Political Cartoons and Cartoonists Judged on the basis of influence per square inch, it would be hard to find a match for the political cartoon in
the history of modern American journalism. Although the history of political cartoons in what is now the
United States dates back to the days of Benjamin Franklin, their use as a daily commentary on the news did
not begin until the end of the nineteenth century when advances in technology made it possible to reproduce
drawings without the laborious and time-consuming process of creating woodblock engravings.