LibGuides: Center for Lowell History Collections: Butler -- Benjamin Franklin Butler Collections

Butler, (Benjamin Franklin) Collection (1818-1893)

Butler Cartoons Inventory

Benjamin Franklin Butler (1818-1893)
Butler was born in Deerfield, NH, and moved to Lowell with his widowed mother, sister, and brother in 1828. Butler attended Lowell High School and Colby College and in 1840 began a successful law practice in Lowell. Active in the Democratic Party in the 1850s, he was elected to several terms in the Massachusetts Legislature. In 1860, convinced that war was eminent, Butler organized a volunteer regiment and in April 1861 was the first to respond to President Lincoln’s call for troops at the outbreak of the Civil War. After the Civil War, Butler was elected as a Radical Republican to four terms of Congress (1867-1875) and was appointed by Congress as one of the managers to conduct the 1868 impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. Elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1882, he was an unsuccessful candidate for President of the United States in 1884. Butler died in 1893 while visiting Washington, DC. Always controversial, Butler spent much of his life living and working in Lowell.

Benjamin F. Butler Collection
The University of Massachusetts Lowell, Center for Lowell History houses extensive Butler Family Collections owned by UMass Lowell and the Lowell Historical Society which include correspondence, speeches, publications, and photographs, as well as a large series of lively and colorful political cartoons and prints published in the country’s most popular nineteenth century magazines, including Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, Harper’s Weekly, The Judge, and Puck.

A Mass Humanities Grant funded digitization of selections from the Center for Lowell History's Butler holdings as well as conservation supplies, a Mogan Center Exhibit, and Exhibit Brochure.

Many of these Political Cartoons can be viewed below:


BC 002 Comic Monthly Old Grannies of England Shocked at Butler's Proclamation	BC 010 Daily Graphic American Presidential Election October 25, 1884


BC 011 Daily Graphic Benjamin F. Butler January 21, 1893	BC 012 Every Saturday Candidates for the Governorship of Massachusetts September 30, 1871


BC 014 Frank Leslie's Illustrated One of General Butler's "Contraband of War" Now in Fortress Monroe June 22, 1861	BC 015 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Encampment of Massachusetts Troops on Federal Hill, near Baltimore 1861


BC 016 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Major General Benjamin F. Butler, Massachusetts 1861	BC 019 Frank Leslie's Illustrated The War in Virginia - Butler's Lines South of the James July 02, 1864


BC 020 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Signal Station Near Point of Rocks, Shelled and Struck by the Rebels While General Butler Was There July 16, 1864	BC 022 Frank Leslie's Illustrated A Dove of Peace July 16, 1864



BC 023 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Great Lecture on the Science of War December 30, 1865	BC 025 Frank Leslie's Illustrated An Aquatic meeting July 27, 1867


BC 026 Frank Leslie's Illustrated House Committee, Elected to Manage the Impeachment of The President, Entering the Senate Chamber March 21, 1868	BC 028 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Managers of Impeachment April 11, 1868


BC 029 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Benjamin Butler's Grand opening Effort at the Impeachment Trial April 18, 1868	BC 030 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Home Incidents, Accidents, etc. April 18, 1868


BC 031 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Et tu Brute April 18, 1868	BC 033 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Home Incidents, Accidents, etc. April 25, 1868


BC 034 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Great Reconciliation May 2, 1868	BC 035 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Singular Effects of Shadows on the nerves of the Champions of Massachusetts June 13, 1868



BC 036 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Torture Room of the Modern Inquisition June 20, 1868	BC 037 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Grand Fizzle June 27, 1868


BC 038 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Cabinet Making - The Boss and the Journeyman December 5, 1868	BC 039 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Brother Ben in his New Role of "Peace Maker" Between the Incoming and the Outgoing Man January 23, 1869


BC 040 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Senate Bearded I' The Capitol February 27, 1869	BC 041 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Collar of Office April 24, 1869


BC 043 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Connecticut - The Celebration of Independence Day at Woodstock July 23, 1870	BC 044 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Fishery Question - The Great Whale that Swallowed up the Profit December 24, 1870


BC 045 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Getting Out of a Scrape - And a Window April 15, 1871	BC 047 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Resurrectionists at Work April 20, 1872


BC 048 Frank Leslie's Illustrated How Much They Like Him April 27, 1872	BC 049 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Our Modern Brutus. May 04, 1872


BC 050 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Our Modern Brutus - detail May 04, 1872	BC 051 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Our National Trustee Calls His Steward to an Account May 11, 1872


BC 052 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Funeral at Cincinnati May 3rd, 1872 May 18, 1872	BC 053 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Our King Canute and the Rising tide June 29, 1872


BC 054 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Last Shot July 27, 1872	BC 056 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Grant's Collection of Monstrosities February 07, 1874


BC 057 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Heavy Weights February 07, 1874	BC 058 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Last Straw on the Camel's Back February 21, 1874

Butler Images 5


BC 059 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Butler's Victory March 14, 1874	BC 061 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Remonstrance From Massachusetts March 21, 1874


BC 062 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Unbottling Butler March 21, 1874	BC 064 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Squeezing the Merchants March 28, 1874


BC 065 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Sumner's Shoes. Uncle Sam "Which of you is worthy to fill them?" April 4, 1874	BC 066 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Great American Crocodile April 4, 1874


BC 067 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Born Negotiator September 5, 1874	BC 069 Frank Leslie's Illustrated October Wake October 31, 1874


BC 070 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Triumph of the Young Elephants November 7, 1874	BC 071 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Babes in the Wood-1874 November 21, 1874