Art and imagery have been around for centuries upon centuries. The utilization of such a imaginative outlet has infinite possibilities when an artist sits down to create their masterpiece. But how could drawings and paintings have an impact on the political scene? Political cartoons are described as a visual commentary expressing the artist’s opinion. They’re extremely popular to find in newspapers and articles describing political problems or issues of the time period in which it was created. The earliest known cartoon was published in Ben Franklin’s The Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9th, 1754. It acted as part of an editorial where Franklin described the “present disunited state of the British colonies.” In the image, a picture of a severed snake labeled with the abbreviations of the British colonies. Along with the picture, the caption is written in capital letters, reading “join or die.”

But why are political cartoons considered so monumental throughout history, seeing as they’ve been around for all this time? In the early publications of newspapers, education wasn’t deemed as important as working on the farm for your family. Majority of lower class citizens were illiterate, being unable to read or write in their native language. Due to this, publication of cartoons helped for these individuals to grasp an idea of what issues were plaguing the government and political scene at the time. Despite the fact most were still unable to fully understand what the image was trying to convey, their interpretation of it slightly increased the vague understanding they had on the issue previously.

As time has carried on and people have since learned to read, write, and educate themselves, political cartoons still remain in modern day newspapers and magazines. Their use has remained the same, only for a different reason this time. The images are published in order to educate individuals who don’t have the time nor resources to research or read about current problems. In spite of the fact the media is a huge portion of most lives, it has proven to be much more attention-catching than a headline followed by paragraphs upon paragraphs of text. Who knows if or when political cartoons will stop being relevant in society, but for now, their presence throughout history has been significant.