Through Sun­day, Jan. 4, 2009 · Mil­berg Gallery, Fire­stone Library

Curator’s tours of the exhibit on Sept. 28 and Nov. 2. at 3 p.m.

An exhi­bi­tion on view at Prince­ton University’s Fire­stone Library con­firms through paper and ink what many Amer­i­can vot­ers already sus­pect: Although the polit­i­cal can­di­dates may change, many issues remain the same.

Titled “Sketch­ing Their Char­ac­ters: 150 Years of Polit­i­cal Car­toons From Andrew Jack­son to George H.W. Bush,” the exhi­bi­tion fea­tures pri­mar­ily orig­i­nal pen and ink edi­to­r­ial car­toons dat­ing from 1828 to 1992 focus­ing on pres­i­den­tial elec­tions. Works of Thomas Nast, among other notable polit­i­cal car­toon­ists, are on dis­play in the library’s Mil­berg Gallery until Sun­day, Jan. 4.

Ques­tions about qual­i­fi­ca­tions, the ser­vice or bur­den of past actions, the influ­ence of money on the polit­i­cal process, back­room deals that sub­vert the will of the peo­ple and asper­sions on the can­di­dates them­selves have tick­led and out­raged gen­er­a­tions of car­toon­ists and their read­ers. Cura­tors Jen­nifer Cole, Daniel Linke and Daniel San­ta­maria have selected items from three col­lec­tions held at the Mudd Man­u­script Library as well as the hold­ings of the Graphic Arts Division.

“This was the most enter­tain­ing exhi­bi­tion I have ever done,” said Linke, who has curated more than a dozen. “Review­ing polit­i­cal car­toons from over the decades was like an illus­trated polit­i­cal his­tory les­son — or a graphic novel.”

“Some of the car­toons are down­right funny, but oth­ers will make you won­der if any­thing at all has really changed with Amer­i­can pol­i­tics,” Linke said. He noted two from 1904 in which both par­ties pur­sue inde­pen­dent vot­ers and accuse the other of being in the pock­ets of “big money,” which cer­tainly could apply to today’s polit­i­cal landscape.

The feroc­ity of the attacks also has not changed, he said, point­ing out those that attacked Franklin D. Roo­sevelt and his deci­sion to run for a third term. “We think of FDR as a revered pres­i­dent, but these car­toons show that in his time, he had plenty of detrac­tors,” Linke said.

A lec­ture by Rut­gers his­tory and jour­nal­ism pro­fes­sor David Green­berg at 3 p.m. Sun­day, Oct. 19, in 101 McCormick Hall will pre­cede a recep­tion for the exhi­bi­tion. Greenberg’s first book, “Nixon’s Shadow: The His­tory of an Image” won the Wash­ing­ton Monthly Polit­i­cal Book Award and the Amer­i­can Jour­nal­ism His­tory Book Award. He is the recip­i­ent of the 2008 Hiett Prize in the Human­i­ties. Awarded by the Dal­las Insti­tute of Human­i­ties and Cul­ture, the prize rec­og­nizes a young scholar whose work shows excep­tional promise.

Hours for the exhi­bi­tion are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon­day through Fri­day, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednes­day and noon to 5 p.m. Sat­ur­day and Sunday.

You may also see 11 of the 37 images on dis­play at the Prince­ton Alumni Weekly’s web­site.