They Can't Keep Him Hid, from Puck n.d.

Louis Dalrymple’s print from Puck magazine depicts a skeleton emerging from a closet labeled "Republican Family Closet." Here, the skeleton, draped in a robe marked “Signs of Five Scandals,” embodies hidden transgressions, a potent symbol of the concealed wrongdoings threatening to surface. The skeleton, as a motif, has roots stretching back to medieval memento mori, stark reminders of mortality. Its emergence here from a ‘closet’ resonates with the psychoanalytic concept of repressed memories returning to haunt the present. This echoes the ancient Greek concept of nemesis, where past actions inevitably lead to retribution. We see this visual metaphor re-emerge throughout history: think of Hamlet's father's ghost or Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart.' This image suggests that the past—with its secrets and scandals—cannot be contained indefinitely. Dalrymple's work taps into a primal fear: the past will always resurface, demanding recognition.