Ferdinand W. Peck

Carlo de Fornaro's caricature depicts Ferdinand W. Peck, a Chicago businessman and civic figure, in characteristic fin-de-siècle style. The exaggerated profile—elongated face, prominent nose, swept-back hair—typifies the visual language of period newspaper cartooning. An inset coat of arms references Peck's role in Chicago's development, marking 1893 (the World's Columbian Exposition) and 1897 (the establishment of Sedan). The thought bubble "'Tis thoughts I'm thinking" captures the era's popular caricature tradition of reducing subjects to single, ridiculous characteristics. Such personalized political and social commentary appeared regularly in newspapers, establishing visual conventions—exaggeration, symbolic details, speech indicators—that would become foundational to comic strip vocabulary.