Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Join, or Die

Join, or Die

Original - Join, or Die is a well-known political cartoon, created by Benjamin Franklin and first published in his Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754. The original publication by the Gazette is the earliest known pictorial representation of colonial union produced by a British colonist in America. It is a woodcut showing a snake severed into eighths, with each segment labeled with the initials of a British American colony or region. New England was represented as one segment, rather than the four colonies it was at that time. In addition, Delaware and Georgia were omitted completely. Thus, it has 8 segments of snake rather than the traditional 13 colonies. The cartoon appeared along with Franklin's editorial about the "disunited state" of the colonies, and helped make his point about the importance of colonial unity. During that era, 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.

Alt

Reason

The historical value of the cartoon in the context of the American Revolution is immense. The picture's printing quality is only due to the technology available at the time. The uploaded version is of a high quality. It meets all criteria as far as I can see.

Articles in which this image appears

Join, or Die, Benjamin Franklin, American Revolution

Creator

Benjamin Franklin

• Support as nominator --Sir Richardson (talk) 22:43, 25 February 2010 (UTC)
• Comment We can do better. It looks like this is a restoration of the original: [1] (which has much higher resolution). I'll take a shot at producing a better restoration. Jujutacular ^T · C 00:25, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

• Wasn't really happy with the result of my work: File:Franklin join or die2.jpg. Jujutacular ^T · C 06:34, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

• Comment Your version is more accurate to the original print. Sir Richardson (talk) 15:19, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Alright then, I'll post it: Alt. Jujutacular ^T · C 18:06, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

One interesting thing did come up through restoration. You'll notice on the library of congress information page about the print it lists the state letters: "S.C., N.C., V., M., R., N.J., N.Y., [and] N.E.". At first I thought - what does the 'R' stand for? Rhode Island? On closer inspection however, there is a brown smudge on that letter, forming it into an 'R'. It was originally a 'P', which I assume stands for Pennsylvania. Jujutacular ^T · C 18:18, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

• Comment: The image could be added to Albany Plan, the union to which the picture is suggesting. Spencer^{T♦Nominate!} 23:28, 1 March 2010 (UTC)
• Oppose. Sorry, I'm not really seeing it. J Milburn (talk) 18:58, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Not promoted --Makeemlighter (talk) 21:01, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

• No quorum. Makeemlighter (talk) 21:01, 4 March 2010 (UTC)