1874 Nast Freedom Jubilee Pardon · Warwick Castle · Blackberries — Harper's Weekly Aug 29
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1874 Nast Freedom Jubilee Pardon · Warwick Castle · Blackberries — Harper's Weekly Aug 29
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🗞️ HARPER'S WEEKLY · August 29, 1874
Complete Issue + Supplement Pages · New York
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Thomas Nast's searing front page on the "pardoning" of Black Americans — one of his most powerful Reconstruction cartoons. A Black family picking blackberries in the summer warmth. Children piled atop a wagon load of hay. Warwick Castle across a magnificent double-page centerfold. Portraits of Max Müller, Oxford's great scholar of comparative religion, and Dr. Schweinfurth, explorer of Central Africa. And a supplement with a Paris artist's studio, a woman and children weeding, and more chapters of the summer's serialized adventure. This is August 29, 1874.
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🖼️ THE MAIN ISSUE
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✊ FRONT PAGE — THOMAS NAST: "FREEDOM, JUBILEE, AND PARDON"
Full front page — one of the most powerful and bitter cartoons Thomas Nast drew during the Reconstruction era. The image shows Black men being "pardoned" — but the devastating irony is that the pardoning being celebrated is not the recognition of Black freedom, but the pardoning of the Confederates and their allies who had fought to maintain slavery, who were now being welcomed back into full political life while the rights of Black Americans were being systematically stripped away. Nast — a lifelong defender of Black civil rights — lays the contradiction bare: "Freedom, Jubilee, and Pardon" for the oppressors, while the formerly enslaved are left with nothing secured. This is a primary document of the unraveling of Reconstruction, published at the exact moment the rollback was accelerating. For African American history collectors, Reconstruction era scholars, Thomas Nast researchers, civil rights history enthusiasts, and anyone who understands the bitterness of this moment in American history.
🫐 HALF PAGE — "A STRING OF BLACKBERRIES" — A BLACK FAMILY PICKING BERRIES
One of the warmest and most significant pieces of Black Americana in this run of Harper's. A Black family together in the summer — picking blackberries, a simple and joyful act rendered with dignity and warmth. In the same issue as Nast's devastating "Freedom, Jubilee, and Pardon," this illustration offers a counterpoint: Black family life, sustenance, summer, the small pleasures that endure. For African American history collectors, Black family life history researchers, and anyone moved by images of Black joy and community in the Reconstruction era.
🌾 FULL PAGE — "ON A LOAD OF HAY"
Children piled high on a farm wagon loaded with hay — the pure summer exuberance of harvest time on an American farm, rendered with Homer-esque feeling for childhood and the outdoors. One of the most immediately joyful illustrations in this run of Harper's.
🏖️ FULL PAGE — "SEASIDE SKETCHES"
Scenes of summer life at the American seaside — the beach resort culture of the 1870s documented in multiple vignettes. Victorian leisure at the shore, rendered with Harper's characteristic warmth.
🏰 DOUBLE-PAGE CENTERFOLD — "WARWICK CASTLE"
The full double-page centerfold — Harper's grandest format — devoted to Warwick Castle, one of the greatest medieval castles in England. Warwick Castle had stood since the 11th century, seat of the Earls of Warwick, scene of countless medieval and Tudor political dramas. By 1874 it was a celebrated tourist destination and one of the most-painted buildings in Britain. This centerfold — sweeping architecture, the River Avon below, the surrounding countryside — is outstanding display art. For British history collectors, castle enthusiasts, medieval architecture admirers, English history buffs, and anyone who loves the visual grandeur of England's great fortresses.
📚 QUARTER PAGE — "MAX MÜLLER"
Friedrich Max Müller — the German-born Oxford professor who was the Victorian era's most celebrated scholar of comparative religion, Sanskrit, and the study of mythology. His translations of the Hindu Vedas and his writings on the science of religion made him one of the most widely read intellectuals of the age. His portrait here is a primary document for religious studies history collectors, Sanskrit scholarship history buffs, and Victorian intellectual history enthusiasts.
🌍 QUARTER PAGE — "DR. SCHWEINFURTH, THE AFRICAN EXPLORER"
Georg August Schweinfurth — the German botanist and explorer who had recently returned from Central Africa, where he documented peoples, plants, and geography unknown to the Western world. His 1873 book "The Heart of Africa" was a bestseller. For African exploration history collectors and Victorian natural history enthusiasts.
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📄 THE SUPPLEMENT PAGES
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🎨 FULL PAGE — "THE DISCUSSION IN AN ARTIST'S STUDIO" — THE PARISIAN POET
A magnificent full-page illustration of a Paris artist's studio — figures gathered around canvases stacked against the walls, a marble bust visible, visitors examining and discussing paintings. The warm, animated world of the serious Victorian atelier, drawn from the Paris Salon. For Victorian art history collectors, Paris art world enthusiasts, and studio culture admirers.
🌿 FULL PAGE — "WEEDING"
A woman and children bent over their weeding in a summer garden — domestic labor rendered with warmth, the figures at their task in the afternoon light. Pastoral, tender, and quietly beautiful.
📚 TWO TEXT PAGES — "THE TREASURE HUNTERS; SEARCH FOR THE MOUNTAIN MINE" — CHAPTERS XXXII AND XXXIII BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN
Two full pages of serialized adventure fiction — plus "The Sabbath Bells" poem and "A Cup of Sorrow," rounding out a complete and readable literary supplement.
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📋 CONDITION
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Intake photographs of every page are included in this listing. Please review all images carefully and reach out with any questions — happy to photograph specific pages or details on request.
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📌 DETAILS
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Publication ········ Harper's Weekly
Date ··············· August 29, 1874
City ··············· New York
Pages ·············· Complete · 16 pages + Supplement
Format ············· Illustrated folio newspaper
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🔍 SEO TAGS
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1874 Nast Freedom Jubilee Pardon · Warwick Castle · Blackberries — Harper's Weekly Aug 29
$39.99