In
1817, two young brothers, James Harper (22) and John Harper (20),
established a small printing firm in New
York. Two other brothers, Joseph Harper and Fletcher Harper, joined
the company and by 1825 Harper & Brothers was the largest book
publisher in the United States.
Fletcher Harper became aware of the
success in Britain of the London Illustrated
News. In 1850 he launched Harper's Monthly. Edited
by Henry Raymond, the journal initially
concentrated on publishing established authors such as Charles
Dickens and William Thackeray. The
venture was a great success and in 1857 the company also began publishing
Harper's Weekly.
By 1860 the circulation of Harper's Weekly had reached 200,000.
The cartoonist, Thomas Nast, was recruited
two years later and he was to remain with the magazine for over twenty
years. During this period Nast began to distort and exaggerate the
physical traits of his subjects and therefore played an important
role in the development of political caricature. Nast also originated
the idea in America of using animals to represent political parties.
In his cartoons the Democratic Party
was a donkey and the Republican Party,
an elephant. He also helped to develop the character, Uncle Sam, to
represent the United States.
Harper's Weekly took a moderate editorial stance on the issue of slavery.
The main reason was that the editor did not want to upset its considerable
readership in the South. Radical Republications
criticized the journal for this and it was described by them as Harper's
Weakly. The journal supported Stephen
A. Douglas in the 1860 presidential election but after the outbreak
of the American Civil War it loyally
supported Abraham Lincoln and the Union.
After the war Harper's Weekly supported the Republican
Party and played an important role in the election of Ulysses
Grant in 1868 and 1872. In the 1870s Thomas
Nast concentrated his attacks in the journal on William
Tweed, the corrupt political leader of New
York City. Nast refused an offer of a $200,000 bribe to end this
campaign and eventually in 1876 Tweed was arrested and imprisoned
for fraud.
Thomas Nast and Harper's Weekly also
played an important role in securing victory for Rutherhood
Hayes in 1876. Afterwards Hayes commented that Nast was "the
most powerful single-handed aid we had." In 1884 Nast changed
sides and supported the Democratic
candidate, Grover Cleveland for president.
In doing so, he helped Cleveland become the first Democrat president
since 1856. After this, Nast was known as the "presidential maker".
In the late 19th century Harper's developed a reputation for employing
top illustrators such as Frank Bellew,
Charles Dana Gibson, Fred
Repington, Howard Pyle, James
M. Flagg and Maxfield Parrish.
After 1900 the magazine devoted more space to political and social
issues and featured articles by political figures such as Carl
Schurz, Theodore Roosevelt and
Woodrow Wilson.
Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly (5th
May, 1877)
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