'Harper's Weekly'

Harper's Weekly (also known as A Journal of Civilization) was the most popular and influential publication during the Civil War. An extensive archive of the publications during the Civil War can be found here.

Harper's Weekly was a publication of Harper & Brothers Publishing which was started in 1825 by James, John, Fletcher and Wesley Harper. Following the successful example of the Illustrated London News, Fletcher began publishing Harper’s Monthly in 1850. Harper's Monthly contained works by already known authors such as Dickens and Thackeray. It was in 1857 that Harper's Monthly had grown to the extent to need to morph into Harper's Weekly.

By 1860 Harper's Weekly had reached a circulation of 200,000. Illustrations were an important part of the Weekly’s content, and it developed a reputation for employing some of the most renowned illustrators, notably Winslow Homer, Granville Perkins and Livingston Hopkins. Among its most infamous aspects were the political cartoons of Thomas Nast who came on in 1862 and remained with Harper's Weekly for more than 20 years. Nast was a feared caricaturist, considered by some the father of American political cartooning. He was the originator of the use of animals to represent the political parties—the Democrats' donkey and the Republicans' elephant.

Harper’s Weekly took a moderate editorial position on the issue of slavery and supported the Stephen Douglas presidential campaign against Abraham Lincoln. However, at the outbreak of war Lincoln and the Union received full and loyal support of the publication. Arguably, some of the most important articles and illustrations came from Harper's Weekly's reporting on the war. It is Harper's Weekly that many historians and history lovers alike turn to for reporting of the war from a real time perspective.