Harper’s Weekly: A Journal of Civilization

Five bound volumes of the complete issues for the years 1861-1865. Contents in excellent condition. The bindings show some light to moderate wear to the exterior boards but remain sturdy and tight. Harper's Weekly was the most widely read journal in the United States throughout the period of the Civil War. So as not to upset its wide readership in The South, Harper's took a moderate editorial position on the issue of slavery prior to the outbreak of the war. The Weekly had supported the candidacy of Stephen A. Douglas in the 1860 presidential campaign against Abraham Lincoln, but as the American Civil War broke out, it fully supported Lincoln and the Union. A July 1863 article on the escaped slave Gordon included a photograph of his back, severely scarred from whippings; this provided many readers in the North their first visual evidence of the brutality of slavery. The photograph inspired many free blacks in the North to enlist. Some of the most important articles and illustrations of the time were Harper's reporting on the war. Besides renderings by Homer and Nast, the magazine also published illustrations by Theodore R. Davis, Henry Mosley, and the brothers Alfred and William Ward. Sold as a set