Michael and Susan Kahn collection of political cartoons, 1690-2022

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Summary

Creators:
Kahn, Michael A., 1949-, Kahn, Susan, Kahn, Michael A., 1949-, and Kahn, Susan
Abstract:
The Kahn Collection includes political cartoon art materials created in the United States and internationally covering a variety of subjects offering humorous social commentary and criticism on political topics of the day. The collection totals more than 14,220 items.
Extent:
43.3 linear feet (20 boxes, 1 map folder) and 482 linear feet (482 unprocessed boxes)
Language:
Materials are primarily in English. Some materials are in Afrikaans, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Michael and Susan Kahn collection of political cartoons (Collection 2419). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

The Kahn Collection includes political cartoon art materials created in the United States and internationally covering a variety of subjects offering humorous social commentary and criticism on political topics of the day. The collection totals more than 14,220 items including: approximately 1,047 prints and ephemeral items, 10,778 unbound periodicals, centerspread and single page illustrations, 884 bound periodical volumes, 1,511 books, exhibition catalogs and pamphlets, and 11 record cartons containing research, teaching and subject files. A wide range of different types of works on paper are included in the collection documenting countless subjects and targets of political cartoonists around the world from about 1690 to 2022. Includes original drawings, prints, broadsides, illustrated envelopes, photographs, playing cards, unbound periodicals, bound periodicals, books and pamphlets. Printing methods include engravings, etchings, lithographs, pen and ink, hand coloring, woodblock, presses, and digital printing.

Spanning over three centuries, the Kahn Collection is diverse and international in scope. While many of the subjects are political in nature, there is also a good deal of satirical matter focusing on industry figures, artists, performers, writers, publishers, and others - from well-known celebrity figures to stereotypes of people on all different levels of society. Strengths include: American and British historical political broadsides and prints, newspapers, magazines, bound periodicals and books, pamphlets, and exhibition catalogs; works of Hogarth, Gillray and their contemporaries; portraits and caricatures of Abraham Lincoln and other 19th century American political and industry figures; Thomas Nast published drawings in pamphlets, books, and magazines including Harper's Weekly; and extensive and/or entire runs of some periodicals including Vanity Fair.

The collection includes representation by the cartoonists of at least 59 countries and territories, including: Argentina, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burma/Myanmar, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands/Holland, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia/U.S.S.R., Scotland, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom/Great Britain, the United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam and Yugoslavia.

Biographical / historical:

Michael Kahn was born in Buffalo, New York on February 4, 1949. He moved to Southern California with Otto, his German immigrant father, and Eleanor, his New York-born mother, in 1951 and attended public schools in Los Angeles. He graduated from James Monroe High School in the San Fernando Valley and attended UCLA from 1966-1970, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa and was selected one of twenty honor seniors in a class of several thousand. He subsequently attended Stanford University enrolling simultaneously in the Law School and a PhD political science program. He graduated in 1973 after serving as the book review editor of the Stanford Law Review. He finished the entire PhD program but did not write a thesis and was awarded an MA in Political Science.

In 1973 Mike embarked upon two careers, one as a lawyer and another as a collector of political cartoons. His legal career commenced with a Clerkship with Judge Ben C. Duniway at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and his collecting career commenced with a trove of Puck cartoons purchased at the New Haven Book Barn near Yale. Eventually, Mike would collect tens of thousands of Puck cartoons as he compiled almost a complete run of the magazine which was published from 1877-1918. Mike also co-authored a highly acclaimed book on the history of Puck magazine entitled, What Fools These Mortals Be, the Story of Puck Magazine. Over his fifty-year collecting career Mike exhibited his Puck cartoons numerous times and gave dozens of lectures on the magazine. The highlights of these activities included a memorable program at the New York Historical Society in 2014 introducing the book and a spectacular exhibition of Puck cartoons at the Billy Ireland Museum at the Ohio State University in 2015-2016.

Mike's collecting career took him all over the world as he visited bookstores, museums, antique stores and booksellers' homes to collect books and magazines about or containing political cartoons. Eventually Mike collected cartoons from 59 countries including numerous bound volumes of magazines from the 19th century which were virtually non-existent in the United States. In 2007 Mike displayed the highlights of his collection at the Grolier Club of New York in an exhibition that lasted two months which was accompanied by a catalog containing the best examples of the show. Mike amassed his collection of American cartoons by visiting bookstores and other outlets throughout the United States for over forty years. He also appeared on television shows, panels and programs, radio shows and other media outlets discussing his cartoons. In 2022 his collection was featured in the cover story of Fine Books and Collections magazine. He also sponsored numerous programs which promoted the utilization of political cartoons by secondary and college teachers and professors including the Opper Program at Ohio State University and a lecture series using political cartoons at the University of California, Davis.

In 2005 Mike published the only book ever distributed displaying political cartoons about the Supreme Court and the Constitution entitled May It Amuse the Court. Since then, Mike has delivered dozens of lectures on the subject matter of the book to a wide variety of audiences.

Mike's collecting career overlapped with his legal and political career. He was a trial lawyer and was eventually elected to the California Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame. Mike also served in over a dozen government positions including serving as the head of State agencies under Governors Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Gavin Newson during California's electricity and wildfire crises. Mike rounded out his activities with service on numerous charitable, civic, and business boards.

In 2022 Mike entered semi-retirement with his wife Susan.

Source: Biography written by donor, Michael Kahn, 2024.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Michael and Susan Kahn, 2023.
Processing information:

Processed by Lisa Marie Monhoff, 2020-2023.

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's Library Collections and Archives.

Arrangement:

This collection has been arranged in the following series:

  • Series 1: American Art, Prints, Broadsides and Ephemera, 1798-2020
  • Series 2: American Unbound Periodicals, 1811-2021
  • Series 3: American Bound Periodicals, 1842-1968
  • Series 4: American Books, Exhibition Catalogs and Pamphlets, 1826-2022
  • Series 5: International Art, Prints, Broadsides and Ephemera, circa 1690-2010
  • Series 6: International Unbound Periodicals, 1799-2017
  • Series 7: International Bound Periodicals, 1798-2017
  • Series 8: International Books, Exhibition Catalogs and Pamphlets, 1715-2022
  • Series 9: Research, Subject Files and Collection Information, circa 1944-2022

Physical location:
Stored off-site at SRLF. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance through our electronic paging system using the request button located on this page.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Series 1 and Series 5 are open for research; as the collection is further processed, this finding aid will be updated with changing accessibility conditions. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Portions of collection unprocessed. Material in Series 2-4 and Series 6-9 are unavailable for access. Please see LSC's Access to Unprocessed Collections Policy for more information about levels of discovery and access of special collections materials and registering interest in unprocessed collections.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Michael and Susan Kahn collection of political cartoons (Collection 2419). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
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