''Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper'', later renamed ''Leslie's Weekly'', was an American illustrated literary and news magazine founded in 1855 and published until 1922. It was one of several magazines started by publisher and illustrator
Frank Leslie.
Throughout its existence, the weekly provided illustrations and reports—with
wood engraving
Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and prints using relatively l ...
s,
lithograph
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...
s and
steel engravings based on sketches and photography, beginning with
daguerreotype
Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photography, photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process.
Invented by Louis Daguerre and introduced worldwid ...
s and later with more advanced forms of photography—of wars from
John Brown's raid at
Harpers Ferry
Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 269 at the 2020 United States census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac River, Potomac and Shenandoah River, Shenandoah Rivers in the ...
and the
Civil War
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
to the
Spanish–American War
The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...
and the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
- and numerous other articles of topical interest.
Surviving issues today are prized by collectors for their vividly depicting American life during the seven decades of its existence. Many distinguished writers were featured in its pages.
History
Background
Frank Leslie was the
pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
of Henry Carter (1821–1880), the son of a well-to-do English glovemaker.
[Joshua Brown, "The Great Uprising and Pictorial Order in Gilded Age America", in David O. Stowell (ed.), ''The Great Strikes of 1877''. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008; p. 19.] Carter had taken up the art of wood engraving over his father's objection and emigrated to
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
to make his own way in the world, arriving in 1848.
Carter—who adopted the Frank Leslie name immediately upon his arrival—was unable to find a position as an illustrator with an established newspaper in the city and was forced to open his own business, a small engraving shop on Broadway.
One of Leslie's early clients was promoter
P. T. Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding with James Anthony Bailey the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He was ...
, who commissioned Leslie to produce a posh illustrated concert program for singer
Jenny Lind in 1849.
[Joshua Brown, ''The Great Uprising and Pictorial Order in Gilded Age America'', p. 20.] Additional work was done for Barnum for another Lind tour in 1850 and 1851.
When Barnum decided to launch a publication called ''The Illustrated News'' in 1853, he turned to Leslie, hiring him as chief engraver for the short-lived publication, which failed within its first year of existence.
Out of a job once more, Leslie decided to begin publishing on his own, launching two new periodicals in 1854—''Frank Leslie's Ladies' Gazette of Fashion'', a fashion-oriented newspaper, and ''Frank Leslie's Journal of Romance'', an illustrated fiction magazine.
Both of these publications proved to be financially lucrative, and in 1855, Leslie added a third publication to his stable, an illustrated news weekly called ''Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper''.
Early years
The first years of ''Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper'' were difficult, with the nation undergoing a business crisis in 1857.
The drama of the massive
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
in 1861, though, ensured the success of ''Leslie's Newspaper'', as tens of thousands of readers turned to ''Leslie's'' and the upstart ''
Harper's Weekly
''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper (publisher), Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many su ...
'' for their sometimes lurid illustrations of the bloody conflict.
A ''Leslie's'' freelancer,
James R. O'Neill, is believed to have been the only Civil War correspondent
killed in action
Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, ...
in the Civil War.
No daily newspaper in America consistently carried illustrations until the launch of ''
The Daily Graphic'' in 1873, by which time ''Leslie's Newspaper'' was a massive and prosperous concern, employing more than 300 people, including 70 illustrators, as part of a publishing empire which by now spanned seven publications.
Production process

''Leslie's Newspaper'' averaged 16 pages and was frequently accompanied by supplements or expanded into special thematic editions.
[Brown, ''The Great Uprising and Pictorial Order in Gilded Age America'', p. 21.] Content strove to be timely, focusing on the newsworthy events of the previous week, often within days of its occurrence, a novelty for the era.
Art was produced by teams, with initial sketches selected by an editor and turned over to an illustrator, who produced an outline drawing.
The outline was then applied to a block consisting of multiple layers of Turkish
boxwood
''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box and boxwood.
The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost So ...
and additional detail added by specialized artists.
The large block of wood was then separated into its constituent pieces and turned over to the engraving department, which meticulously carved out the white sections, leaving the black illustration in relief.
The sections of the wood block were then rejoined and sent to the composing room, where the illustration was converted to part of an electrotyped copper plate for printing.
Years after Frank Leslie's death
After Leslie's death in 1880, the magazine was continued by his widow,
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
campaigner
Miriam Florence Leslie. The name, by then a well-established trademark, remained also after 1902, when it no longer had a connection with the Leslie family. The magazine was merged into
''Judge'' (which was under the same ownership) effective with the June 24, 1922 issue, having switched to a monthly publication in February, 1921, shortly after its parent company was placed into receivership.
It often took a strongly
patriotic
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to one's country or state. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one's homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, politic ...
stance and frequently featured cover pictures of soldiers and heroic battle stories. It also gave extensive coverage to less martial events such as the
Klondike gold rush of 1897, covered by
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
journalist John Bonner.
Among the writers publishing their stories in the weekly were
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels ''Good Wives'' (1869), ''Little Men'' (1871), and ''Jo's Boys'' ...
