Author: Nast, Thomas
Title: Harper's Weekly (Vol. XX, No. 994, January 15, 1876)
Description: New York, Harper's, 1876. First Edition. 0 pp. Disbound. Nast, Thomas; Murray, W.B.; M. Woolf. Original, complete disbound issue that shows little wear at the spine and fading, o/w fine. Cover illustration by Thomas Nast showing Hamlet with the caption, "Madness (yet there's method in it)," a play on the concept of separation of church and state with references to the U.S. government and its public schools vs. the Roman Catholic Church and even a quote from Abraham Lincoln with a play on it mocking the Church: "A government of the priests, by the priests, for the priests, shall perish from the earth." A second full-page illustration (p. 44) showing a lion with a stern lawyer's face in "The Lawyer's Den" with front paws perched on a large bag labelled "6.000.000 stolen from the City of New York" and a smaller bag labelled "Bondsmen Money that Belong to the City of N. Y." A third illustration by Nast (p. 56), much smaller, with the face of the lion portrayed as a planet rung by "Tammany Ring" and "Erie Ring" and labeled D.D. Field on the forehead. Also, detailed illustration (not by Nast) of "A Bear Hunt in the Rocky Mountains," an article about Dickens' use of bells in his novels, and a vivid 8-panel 2-page illustration on "A Visit to a Light-House" by W. B. Murray. Two pages of illustrations by M. Woolf: a collage illustrating "Christmas Dinner to the Newsboys and Newsgirls of New York" and a full-page illustration spread of Columbia steering the ship of the Union with the Constitution as her wheel with evil images labelled with the words slavery, bigotry, prejudice, rebellion, hatred, malice, corruption, and panic." A new sun is rising for "Peace and Prosperity"-- a quite telling portrait of post-Civil War America. Near Fine.

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