1874 Nast KKK "Worse Than Slavery," Grant Cartoon, Egypt Pyramids — Oct 24
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🗞️ HARPER'S WEEKLY · October 24, 1874
Complete Issue + Supplement Pages · New York
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A historically significant issue anchored by one of Thomas Nast's most important and collected civil rights cartoons — "Worse than Slavery" — showing the KKK and White League joined over a terrorized Black family. Combined with two additional Nast cartoons, a stunning two-page Egyptian supplement, and vivid frontier imagery, this is one of the strongest issues of the fall 1874 run for collectors of African American history, Reconstruction-era documents, and Gilded Age political art.
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✊ BLACK AMERICANA & RECONSTRUCTION
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🔥 THOMAS NAST — "WORSE THAN SLAVERY"
The most historically significant illustration in the issue — and one of the most important civil rights images in the entire Harper's Weekly canon. Nast's cartoon depicts a White League member and a Ku Klux Klan member clasping hands over a terrorized Black family, with a destroyed schoolhouse in the background and a lynched Black man visible. The caption "Worse than Slavery" indicts Reconstruction-era racial terrorism as a continuation — and escalation — of slavery by other means. Published at the height of the White League's violent campaign to destroy Black political participation in the South, this image is a primary document of American civil rights history and among the most collected and reproduced of all Nast's political work. A genuine piece of African American history.
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🖼️ THE FRONT PAGE & ADDITIONAL NAST
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💼 FULL FRONT PAGE — THOMAS NAST: "A BURDEN HE HAS TO SHOULDER"
A full Nast front page showing President Ulysses S. Grant overburdened — a pointed commentary on the political weight of Reconstruction, corruption scandals, and the impossible demands of the Grant administration. A significant piece of Grant-era political history.
🎠 FULL PAGE — THOMAS NAST: "THE HOBBY IN THE KINDER-GARTEN"
A second full Nast cartoon — a satirical scene playing on the "hobby horse" metaphor in the context of Gilded Age political culture.
🏹 HALF PAGE — INDIAN FAMILY SCENE
A half-page illustration of white men observing a Native American family and their children — a document of the fraught and paternalistic lens through which Eastern Americans viewed Indigenous peoples in 1874.
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🐪 THE SUPPLEMENT — EGYPT & THE PYRAMIDS
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🏛️ DOUBLE-PAGE CENTERFOLD — "STARTING FOR THE PYRAMIDS"
The supplement showpiece — a sweeping, atmospheric double-page scene of travelers and locals preparing for a camel and donkey journey toward the Pyramids of Giza, palm trees silhouetted against a luminous full moon. A wonderfully exotic and beautifully rendered piece of Victorian travel illustration at its finest — and very frameable.
🕌 FULL PAGE — "CAIRO — FROM BENI SUEF"
A second large Egyptian scene — a busy street and market scene with figures, camels, and North African architecture, capturing the teeming life of Cairo as Victorian travelers experienced it. Rich in detail and atmosphere.
The Victorian fascination with Egypt was at its peak in the 1870s, fueled by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and a wave of popular travel writing. These two illustrations gave American readers their most vivid visual portrait of a world few would ever see in person.
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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 ··············· October 24, 1874
City ··············· New York
Item Number ········ 173872
Pages ·············· Complete · 16 pages + 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 151-year-old newsprint
• Flat-shipped with heavy-duty reinforcement to ensure safe arrival of the centerfold and supplement
• Fully tracked for your peace of mind
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🔍 SEO TAGS
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1874 Nast KKK "Worse Than Slavery," Grant Cartoon, Egypt Pyramids — Oct 24
$43.21