Puck cover — October 30, 1912

Puck was the first American humor magazine to publish full-color political cartoons on a weekly schedule. It was founded in St. Louis in 1876 by the Austrian-born cartoonist Joseph Keppler and his business partner Adolph Schwarzmann, appearing first as a German-language weekly; an English-language edition followed in 1877. The magazine soon relocated to New York City, where from 1887 it was printed in the landmark Puck Building at Lafayette and Houston streets, at the time the world’s largest lithographic press house under a single roof. Each issue carried a full-color political cartoon on the front cover, a non-political cartoon on the back, and a double-page color centerfold. Notable cartoonists included Keppler himself, Louis Dalrymple, Bernhard Gillam, Frederick Burr Opper, J. S. Pughe, and Frank A. Nankivell. After the Hearst conglomerate bought the title in 1916, subscriptions collapsed, and the final English-language issue appeared on September 5, 1918.

Source: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division. This work is in the public domain in the United States.