Harper’s Weekly, May 4, 1861 Note: This article is posted on the 160th anniversary of the event being reported rather than the anniversary of the article.  (Usually, articles are posted here 160 years after original publication.) On page 283 we publish an illustration of the First Blood—viz., the conflict between the Baltimore mob and the [...]

Harper’s Weekly, January 26, 1861

Hon William H. Seward, Secretary of State. April 6, 1861; Harper’s Weekly THE Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, whose portrait we publish on the preceding page, is one of the foremost representative men of the age. Few of his fellow-citizens are unwilling to render the due tribute to his intellectual ability, while his [...]

The city was startled on Saturday by the intelligence that the President-elect, instead of proceeding on his journey to Washington from Harrisburg, in accordance with the published programme, on Saturday morning, had left the latter city secretly, on a special train, on Friday night, and returning to Philadelphia, had passed thence, unrecognized, through Baltimore, and [...]

Officers’ Quarters at Fort Sumter—from a sketch by an officer of Major Anderson’s command Date Created: 1861-02-23, black and white engraving in Harper’s Weekly Officers ‘ quarters at Fort Sumter. Medium: illustrations (layout features) Item Location: Fort Sumter NM/Charles Pinckney NHS Curatorial Storage Facility, located at Charles Pinckney National Historic Site Box: Box 3 of [...]

A Ten-Inch Columbiad Mounted as a Mortar at Fort Sumter Drawn by an Officer of Major Anderson’s Command Harper’s Weekly, February 16, 1861, handed-tinted off-print Special handed-tinted off-prints were often sold separately from newspapers. Numerous originals held today by public institutions and in private collections.

Goodbye to Sumter, Wives and Children on Steamship Marion Departing Charleston Harbor, South Carolina Date Created: 1861-02-23,  black and white engraving in Harper’s Weekly Good-by to Sumter, hand-colored offprint Medium: illustrations (layout features) Item Location: Fort Sumter NM/Charles Pinckney NHS Curatorial Storage Facility, located at Charles Pinckney National Historic Site Box: Box 3 of 3 [...]

Group of Guns and Gun Carriages Dismantled by Major Anderson at Fort Moultrie— Drawn by an Officer of His Command Image published in Harper’s Weekly, January 26, 1861 Description from Fort Moultrie 1809-1930—A Chronological List of Maps & Photos: Crude woodcut depicting the guns lining Moultrie’s Southwest Angle — those which could most easily be [...]

Entry of Major Anderson’s Command into Fort Sumter on December 26, 1860 Image from Harper’s Weekly

Sketches of Fort Moultrie by an Officer of Major Anderson’s Command Description from Fort Moultrie 1809-1930—A Chronological List of Maps & Photos: “Sketches of Fort Moultrie by an officer of Major Anderson’s Command,” published in the January 12, 1861 edition of Harper’s Weekly. These five illustrations constitute the only visual representation of the defensive measures [...]

Occupation of Castle Pinkney by the Charleston Militia, December 26, 1860 Image from Harper’s Weekly

Harper’s Weekly, December 22, 1860 Christmas-Day Now and Then The Adoration of the Shepards & What Santa Brought Us. Dreams and Reality—Santa Claus Click on image to view larger version

Harper’s Weekly, December 22, 1860                 Representative Lawrence M. Keitt, Representative William Waters Boyce, Senator James Chesnut, Representative John McQueen, Representative John D. Ashmore. Senator James Henry Hammond, Representative Milledge Luke Bonham, and Representative William Porcher Miles From photographs by Mathew Brady Ascribed by some to Winslow Homer [...]

Fort Moultrie (Sullivan’s Island).   Charleston, South Carolina in the Distance — Harper’s Weekly, November 17, 1860 (click on image for other sizes) THE HARBOR OF CHARLESTON. (related article from Harper’s Weekly) We publish on the following page a fine engraving of the City and Harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, showing Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan’s [...]

Click on image to access other sizes. While President-elect Abraham Lincoln’s image graced the front page of the November 10, 1860 edition of Harper’s Weekly, there was no accompanying article.  There was however, a short piece on the “Death of Grizzly Adams.’

We publish herewith, as matter of history, the portrait of the famous filibuster Walker, who was executed in Honduras on 12th ult. His life had been eventful and romantic. He was only thirty-six years old when he died. Born at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1824, he was bred a lawyer: his father, a Scotch banker, occupied [...]

His Royal Highness, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, The eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, The future king visits America. Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.

? Young America Rising at the Ballot Box and Strangling the Serpents Disunion and Secession Columbia: “Well done, Sonny! ‘Go it while you’re young, for when you’re old you can’t.'” The potential for secession and disunion because of the issue of slavery was part of the contentious election campaigns of 1860. The quoted phrase in [...]

Less than a year before the war broke out, Central Park bore little resemblance to the park many of us know today from film and pictures or, for many of us, the opportunity of having visited there. Image information: Winslow Homer, The Drive in the Central Park, New York, September 1860, from Harper’s Weekly, September [...]

The Encampment at Orangeburg, South Carolina We present our readers with a view of the encampment of the Washington Light Infantry, of Charleston, South Carolina.   The point chosen was in the village of Orangeburg, about eighty miles from the city.   This village is known as one of the most beautiful in the state. [...]

Harper’s Weekly, May 26, 1860 Click on the image below for pdf of page 1 and 2 of May 26, 1860, Harper’s Weekly with a biographical sketch of Lincoln.

The Republican Wigwam at Chicago, in which the Republican Convention will be held, May 16, 1860 Harper’s Weekly, Saturday May 12, 1860 Republican Wigwam at Chicago. We present herewith a view of the new building yclept the ” Republican Wigwam”—which the Republican clubs of Chicago have built for the National Republican Convention to be held [...]

The accompanying engraving of the well-known fish called by the Japanese the Noomo, is from a sketch obligingly furnished us by the writer of the following letter. It will be viewed with interest by all who remember the excitement produced some years since by the exhibition of a so-called mermaid at Barnum’s, in this city. [...]

CONGRESS On Tuesday 24th, in the Senate, Senator Sumner (Mass.) introduced a bill to secure wages to seamen in case of wreck. Senator Brown (Miss.), a bill to provide for the public printing. Senator Rice (Minnesota) moved that a bill be framed for the organization of the Territory of Dacotah, which was laid over. Senator [...]