1874 Winslow Homer Long Branch · Black Watch Ashanti — Harper's Weekly Aug 15
$198.76
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1874 Winslow Homer Long Branch · Black Watch Ashanti — Harper's Weekly Aug 15
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🗞️ HARPER'S WEEKLY · August 15, 1874
Complete Issue + Supplement Pages · New York
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Winslow Homer on the beach at Long Branch — children in the surf, the most fashionable resort in America alive in summer light. A fight involving Black communities in South America. Three scenes of the Pittsburgh flood. Five Parisian sketches. And a supplement with two full pages of the Black Watch regiment fighting through the forest of Ashante — the famous Scottish Highland soldiers in West Africa, drawn from life. This is August 15, 1874, and it spans three continents.
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🖼️ THE MAIN ISSUE
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🎨 WINSLOW HOMER — "ON THE BEACH AT LONG BRANCH — THE CHILDREN'S HOUR"
Full page. The print that makes the issue. Long Branch, New Jersey was the most fashionable seaside resort in Gilded Age America — presidents and financiers, society families and theatrical celebrities all summered there, and Winslow Homer depicted it repeatedly with a warmth and specificity no other artist matched. "The Children's Hour" shows children at play on the beach in the full heat of an August afternoon — the surf, the sand, the Victorian beach dress, the pure physical joy of the shore. Homer's Long Branch prints are among his most beloved and collected Harper's contributions. For Winslow Homer collectors, Long Branch history enthusiasts, New Jersey shore history buffs, and anyone who responds to the feeling of a summer beach in 1874.
✊ HALF PAGE — "A NEGRO FIGHT IN SOUTH AMERICA"
A half-page illustration documenting a conflict involving Black communities in South America — significant for Afro-Latin American history and the broader story of Black resistance and political assertion across the Americas in the era of emancipation. Brazil abolished slavery in stages between 1850 and 1888; throughout South America, Afro-descendant communities were fighting for recognition and rights in the 1870s. For African diaspora history collectors, Afro-Latin American history researchers, and Black history enthusiasts.
📰 FRONT PAGE — "SCANDAL"
The front page illustration on the subject of scandal — social, political, or personal — with an accompanying article. Gilded Age America was awash in scandal: in politics, in business, in society. Harper's front page takes it on directly.
🌊 DOUBLE-PAGE CENTERFOLD — "THE PITTSBURGH FLOOD" — THREE SCENES
Three separate views of the flooding that struck Pittsburgh — the city at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers was perpetually vulnerable to seasonal floods, and when they came they were devastating. Three captioned scenes across a full double-page spread document the flooding, its reach, and its human impact. For Pittsburgh history collectors, Pennsylvania history enthusiasts, and flood disaster history researchers.
🎨 THREE-QUARTER PAGE — "PARISIAN SKETCHES" — FIVE VIGNETTES
Five street-level views of Paris life — the cafés, the boulevards, the markets, the people of the French capital in the summer of 1874. France was in the early years of the Third Republic after the trauma of the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune; these sketches capture the city returning to its rhythms.
🐎 "THE HORSE BARRIER"
A large illustration relating to horse racing, steeplechasing, or equestrian competition — the barrier that starts the race, the horses and riders in the charged moment before release. For Victorian sporting art collectors and horse racing history enthusiasts.
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📄 THE SUPPLEMENT PAGES
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⚔️ FULL PAGE — "THE 'BLACK WATCH' IN ACTION — PHILLIPA IN [WEST AFRICA]"
One of the two visual centerpieces of the supplement. The Black Watch — the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, one of the most famous and storied regiments in the British Army, distinguished by their dark tartan plaid, their kilts, and their extraordinary battle record — shown fighting through jungle terrain during the Third Anglo-Ashanti War of 1873–74. The Black Watch served in the Gold Coast campaign under General Garnet Wolseley, fighting through the Ashanti forest toward Kumasi. This full-page illustration captures the regiment in action — figures pushing through dense tropical vegetation, the chaos of jungle warfare rendered with dramatic detail. For Scottish military history collectors, Black Watch regimental history enthusiasts, Anglo-Ashanti War researchers, and West African history buffs — a genuinely rare subject in American illustrated press.
🌿 FULL PAGE — "THE FOREST OF ASHANTEE" — DRAWN BY M.L. DESSINS
The companion piece — a full-page supplement illustration of the Ashanti forest, drawn by M.L. Dessins and labeled with the page reference. The Ashanti forest of present-day Ghana was one of the most challenging environments British forces had ever fought in — dense tropical canopy, difficult terrain, extreme heat and disease. This illustration documents the battle environment: soldiers in the forest, the jungle pressing close, the fight for the Gold Coast rendered in dramatic engraving. For Ghana history collectors, British colonial West Africa researchers, Ashanti Kingdom history enthusiasts, and tropical warfare history buffs.
📚 "TREASURE HUNTERS; SEARCH FOR THE MOUNTAIN MINE" — CHAPTER XXVII
A supplement chapter of a serialized adventure story — treasure hunters, a mountain mine, and the serialized fiction that made Harper's Weekly as much a literary magazine as a news organ. Dense and readable, the supplement's literary content rounds out the visual feast of the Ashanti pages.
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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 15, 1874
City ··············· New York
Pages ·············· Complete · 16 pages + Supplement
Format ············· Illustrated folio newspaper
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🔍 SEO TAGS
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1874 Winslow Homer Long Branch · Black Watch Ashanti — Harper's Weekly Aug 15
$198.76