Senator John D. Works, 1911

A formal oval portrait, printed in sepia halftone, presents John D. Works—newly elected Republican U.S. Senator from California—in a dark frock coat and necktie, facing three-quarters left. The caption reads plainly: NEWLY ELECTED UNITED STATES SENATOR WORKS. (See page 4.) Decorative Art Nouveau flourishes frame the corners. Unlike the magazine's frequent chromolithograph caricatures, this cover is straightforward honorific portraiture, signaling Works's arrival in national politics. A Superior Court judge turned Senator, Works was a conservative voice on immigration restriction—positions The Wasp's largely nativist readership would have welcomed, given the publication's long record of virulent anti-Chinese cartoon attacks on California's immigrant communities throughout the 1870s–1900s.