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"Out, damned 'spots'"
Herb Block adapted a quote from Shakespeare's Macbeth and depicted an outraged television viewer reacting angrily to the thirty-second television campaign advertisements called "spots." While spot advertisements on television had played a role in political elections since 1952, the amount of money candidates spent on them soared with the 1970 election. Mean-spirited spots, which candidates used to attack their opponents rather than address issues, also increased in number.
Published in The Washington Post, October 6, 1970.
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing.
Herbert L. Block Collection
Prints and Photographs Division (36)
Digital ID # ppmsca-12000
The Library of CongressExhibitions
Home - Introduction - Online Exhibition - Learn More - Checklist of Objects - Acknowledgments
ONLINE EXHIBITION
"You wanted something modern, didn't you?"
Herb Block poked fun at the 1966 election reform law by likening it to a modernist sculpture, which he fashioned from an assemblage of disparate, outdated auto parts. President Lyndon Johnson had called on Congress in May to pass legislation to update outmoded regulations for election campaign financing and advocated tax deductions for campaign contributions. The Campaign Contribution Law, passed by Congress in October of 1966, provided for direct subsidy of presidential elections, but the measure was attacked as an unworkable hodgepodge of old and new that would never prevent bribery of elected officials through campaign contributions.
Published in The Washington Post, October 25, 1966.
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing.
Herbert L. Block Collection
Prints and Photographs Division (37)
Digital ID # ppmsca-12001
The Library of CongressExhibitions
Home - Introduction - Online Exhibition - Learn More - Checklist of Objects - Acknowledgments
ONLINE EXHIBITION
"You mean some can and don't do it?"
In his reminder to vote on November 7, 1950, Herb Block conveyed his own global perspective on the priceless value of voting rights. Two ragged drudges, who are portrayed as physically oppressed by the yoke of totalitarianism, express incredulity that U.S. citizens with the precious right to vote sometimes choose not to exercise it. In the fall of 1950, an off year for elections, the news media gave notable attention to stories about voter registration drives and the expectation of high voter turnouts in close races in New York City, Ohio, and Chicago.
Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party
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Item Title: Campaign in Colorado [donkey with National Woman's Party sign advocating opposition to Democratic Party]
Created/Published: 1916 [Oct.-Nov.]
Notes and Summary: Photograph of donkey (symbol of Democratic Party) with sign on back, "It means freedom for women to vote against the party this donkey represents." Title transcribed from item, with additional information derived by Library of Congress staff. Photograph published in The Suffragist, 4, no. 46 (Nov. 11, 1916): 5.
Subjects: United States--Colorado Democratic Party--Symbols National Woman's Party Suffragists--United States--1910-1920 Women--Suffrage--Colorado Photographs
Object Type: still image
Medium: 1 photograph: print; 4.5 x 6.5 in.
Call Number
Location: National Woman's Party Records, Group I, Container I:159, Folder: Campaign of 1916
Part of: Records of the National Woman's Party
Repository: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital ID: mnwp 159017