From the exhibition
The Judge, Vol. 6, No. 140
· June 21, 1884

This cover from Judge depicts a confrontation at a harbor between two anthropomorphic bombs—one a tall, menacing dynamite stick with a stern face, the other a round naval mine labeled 'Imported' wearing a small hat and jacket. The dynamite bomb, holding a club, towers over the frightened mine while ships and dock buildings recede in the background. The caption reads: "O'Dyni Mite Bomb, Esq.—'Yees fellows moight as well give it up. I'm boss now!'" Published during the height of labor unrest and anarchist fears of the 1880s, the cartoon satirizes anxieties about foreign-made explosives and radical violence. Judge, the Republican-leaning weekly, used such imagery to exploit public concerns about anarchism and industrial sabotage, framing imported threats as inferior to American homegrown dangers—a commentary on both nativism and the era's violent labor conflicts.
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