.jpg) The November 10, 1860 cover ofHarper's Weekly, featuring an illustration ofPresident-electAbraham Lincoln byWinslow Homer andMathew Brady | |
| Illustrators | |
|---|---|
| Categories | News, politics |
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Founder | Fletcher Harper |
| Founded | 1857 (1857) |
| First issue | January 3, 1857 (1857-01-03) |
| Final issue | May 13, 1916 |
| Company | Harper & Brothers |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | New York City,New York, U.S. |
| Language | English |
Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization was an American political magazine based inNew York City. Published byHarper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, alongside illustrations. It carried extensive coverage of theAmerican Civil War, including many illustrations of events from the war. During its most influential period, it was the forum of the political cartoonistThomas Nast.
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Along with his brothers James, John, and Wesley,Fletcher Harper began the publishing companyHarper & Brothers in 1825. Following the successful example ofThe Illustrated London News, Harper started publishingHarper's Magazine in 1850. The monthly publication featured established authors such asCharles Dickens andWilliam Makepeace Thackeray, and within several years, demand for the magazine was great enough to sustain a weekly edition.[1]
In 1857, his company began publishingHarper's Weekly in New York City.[1] By 1860, the circulation of theWeekly had reached 200,000. Illustrations were an important part of theWeekly's content, and it developed a reputation for using some of the most renowned illustrators of the time, notablyWinslow Homer,Granville Perkins,Porte Crayon, andLivingston Hopkins.
Among the recurring features were thepolitical cartoons ofThomas Nast, who was recruited in 1862 and worked with theWeekly for more than 20 years. Nast was a feared caricaturist, and is often called the father of American political cartooning.[2] He was the first to use an elephant as the symbol of theRepublican Party.[3] He also drew the legendary character ofSanta Claus; his version became strongly associated with the figure, who was popularized as part of Christmas customs in the late nineteenth century.
Harper's Weekly was the most widely read journal in the United States during theAmerican Civil War era of the mid-19th century.[4][5]Harper's took a moderate editorial position on the issue ofslavery prior to the Civil War's outbreak in 1861, earning it the label "Harper's Weakly" by critics.
During the1860 U.S. presidential campaign, the magazine supportedStephen A. Douglas in his campaign againstAbraham Lincoln. But as theAmerican Civil War broke out, the magazine fully supported Lincoln and theUnion. A July 1863 article inThe Weekly on the escaped slaveGordon included an illustration taken from a photograph of his back, severely scarred from whippings. The image provided many readers in theNorth their first visual evidence of slavery's brutality. The image and story inspired many free blacks in the North to enlist in theUnion Army.[6]
Many of the most important articles and illustrations inHarper's were related to the American Civil War. Besides illustrations by Homer and Nast, the magazine published illustrations byTheodore R. Davis,Henry Mosler, and the brothersAlfred andWilliam Waud.[citation needed]
Beginning in 1863 until his death in 1892,George William Curtis, one of the founders of theRepublican Party, served as the magazine's political editor. His editorials advocatedcivil service reform, lowtariffs, and adherence to thegold standard.[7]
After the end of the Civil War,Harper's Weekly more openly supported theRepublican Party in its editorial positions, and supported the presidential candidacy ofUlysses S. Grant in 1868 and again in 1872. It supported theRadical Republican position on Reconstruction. In the 1870s, the cartoonist Thomas Nast began an aggressive campaign in the journal against the corrupt New York political leaderWilliam "Boss" Tweed. Nast turned down a $500,000 bribe to end his attack.[8] Tweed was arrested in 1873 and convicted of fraud.
Nast andHarper's also played an important part in securingRutherford B. Hayes' 1876 presidential election. Later on Hayes remarked that Nast was "the most powerful, single-handed aid [he] had".[9] After the election, Nast's role in the magazine diminished considerably. Since the late 1860s, Nast and George W. Curtis had frequently differed on political matters and particularly on the role of cartoons in political discourse.[10] Curtis believed that mockery by caricature should be reserved for Democrats, and did not approve of Nast's cartoons assailing Republicans such asCarl Schurz andCharles Sumner, who opposed policies of the Grant administration.Harper's publisher Fletcher Harper strongly supported Nast in his disputes with Curtis. In 1877, Harper died, and his nephews, Joseph W. Harper Jr. and John Henry Harper, assumed control of the magazine. They were more sympathetic to Curtis' arguments for rejecting cartoons that contradicted his editorial positions.[11]
In 1884, however, Curtis and Nast agreed that they could not support the Republican candidateJames G. Blaine, whose association with corruption was anathema to them.[12] Instead they supported the Democratic candidate,Grover Cleveland. Nast's cartoons helped Cleveland become the first Democrat to be elected president since 1856. In the words of the artist's grandson, Thomas Nast St Hill, "it was generally conceded that Nast's support won Cleveland the small margin by which he was elected. In his last national political campaign, Nast had, in fact, 'made a president.'"[13]
Nast's final contribution toHarper's Weekly was his Christmas illustration in December 1886. JournalistHenry Watterson said that "in quittingHarper's Weekly, Nast lost his forum: in losing him,Harper's Weekly lost its political importance."[14] Nast's biographer Fiona Deans Halloran says "the former is true to a certain extent, the latter unlikely. Readers may have missed Nast's cartoons, butHarper's Weekly remained influential."[15]
On January 14, 1893,Harper's Weekly became the first American magazine to publish aSherlock Holmes story, "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box".[16]
After 1900,Harper's Weekly devoted more print to political and social issues, and featured articles by some of the more prominent political figures of the time, such asTheodore Roosevelt.Harper's editorGeorge Harvey was an early supporter ofWoodrow Wilson's candidacy, proposing him for the Presidency at aLotos Club dinner in 1906.[17] After that dinner, Harvey would make sure that he "emblazoned each issue ofHarper's Weekly with the words 'For President—Woodrow Wilson'".[18]
Roderic C. Penfield served as the managing editor ofHarper's Weekly from 1912 to 1914.[19][20] The magazine published its final issue on May 13, 1916.[21] It was absorbed byThe Independent, which in turn merged withThe Outlook in 1928.
In the mid-1970s,Harper's Magazine used theHarper's Weekly title for a spinoff publication, which was published biweekly from itsNew York City headquarters and depended on contributions from readers for much of its content.
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