 USSGovernor Milton byFrank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper | |
| Categories | Literary and news |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Frank Leslie |
| First issue | 1855 |
| Final issue | 1922 |
| Country | United States |
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, later renamedLeslie's Weekly, was an American illustrated literary and news magazine founded in 1855 and published until 1922. It was one of several magazines started by publisher and illustratorFrank Leslie.
Throughout its existence, the weekly provided illustrations and reports—withwood engravings,lithographs andsteel engravings based on sketches and photography, beginning withdaguerreotypes and later with more advanced forms of photography—of wars fromJohn Brown's raid atHarpers Ferry and theCivil War to theSpanish–American War and theFirst World War - and numerous other articles of topical interest.
Frank Leslie was thepen name of Henry Carter (1821–1880), the son of a well-to-do English glovemaker.[1] Carter had taken up the art of wood engraving over his father's objection and emigrated toNew York City, arriving in 1848 and immediately adopting "Frank Leslie" as his pseudonym.[1] Unable to find a position as an illustrator with an established newspaper, he opened his own business, an engraving shop on Broadway.[2]
One of Leslie's early clients was promoterP. T. Barnum, who commissioned Leslie to produce a posh illustrated concert program for singerJenny Lind in 1849.[3] Additional work was done for Barnum for another Lind tour in 1850 and 1851.[3] When Barnum decided to launch a publication calledThe Illustrated News in 1853, he turned to Leslie, hiring him as chief engraver for the short-lived publication, which failed within its first year of existence.[3]
Leslie decided to begin publishing on his own, launching two new periodicals in 1854—Frank Leslie's Ladies' Gazette of Fashion, a fashion-oriented newspaper, andFrank Leslie's Journal of Romance, an illustrated fiction magazine.[3] Both of these publications proved to be financially lucrative, and in 1855, Leslie added a third publication, an illustrated news weekly calledFrank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.[3]
The first years ofFrank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper were difficult, with the nation undergoing a business crisis in 1857.[3] The drama of the massiveAmerican Civil War in 1861, though, ensured the success ofLeslie's Newspaper, as tens of thousands of readers turned toLeslie's and the upstartHarper's Weekly for their sometimes lurid illustrations of the bloody conflict.[3] ALeslie's freelancer,James R. O'Neill, is believed to have been the only Civil War correspondentkilled in action in the Civil War.[4][5]
No daily newspaper in America consistently carried illustrations until the launch ofThe Daily Graphic in 1873, by which timeLeslie's Newspaper was a massive and prosperous concern, employing more than 300 people, including 70 illustrators, as part of a publishing empire which by now spanned seven publications.[3]
Leslie's Newspaper averaged 16 pages and was frequently accompanied by supplements or expanded into special thematic editions.[6] Content strove to be timely, focusing on the newsworthy events of the previous week, often within days of its occurrence, a novelty for the era.[6] Art was produced by teams, with initial sketches selected by an editor and turned over to an illustrator, who produced an outline drawing.[6] The outline was then applied to a block consisting of multiple layers of Turkishboxwood and additional detail added by specialized artists.[6]
The large block of wood was then separated into its constituent pieces and turned over to the engraving department, which meticulously carved out the white sections, leaving the black illustration in relief.[6] The sections of the wood block were then rejoined and sent to the composing room, where the illustration was converted to part of an electrotyped copper plate for printing.[6]
After Leslie's death in 1880, the magazine was continued by his widow,women's suffrage campaignerMiriam Florence Leslie. The name, by then a well-established trademark, remained also after 1902, when it no longer had a connection with the Leslie family. The magazine was merged intoJudge (which was under the same ownership) effective with the June 24, 1922 issue,[7] having switched to a monthly publication in February, 1921, shortly after its parent company was placed into receivership.[8]
It often took a stronglypatriotic stance and frequently featured cover pictures of soldiers and heroic battle stories. It also gave extensive coverage to less martial events such as theKlondike gold rush of 1897, covered bySan Francisco journalist John Bonner.
Among the writers publishing their stories in the weekly wereLouisa May Alcott,H. Irving Hancock,Helen R. Martin,Eleanor Franklin Egan, andEllis Parker Butler. Several notable illustrators worked for the publication, includingAlbert Berghaus andNorman Rockwell, who created covers for the magazine in its latter years,Emmett Watson, andFernando Miranda y Casellas.James Montgomery Flagg's iconic depiction ofUncle Sam first appeared publicly on the cover of the July 6, 1916, issue, with the caption "What Are You Doing for Preparedness?", before becoming a famed recruiting poster on American entry into World War I.[9][10] Pioneering aviatorHarriet Quimby was a frequent contributor for 10 year, serving as the magazine's aviation editor after she became the first American woman to become a licensed pilot, in 1911, after several years of writing for the magazine on a number of different subjects (including serving as the magazine's drama critic). Some of her final writings for the magazine were on the topic of aviation and aviation safety, with her final article appearing in the issue published a week after her death in a flying accident on July 1, 1912.
By 1897, the publication's circulation had grown to an estimated 65,000 copies.[11]
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