,
H. Irving Hancock,
Helen R. Martin,
Eleanor Franklin Egan, and
Ellis Parker Butler. Several notable illustrators worked for the publication, including
Albert Berghaus and
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...
, who created covers for the magazine in its latter years,
Emmett Watson, and
Fernando Miranda y Casellas.
James Montgomery Flagg
James Montgomery Flagg (June 18, 1877 – May 27, 1960) was an American artist, comics artist, and illustrator. He worked in media ranging from fine art painting to cartooning, but is best remembered for his political posters, particularly his ...
's iconic depiction of
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam (with the same initials as ''United States'') is a common national personification of the United States, depicting the federal government of the United States, federal government or the country as a whole. Since the early 19th centu ...
first appeared publicly on the cover of the July 6, 1916, issue, with the caption "What Are You Doing for Preparedness?", before becoming a famed recruiting poster on American entry into World War I.
Pioneering aviator
Harriet Quimby was a frequent contributor for 10 year, serving as the magazine's aviation editor after she became the first American woman to become a licensed pilot in 1911, after several years of writing for the magazine on a number of different subjects (including serving as the magazine's drama critic). Some of her final writings for the magazine were on the topic of aviation and aviation safety, with her final article appearing in the issue published a week after her death in a flying accident on July 1, 1912.
By 1897, the publication's circulation had grown to an estimated 65,000 copies.
[N. W. Ayer & Son, ''The American Newspaper Annual'' (New York, 1897]
1896: Journals of the Campaign
.
See also
*
Cathedral of All Saints (Albany, New York)
The Cathedral of All Saints, Albany, New York (state), New York, is located on Elk Street in central Albany, New York, Albany, New York, United States. It is the central church of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany and the seat of the Episcopal Bis ...
Gallery
File:Lincoln-Family-Leslie's-Weekly-1860.jpg, Mary Todd Lincoln
Mary Ann Todd Lincoln (Birth name, née Todd; December 13, 1818July 16, 1882) was First Lady of the United States from 1861 until the assassination of her husband, President Abraham Lincoln, in 1865.
Mary Todd was born into a large and wealthy ...
with sons William and Tad; steel engraving from photograph (December 15, 1860)
File:ArkansasPost-Battle(CivilWar).jpg, An 1863 lithograph showing General Stephen G. Burbridge planting the Union flag after the capture of Arkansas Post
The Arkansas Post (; ), officially the Arkansas Post National Memorial, was the first European colonization of the Americas, European settlement located along the Mississippi River, in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, and in the present-day U. ...
File:Joseph Ferdinand Keppler01.jpg, Joseph Keppler Colored lithograph ridiculing U.S. Indian policy (September 18, 1875)
File:1876 Republican National Convention - Ohio (cropped).jpg, The Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the Republican Party in the United States. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal o ...
at Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
; lithograph likely derived from a photograph (July 1, 1876)
File:The Meeker tragedy.jpg, An 1879 lithograph illustration depicting the Meeker Massacre
Meeker Massacre, or Meeker Incident, White River War, Ute War, or the Ute Campaign), took place on September 29, 1879 in Colorado. Members of a band of Ute people, Ute Indians (Native Americans of the United States, Native Americans) attacked t ...
in Colorado
File:Love-Making_in_Puritan_Times.jpg, Woodcut of a romantic Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
couple (December 12, 1885)
File:Leslie's-Weekly-1898.jpg, Colored lithograph cover about the Spanish–American War
The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...
(June 30, 1898)
File:Teddy-Roosevelt-Leslie's-Weekly-1904.jpg, President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
; halftone photograph (April 7, 1904)
File:Fact & Fiction by Norman Rockwell 1917.jpg, ''Fact and Fiction'' by Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...
(January 11, 1917)
File:Leslie's - Columbia has her eye on you cph.3b48651.jpg, Cover promoting participation in the first presidential election since ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment (October 2, 1920)
File:Leslie's Magazine Feb 12, 1921.jpg, ''A Lumber-Jane'' by Emmett Watson (February 12, 1921)
References
Further reading
* Joshua Brown, "The Great Uprising and Pictorial Order in Gilded Age America," in David O. Stowell (ed.), ''The Great Strikes of 1877.'' Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008; pp. 15–54.
External links
1890 volume of paper via Google books
1917-1918 issues covering the Great War via Digital Library@Villanova University
*
*
ttps://archive.today/20130113051254/http://www.oscarwildeinamerica.org/lecture-tour/0805-a-scene-at-long-beach.html Sketch depicting Oscar Wilde from ''Leslie's Weekly''The San Francisco Earthquake in ''Leslie's Weekly''''Leslie's Weekly'' Volume 133, Issue 3451. From Google books.
Accessible Archives has complete set (institutional subscription required){{Authority control
* https://archive.org/details/pub_leslies-weekly
1855 establishments in the United States
1922 disestablishments in the United States
Defunct literary magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1855
Magazines disestablished in 1922
News magazines published in the United States
Weekly magazines published in the United States