Where I Started
I needed Spanish American War political cartoons for this history project. Figured I’d just punch some keywords online and boom – done. Wrong. My first search gave me modern political junk and Pinterest junk. Total waste of time.
Hitting Dead Ends
Switched tactics and tried government archives. Massive disappointment. Their search is like digging through cement with a spoon. Found exactly one blurry cartoon from 1898, but the description just said “Cuba.” Useless.
- Spent hours clicking through thumbnail galleries where half the images wouldn’t load.
- Kept finding sketchy sites wanting credit card details “for high-resolution access.” Nah.
- Stumbled on academic journals, but they just analyzed cartoons instead of showing them.
The Breakthrough
Remembered this history professor who mentioned specialized archives. Dug up my old notes and found three places that actually worked:
- That university archive with all their newspapers scanned – finally saw real 1898 newspaper pages.
- A museum’s digital exhibit – curators actually explained each cartoon’s context.
- Some history buff’s blog – dude collected rare ones even libraries didn’t have.
Lessons Learned
Took me three evenings to find solid stuff. General searches? Trash. Mainstream collections? Mostly fluff. The gems hide in places real historians actually use. Next time I’m skipping Google and going straight to those nerdy niche spots.
