Constructing the Colossus: The Origins of Linley Sambourne's Greatest 'Punch' Cartoon

"The Rhodes Colossus" (Fig. 1) is one of the most familiar of all 19th Century political cartoons, and has become for many the "archetypal image of British imperial power" (Kramer, 2002:1333). First published in 'Punch, or the London Charivari', on Dec. 10, 1892, the image of Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) towering over the African continent is a fixture of innumerable textbooks, atlases, encyclopedias, and histories (Brooke-Smith, 1987: cover; Moore, 1992:125; Pakenham, 1996:257; James 1997:114). Yet aside from the brief analyses provided by Mark Bryant (2008:116) or Roy Douglas (1993:141), very few such works employ the image as anything other than a useful illustration. This is a common problem with even the most important works of political cartoon art (Scully and Quartly, 2009:01.1), yet if such works are treated seriously as sources by the historian, and investigated closely, they can contribute significantly to our knowledge of the past.