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Richard Felton Outcault. "Yellow Kid." Drawing, ca.
1896.
NYPL, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection
The very popular comic strip "Hogan's Alley," created by Richard Outcault and
published in color by The World, depicted several tenement-district urchins. Among
them was the Yellow Kid, who excelled at mocking upper-class customs and wore a
characteristic yellow gown. When the New York Journal and Advertiser matched The
World’s color printing capability, Outcault defected to the competition. The
ensuing dispute between the two newspapers gave rise to the label "yellow
journalism," synonymous with unprincipled journalism. In this cartoon, Outcault, who
later dedicated himself to his "Buster Brown" series, satirizes the
"yellow" newspaper craze, which recruited countless street newsboys in a bid to
increase sales.
Introduction | Chronology | Part I: Antecedents, 1895-1898 | Part II: Public Appeals, 1898 | Part III: Popular Participation, 1898-1899 | Part IV: Public Memories | Part V: Historical Perspectives | Audiovisual Components | Exhibition Checklist | Acknowledgments | Suggested Reading /About the Library Shop | Related Exhibits/Spanish American War Websites of Interest | Exhibition home page | NYPL Exhibitions
EPO, 1998