Finding a specific cartoon in Punch magazine
May 20, 2021 8:29 AM   Subscribe

Trying to find a specific Punch cartoon featuring a family member from the early 20th century. Historians of socialist activism in Scotland during this period may have clues.

There is a Punch cartoon archive but the various key word searches I have tried have not worked.

I never met my grandfather, but per my dad, he was a socialist who once spoke out to some political windbag (or bad guy?) during that person's public address, inspiring a Punch cartoon commemorating the public outburst. I know almost nothing more about this event, making researching this almost absurdly challenging. But thought I'd try getting tips from folks here with experience doing historical research.

My grandfather's name was Charles Storie Thomson. I don't know where or what year he was born but he was married in Musselburgh, lived and raised his children in Kelso (a Borders town) and moved to Edinburgh probably around 1950. I'm pretty sure this event must have happened in Edinburgh before that time.

I don't know what year this happened. My dad was born in 1937. This seems to have happened before my dad was born or when he was a primary school aged child.

Apparently the cartoon caption described the event and mentioned my grandfather by name - like, "Mr Thomson shouts at ______ " or something.

That's literally all I know. Any tips for how to dig into this more (from my home in California)? It might help to know what events/politicians/public figures Scottish socialists were mad about in the 30s - that might help me figure out who the public figure was. Or perhaps my grandfather may have been a member of an organization that would have more archives somewhere??
posted by latkes to Grab Bag (3 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Having recently read through most of the letters of George Orwell, English socialist, who worked during this period, I would suggest: (a) British imperialism, especially in India; (b) working conditions for coal miners; (c) Russian internal politics, especially the rise of Stalin.

Obviously the concerns of English and Scottish socialists wouldn't be exactly identical, but these are issues that either touch both England and Scotland or are international concerns of socialists.

Since you know his name and it was mentioned in the caption and you have a range of years, it seems like this is not too hard a problem to solve by brute force.
posted by praemunire at 9:29 AM on May 20, 2021


I note that the date range filter for that Punch search doesn't seem to be working, which is a nuisance. In case anyone else was thinking of trying it, I've just looked through all the results for "shouts" with nothing looking hopeful (although some of the cartoons in the result set were quite funny, so it's not been wasted time).

(I sympathise; I'm told my grandmother was on a recruiting poster for the Wrens, and I'd love to find a copy, but I don't know enough about it to be able to pin it down.)
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 7:26 AM on May 21, 2021


If what your grandfather did was newsworthy, then searching for him on the British newspaper archive might give you a better clue of what to look for or when to search.
posted by Flitcraft at 1:13 PM on May 21, 2021 [1 favorite]


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