Staff Meeting

Keppler draws his own editorial room: seven men cluster around a worktable covered with sketches and proofs, the controlled chaos of a weekly humor magazine in deadline mode. Keppler himself stands at far left, hand to chin, watching a seated colleague hold up a drawing for inspection. A bearded man leans in from behind; another figure at right turns toward an easel half-draped in cloth. On the back wall hangs a framed portrait—likely a political target or house hero—beneath heavy theatrical curtains. No racial caricature appears here; the subjects are the white, middle-class professional men who made up Puck's staff. The image is a rare insider document: Keppler celebrating, with characteristic draftsmanly confidence, the collaborative labor behind America's most successful illustrated satire magazine.