Life — July 6, 1893 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This page shows four horizontal comic strips depicting early American colonial history: 1. **"The Discovery"** (Virginia): Shows Native Americans encountering European explorers/colonists 2. **"At Plymouth"**: Depicts Pilgrims in characteristic clothing and hats 3. **"Penn"**: Features William Penn (identifiable by label) with colonists 4. **"The Nineteenth Century"**: Shows a progression from colonial figures through figures labeled "Disease," "Peevishness," and "Greed," ending with modern figures The satire contrasts America's idealized founding narratives—Native Americans greeting explorers, Pilgrims establishing settlements—with a cynical view of 19th-century American development. The final strip suggests the nation's founders' virtues deteriorated into social vices and moral failings by the 1900s, mocking American progress mythology and contemporary society's character decline.