"Taking the Stump" or Stephen in Search of his Mother 1860

Curator: Looking at Louis Maurer's 1860 lithograph, titled "Taking the Stump' or Stephen in Search of his Mother," currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The print seems to be poking fun at the political landscape of the time, I find it striking, though the caricature feels a bit harsh. Editor: It is visually biting! I’m immediately struck by how the artist has rendered these political figures almost as circus performers or characters in a play—note the stage-like arrangement and their rather exaggerated postures, especially Stephen with his prosthetic leg. What kind of production process would create these precise, satirical images intended for mass consumption? Curator: Given its time, think about the intense political divides and the deeply ingrained prejudices shaping the country as it lurched towards civil war. What strikes me most is how the lithograph uses physical disability—Stephen's missing leg—as a symbol of political weakness and perhaps even moral failing. That feels especially troubling. Editor: Exactly. Lithography enabled mass production. Maurer, employed by Currier & Ives, was creating political cartoons aimed at shaping public opinion, thus material and distribution were everything. The caricatures are directly implicated in the ideologies being critiqued. Think about the power of visual propaganda during the lead up to the Civil War. Curator: It's impossible to separate this artwork from the history of exclusion and mockery directed toward marginalized groups, particularly regarding physical differences, so think about the ableist humor of the period. And there's something intensely poignant about the search for a "mother," potentially signaling a yearning for origins or legitimacy in the midst of societal fracturing. Editor: Right, we should acknowledge lithography as a material practice, integral to the socio-political context it critiques. What do you make of how the figures on the left appear so 'stumped' they have begun talking about things far outside their own concerns? The work also feels like a precursor to more contemporary debates around political rhetoric and imagery. Curator: Agreed. Revisiting this print reminds us of the persistent ways in which bodies become politicized. The visual culture from our history needs unpacking. Editor: Absolutely, a necessary interrogation into the processes of production that reinforced prevailing prejudices in the mid 19th-century U.S.