{"id":528,"date":"2026-10-22T19:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T19:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/artistbooks\/?page_id=528"},"modified":"2026-10-26T15:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T15:44:10","slug":"freethinkers-pictorial","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/artistbooks\/freethinkers-pictorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Freethinkers Pictorial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure itemscope itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t<a target=\"_self\" itemprop=\"url\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/artistbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/02\/Freethinkers_1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of Chaplains in the Army and Navy.\" title=\"Chaplains in the Army &amp; Military\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/figure>\n<figure itemscope itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t<a target=\"_self\" itemprop=\"url\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/artistbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/02\/Freethinkers_2-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of women&#039;s path from servitude to freedom.\" title=\"Freethinkers_2\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/figure>\n<figure itemscope itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t<a target=\"_self\" itemprop=\"url\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/artistbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/02\/Freethinkers_3-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of clergy desiring for it to be Sunday.\" title=\"Freethinkers_3\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/figure>\n<h2>\n\t\t\tFreethinker&#8217;s Pictorial\t<\/h2>\n<h3>\n\t\t\tby Watson Hetson\t<\/h3>\n\t<p><em>The Freethinkers&#8217; Pictorial Text Book <\/em>was artist Watson Heston&#8217;s attempt at exposing the abuses of a union of church and state in the United States. The book was published in the year 1890 in New York by Truth Seeker Company. Heston cites fact, history, statistics, and the opinions of scholars alongside his darling illustrations in order to maintain his argument about the abuses of the church. The book aims to show the absurdity and untruthfulness behind the Church&#8217;s claim to be divine and beneficent institution. It contains two-hundred full-page illustrations.<\/p>\n<p>Heston was born in Ohio, but spent much of his adult life in Carthage, Missouri. He was an editorial cartoonist and his work gained popularity in the 19th century during the Populist political movement. This movement consisted of a coalition of agrarian reformers in the Midwest and South that campaigned for economic and political reforms. Throughout the 1880s, Farmers&#8217; Alliances sprang up as farmers grew frustrated of the difficulties of crop failures and falling prices and the lack of governmental support for these struggling farmers. Heston&#8217;s work was written at a time of frustration and distrust of the government and other institutions.<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/artistbooks\/home\/\" target=\"_self\">Back to List<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Freethinker&#8217;s Pictorial by Watson Hetson The Freethinkers&#8217; Pictorial Text Book was artist Watson Heston&#8217;s attempt at exposing the abuses of a union of church and state in the United States. The book was published in the year 1890 in New York by Truth Seeker Company. Heston cites fact, history, statistics, and the opinions of scholars&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-528","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Freethinkers Pictorial - Artist Books from Special Collections<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/artistbooks\/freethinkers-pictorial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Freethinkers Pictorial - Artist Books from Special Collections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Freethinker&#8217;s Pictorial by Watson Hetson The Freethinkers&#8217; Pictorial Text Book was artist Watson Heston&#8217;s attempt at exposing the abuses of a union of church and state in the United States. 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