Americas First CartoonBy Cartoonist Rob Thomas

The first cartoon published in America was a political cartoon created by Ben Franklin titled 'Join or Die'. It was first published in his Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9th, 1754 to support his plan for colonial union presented at the Albany Congress.



'Join or Die' is a woodcut showing a snake severed into 8 pieces, with each segment representing a British American colony or region. At the time, there was a superstition that a snake which had been cut into pieces would come back to life if the pieces were put together before sunset.

Also interesting it the fact that Ben Franklin also founded the Saturday Evening Post, America's oldest magazine, which is known for it's famous cartoons.