Duke University LibrariesRare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Section 2

In 1894, Joseph Pulitzer installed a color printing press and turned the monochromatic world of newsprint upside down by introducing color comics into the Sunday papers. Each Sunday, the front page of the comic supplement featured a full, one-panel, color cartoon which addressed current social topics, popular culture, national politics, or issues on the world stage. Promoted as a color supplement, the comic section also displayed a good bit of text, black and white line drawings, and single color cartoons.

The following images include two examples of the front page cartoon from The World's Sunday comic supplement and the complete eight-page comic supplement from Sunday, February 20, 1898.

The Question of the Hour Who Sent Me That? Uttered by a Chorus of Celebrities Exploration Fad Reversed: We {United States, England, Germany, Russia} Are Discovered!! The American Sky-Scraper is a Modern Tower of Babel Black and white text with a few line drawings
Black and white text with a political cartoon about Dole and Hawaii The New Bully's First Victory and Fuss and Fun in Feathers Say George Washington Would You Have Told the Truth If--- / The Wood Pecker: Day by Day New Uses for an Old Bird Black and white text interspersed with cartoon panels
Black and white text interspersed with cartoon panels The Chicks and the Chinks Find Names and Mose Celebrates / Lariat Luke and His Sombrero