1867 Saratoga Races, Newport Round Tower Mystery, Sedgwick Obituary — Aug 24
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🗞️ HARPER'S WEEKLY · August 24, 1867
Complete Issue · New York
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A richly varied issue — Saratoga racing in four scenes, the legendary mystery of the Newport Round Tower, a New York tenement landlord-tenant scene, the Illinois State Capitol, the Long Branch beach wreck, and the obituary of one of 19th-century America's most celebrated women novelists, Catharine Maria Sedgwick. Strong content for collectors of Gilded Age sporting history, American architecture, social history, and women's literary history.
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🏇 THE RACES AT SARATOGA
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🏇 FULL PAGE — "THE RACES AT SARATOGA" — FOUR SCENES
A full-page illustration of four scenes from the Saratoga races — the greatest summer racing event in America, held at Saratoga Springs, New York. The Saratoga Race Course, opened in 1863, was already the social and sporting epicenter of the Gilded Age elite. A vivid and significant piece of American horse racing history and Gilded Age social life.
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🏰 THE NEWPORT ROUND TOWER
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🗺️ ILLUSTRATION & ARTICLE — "THE ROUND TOWER AT NEWPORT"
An illustration and article on the Round Tower at Newport, Rhode Island — described in this issue as "from time immemorial an object of interest and controversy to all visitors, and the subject of songs, legends, theories, and hoaxes without number." The Newport Tower — also known as the Old Stone Mill, the Viking Tower, and the Touro Tower — is a round stone structure in Touro Park whose origins have been debated since at least the 1830s. The mainstream theory holds that it was built as a windmill by colonial Governor Benedict Arnold in the 1670s; but Danish scholar Carl Christian Rafn proposed in 1837 that it was actually a Norse church built by medieval Viking explorers — a theory that inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1841 poem "The Skeleton in Armor." Theories attributing it to Vikings, Knights Templar, Portuguese explorers, and Chinese sailors have all been proposed and debated ever since. This Harper's Weekly article captures the tower at the height of its Victorian celebrity, as one of America's earliest tourist attractions and enduring architectural mysteries.
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🖼️ INSIDE THE ISSUE
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🏙️ FULL PAGE — "THE LANDLORD AND THE TENANT — A TENEMENT-HOUSE STORY" — TWO SCENES
Two scenes contrasting the rich landlord and the poor tenant — a pointed piece of Gilded Age social commentary on New York's tenement housing crisis. A significant piece of New York social history and urban reform documentation.
🌊 FULL PAGE — "THE BEACH AT LONG BRANCH — WRECK OF THE DORA BAKER"
A full-page illustration of the beach at Long Branch, New Jersey, depicting the wreck of the Dora Baker — combining two beloved Victorian themes: the fashionable seaside resort and the dramatic shipwreck. Long Branch was one of the most celebrated summer resorts of the Gilded Age, frequented by presidents and society figures alike.
🏛️ TWO ILLUSTRATIONS — "ILLINOIS STATE CAPITOL"
Two illustrations of the Illinois State Capitol — a significant piece of Midwestern architectural history.
👶 FULL FRONT PAGE — "THE MOTHER AND HER BABE"
A full front-page genre illustration of a mother and infant — a warm piece of Victorian genre illustration.
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📚 LITERARY OBITUARY
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✍️ ARTICLE & ILLUSTRATION — "DEATH OF MISS SEDGWICK"
A small illustration and article mourning the death of Catharine Maria Sedgwick — who died July 31, 1867, just three weeks before this issue, at age 77. Sedgwick was one of the most famous and influential American authors of the 19th century, ranked by literary critics alongside Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper as a primary founder of distinctly American literature. Her novels — A New-England Tale (1822), Redwood (1824), Hope Leslie (1827), and The Linwoods (1835) — were internationally popular and widely translated. Hawthorne called her "our most truthful novelist." A significant piece of American women's literary history.
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📋 CONDITION
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I photograph every page of every issue so you can inspect the condition closely before purchasing. Please review all images carefully and don't hesitate to ask any questions — I'm happy to provide additional detail or close-up shots of any page, illustration, or area of concern before you buy.
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📌 DETAILS
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Publication ········ Harper's Weekly
Date ··············· August 24, 1867
City ··············· New York
Item Number ········ 173122
Pages ·············· Complete Issue · No supplement
Format ············· Illustrated folio newspaper
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📦 SHIPPING & PRESERVATION
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• Housed in an acid-free archival folder with Mylar overlay to protect the 159-year-old newsprint
• Flat-shipped with heavy-duty reinforcement
• Fully tracked for your peace of mind
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1867 Saratoga Races, Newport Round Tower Mystery, Sedgwick Obituary — Aug 24
$39.93