-Tammany Bank- or -Little Fat Man- mechanical bank c. 1873

This mechanical bank depicting a seated man was made in America in the late 19th century from cast iron. Banks like these gained popularity as industrialization increased the circulation of money. But this is not just an innocent toy. Named for Tammany Hall, the Democratic political machine that controlled New York City politics for nearly a century, the figure embodies the corruption associated with that institution. To operate the bank, one places a coin in the figure’s hand and presses a lever. The man appears to swallow the money as his eyes roll back. The bank thus satirizes the way Tammany Hall was thought to greedily gobble up money and political power. The prevalence of these types of objects and images illustrates the social and cultural anxieties about corruption during this time. Understanding an object like this requires historical research, including a close look at newspapers, political cartoons, and other cultural ephemera of the period. These sources reveal how art objects are embedded in, and comment on, their specific social and institutional contexts.