The Funeral of Old Tammany

The sort of thing the New York State Library should have been filled with if had it ever been a "real" library, legitimated foremost by a proper focus on chronicling and protecting the political history of the State. Instead, it was the whim and the feeding trough of a revolving door of self-aggrandizing gangsters, originally at the service of a landed aristocracy, then in cahoots with robber barons and corporate thieves. Given the balance of corruption that is America's two-party politics, it's doubtful any attempt was ever made to document criticism of the system, unless of course, it was to gather up all the original and primary sources and then torch them in the night, and then sing gleefully about it a few weeks later at an annual political  roast held by a group of Albany legislative journalists.



Title: The Funeral of Old Tammany. Printed Broadsheet, published in New York, by H. R. Robinson, circa 1836.

For sale by James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, in New York City. Price: US $1250.00

The Funeral of Old Tammany. Printed broadside showing a funeral procession with the hearse in the lead being driven by the editor of the Courier and Enquirer. Among the mourners are also the editors for The Times and The Truth Teller. From various of the mourners are inscriptions inside balloons. To the right in the background is a view of Tammany Hall with a flag at half mast. Printed under the title is "This mournful ceremony took place in the City of New York on the 10th day of November 1836. The lamented individual had been long subject to a vast complication of disorders, whic[h] though combatted with great skill and perseverance by, Doctors, Humbug, Monopoly & Office, at last carried him off. The symptoms became extremely alarming on Robinson, H[enry]. R

The comments of the mourners include a fireman in the background asking "Who killed Old Tammany?" Another fireman beside him answers "James Gulick." This is a reference to the excitement of the election of Tammany opponent James Gulick, deposed Chief of the Fire Department, to the office of Register. Relatively little is known about Henry R. Robinson. He was located at 48 and 52 Courtlandt Street in New York in 1836-7, where he worked largely as a caricaturist. His primary output was graphic humor and political cartoons, and he drew on stone most of the unsigned prints he published. His cartoons "are important, and spirited, have long speeches in 'balloons,' often appear colored, but are sometimes difficult to understand without delving into detailed history of the politics of the times." (Peters, American on Stone, pp. 337-8.) The only known historical reference to Robinson is in Frederick Hudson's History of Journalism in America (1873), which notes that Robinson "lined the curbstones and covered the old fences of New York with his peculiarly characteristic caricatures during Jackson's and Van Buren's administrations . ." Image area is approx. 19 1/4" l x 11 1/4", in 27 1/4" x 15 3/4" frame. . Some minor chipping, trimmed with minor loss to text, inked stamp in upper right corner above Tammany Hall ("From the United States Bazaar. No. 324 North Market St. Albany N.Y."), otherwise a very nice piece. See A History of American Graphic Humor, pp. 171-2. Bookseller Inventory # 234396

January 4, 2012, Associated Press / Albany Times Union, Key NY document from 1775 on display at Capitol, by Chris Carola,