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All prints are wood engravings published in New York in issues of Harper's Weekly. All are in very good condition, except as noted.
A fine double-fold illustration featuring several vignettes of domestic scenes. Interestingly, a mix of ethnicities appears: of the six images of rural American gatherings, two feature Afircan-American groups: "Husking Corn" and "The Breakdown" are counterparts to Caucasian gatherings ("The Applecut, "The Dance," "Quilting," and "Raffling"). In all vignettes, individuals are treated evenly: the illustrations are not satirical but descriptive of domestic life in the country for two different groups of people. $35
A wood engraving taken from a sketch sent in my a Union soldier. Writing from the Missouri front, Sgt. Charles O. Dewey of the 4th Regiment of Iowa volunteers describes a horrific iron collar worn by a runaway slave who took refuge with the Union regiment. A tight-fitting collar with three prongs, it had been worn by the enslaved man for two months as he escaped his owner. Text accompanies image. $60
All three images appear on the same page, along with text explaining the daring escape of Smalls and the rest of the crew from their Confederate Navy masters. $45
As the accompanying text describes, this image depicted reactions to the immensity of Sherman's troop march through the South.$35
The first African-American lawyer admitted to practice before the Supreme Court. $30
A somber picture of fallen soldiers on the battlefield, this image potently includes both black and white soldiers. $55
A native of Illinois, Menard moved to Louisiana following the Civil War. From that state, he was elected as the first African-American to serve in Congress. $30
In 1876, the nation's eyes were riveted on Philadelphia, host city to the Centennial Exhibition. Even New York-based newspapers like Harper's Weekly featured articles and images of the City of Brotherly Love, like this composite print of the figures of the city streetscape. Here "the catfish woman," "the crab man," "the hominy man," and "the pepper pot woman" are illustrated, along with a small portrait of a plainly-clothed Pennsylvania Dutch couple. Of the four named figures, all offer uniquely Philadelphian street food, and three are African-American, offering an interesting glimpse into the food culture and demographics of a northern city in the years following the Civil War. $75
Based on Stephen Foster's very popular folk song, "The Old Folks At Home," this print illustrates an ex-slave street musician as he dreams, presumably, of his Florida home. Written for a New York minstrel troop in 1851, the song was wildly popular, selling hundreds of thousands of copies of sheet music. Written before the Civil War but popular throughout Reconstruction and long after, it has been interpreted as everything from an Abolitionist anthem to Reconstructionist racism to the lyrical root of modern Blues music. Interpretation here is best left to the viewer's eye. A superbly rendered wood engraving, it captures the complex social climate that pervaded the United States in the years between the Civil War and the Centennial. $90
The accompanying text details the reason for the hiding: in and around Grant Parish, Louisiana, African-Americans were being massacred by groups of armed white men. In the image, a small group gathers around a campfire beneath a lean-to, taking refuge in the temporary structure under the trees. This startling news page points to the deeply-seated anger, racism, and violence that racked the South during Reconstruction. $75
In eight sketches, the artist illustrates daily life around the city, primarily shocasing its black residents at work and leisure. $75
In a series of vignettes, Moser captures the activity surrounding the buying and selling of cotton at the rail yards in small-town Mississippi, largely powered by the labor of African-American sharecroppers. $45
As enfranchised white men gather to talk politics, three African Americans occupy the edges of the country store. In the back, a bearded black man looks up from his task at the grain barrels. Nearly hidden in shadow, he is separated from the conversants. At the counter, two ill-clad black children look at books -- in theory, they will have opportunities for education that their parents and grandparents never had. Significantly, the man helping them at the counter leans on a crutch, probably an amputee veteran of the Confederate army. $75
Showcasing the popular trend in men's fashion, this set of illustrations shows first "A Politician's New Year's Day - Receiving Influential Constituents," in which the "influential constituent" sports a plaid Ulster overcoat. In the second illustration, Shults evokes sympathy for "The Neglected Caller" who supposes, looking on at his fashionably-dressed rival that "De Ulster Makes De Man, Shuah." Interestingly, an African American appears in the first image as part of the waitstaff; in the second, the scene is two African-American men receiving the attentions (or neglect) of four African-American women, handsomely dressed. $55
Depicting everything from classroom buildings to student projects, these two pages aimed to illustrate for readers the full extent of education available at the newly established Tuskegee Institute. $55
As white legislators look on, caricatured African-American officials shake their fists and hurl insults at one another. Like a virtuous schoolmarm, the allegorical figure Columbia stands at the lectern with a willow switch, ready to back up her admonitions. $65
Mr. Solid Brutus, cast here as a white shyster, stands in front of a tent plastered with mottoes like "Southern Temple of Liberty" and "No more Southern Bayonets at the Polls." Given the first name "Exode" (the term for the farcical after-piece in ancient Roman theater), the shabbily-dressed freeman is set up for ridicule with his noble last name. Just as Shakespeare's Brutus betrays his close friend Caesar for the sake of the Roman state, Nast's carpet-bagging character will hand Exode Caesar to the wolves to achieve political success. $45
The Liberty Bell "from Independence Hall, Philadelphia," is at the center of this image, with a patrician man leaning in from the left to knock and listen, and a well dressed black man at right, doing much the same. A hopeful image of America from the late 19th century. $45
As post-bellum healing continued for the fractured United States, achieving uniform railroad gauge marked great progress. Commercially very separate before the Civil War, the North and South were covered with tracks from different railroad lines. To overcome the cumbersome transitions between different gauges, rail lines began to update tracks, accomplishing standard gauge in 1886. This print celebrates the event as a harbinger of national unity, an indication of hopes for continued cooperation between former enemies. Interestingly, Nast depicts certain holdovers from earlier times: behind the Southern gentleman crouches a black man, clad in a work apron and holding a spade. In the crowd, a black man cheers. Though he shows proper respect for the auspicious event, Nast also raises questions of true progress in the status of freed slaves in the Southern states. Contrasting the cheering figure in the back to the subservient man in the front, Nast also seems to ask if the new transportation lines will open channels by which Southern black populations might find opportunity in the North. Clearly, according to the artist, there are still great differences between regions. $40
Go to page with more cartoons by Thomas Nast
While the "Darktown" prints by Currier & Ives are the most famous images of post-bellum African Americans, more people probably saw this series in Harper's Weekly. With its impressive circulation around the United States, Harper's reached more than 10,000 subscribers with each issue. To white subscribers, the satires were humorous. To modern viewers, they reveal the racism with which America has always struggled, perhaps never so keenly as during Reconstruction. Illustrators who contributed to this series were Sol Eytinge, Jr. (1833-1905), William Ludwell Sheppard (1833-1912), S.C. McCutcheon (fl. in New York 1880-1883) and "Sphinx."
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