Judge — April 24, 1909 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Judge Magazine Cover Analysis - April 24, 1909 This is a "Travel Number" cover satirizing American tourism. A portly, well-dressed gentleman (representing the typical wealthy American tourist) is burdened with an enormous stack of travel destination labels and baggage tags—visible destinations include Yellowstone Park, San Francisco, the Great Lakes, Salt Lake City, Spokane, and Omaha, among others. The satire mocks two things: the excess baggage of leisure travelers and the emerging American habit of collecting destinations as status symbols. The small circular inset (upper left) appears to show the man overwhelmed by his travels. The joke reflects early-20th-century anxieties about newly wealthy Americans' conspicuous consumption and their obsession with "doing" America's tourist attractions, loaded down with possessions and pretension.