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A bound volume of Harper's Weekly open at a full-page Thomas Nast wood engraving, an adult reader's hands and forearms visible on the library table

Section 5 of 6

The Pulitzer since 1922, and the legal record before it

The prize awarded every year since 1922, and the tax and copyright law that set the conditions for the trade long before it existed.

Prizes · 2 pieces · the full archive

Editorial cartoon shows a smoking American soldier sitting atop a defeated enemy soldier

Lead plate 01

The Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, 1922 to the Present

America's most visible cartooning honour has rewarded pen-and-ink giants and sparked recurring arguments about what the form actually is

A man examines a large bound ledger at a wooden desk under a lamp

Prizes · Plate 02

The Stamp Act Was a Tax on Knowing Things

How Britain's century-and-a-half of press duties shaped the economics — and the art — of the political cartoon Read the plate

The other sections

DraughtsmenThe people who did it, and what each of them is on record for.10 pieces PapersThe press was the publisher, and it set the deadline.4 pieces PrintingWax, copper, stone, boxwood, zinc, then a scanner.4 pieces ArchivesFour drawers, four countries, and about two hundred thousand sheets of paper.3 pieces GlossaryPunch called it a cartoon in 1843, and the word never went back.2 pieces