The British Columbia View of Cartoonist J.B. Fitzmaurice, 1908-1909

Abstract

This essay is both an introduction to and an examination of the early political and social affairs cartoons of Vancouver Province newspaper cartoonist James B. Fitzmaurice (1875-1926), who used the tools of visual rhetoric to create an imagined consensus in British Columbia. In the years 1908-1909, Fitzmaurice consistently presented a British Columbian view on a range of political and social issues, a view that was constructed using a commonly understood visual rhetoric that privileged certain partisan groups and specific class, gender, and racial/ethnic beliefs. The essay further explains why Fitzmaurice abandoned his British Columbia view for other less critical themes during and shortly after the First World War.