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“Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Tramp Is Coming”

Most images of tramps in the popular press carried an ominous message. In this 1879 full-page cartoon in the satirical magazine Puck, the unemployed tramp represented not only a new form of poverty but a new type of criminal. Having left the darkened city behind him, the tramp was depicted as a disheveled giant lurching down a country road as tiny men, women, children, and farm animals flee his advance.

Source: James A. Wales, “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Tramp Is Coming,” Puck, April 9, 1879—American Social History Project.

Who Built America? An Open Educational Resource has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and funding from The Ford Foundation, Digital Scholar, and the City University of New York Central Office of Library Services. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this Open Educational Resource, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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