Jeff's Last Shift

John Cameron

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the closing days of the American Civil War Northern satirists often showed the defeated Confederate President Jefferson Davis trying to slip through enemy lines wearing women's clothing. After Robert E. Lee surrended on April 9, 1865, Davis evaded capture for a month, pursued by Union troops who believed he had plotted the assassination of President Lincoln. On May 10th he was finally arrested in Georgia wearing his wife's overcoat, thrown on as he rushed out of the house. Northern tabloids embellished this detail and described Davis in a dress, inspiring prints like this one. Challenge Southern claims of gallantry and chivarly, the image echoes a popular song titled "Jeff in Petticoats." Here, Union cavalrymen have stopped Davis, noticing military boots beneath his dress. Two girls inside a tent at left ask the soldiers to "Please let my old mother go to the spring for some water to wash in!" and "Who will care for Mother now?" The soldier lifting the subject's skirt says "It strikes me your Mother wears very big boots!!" leading Davis to reply "I am done gone! I must "kick the bucket."

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art