    Exaggerating politicians’ physical traits has long been a key element of visual satire. In a time before broadcast media, representation of specific traits made figures recognizable to readers who would likely never have seen that leader in person. Oliphant used Bob Dole’s glowering eyebrows to hint at Dole’s notoriously caustic wit.

    Bob Dole’s eyebrows, charcoal sketch, 1996

  • Ross Perot, charcoal sketch, 1998

    Expert satirists like Oliphant emphasize a single physical trait to comment on a person’s character, and thus their fitness for office. Ross Perot’s Dumbo-esque ears let readers know that the Texas billionaire may be too eccentric and goofy to be President.

    Pat Oliphant, Ross Perot, charcoal sketch, 1998.

  • George H.W. Bush, charcoal sketch, 1998

    Many of the qualities that we most readily associate with political leaders in our past come to us from satirical illustrations, not from things those leaders actually did. This exhibit invites you to think about how visual satire has shaped the way you think about political life in America. What can visual artists say about politics that writers can’t? What role does visual satire play in American political life in an age when most of what we read (and see) is online, rather than in a newspaper?

    Pat Oliphant, George H.W. Bush, charcoal sketch, 1998.