1874 Charles Sumner Lies in State · Sugar Making Texas · Victor Hugo Apr 4 For Sale

1874 Charles Sumner Lies in State · Sugar Making Texas · Victor Hugo — HARPERS WEEKLY · April 4, 1874
Complete Issue + Supplement Pages · New Sumners body lying in state in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol — Black Americans and white lining up to pay their respects to the man who gave his life to their freedom. Multiple funeral illustrations inside. Victor Hugo and his literary world in vignettes. Greyhound coursing in England. And a supplement documenting the Far West — hides and bones curing, sugar being made in Texas, Arkansas pilgrims on the road. This is America in April 1874, mourning and moving forward at THE MAIN ISSUE — EVERY FRONT PAGE — "THE BODY OF CHARLES SUMNER LYING IN STATE IN THE ROTUNDA OF THE CAPITOL"
Full front page. This is one of the most powerful and historically significant images Harpers published in the entire year of 1874. Senator Charles Sumner — the great Massachusetts abolitionist, the man beaten on the Senate floor for defending Black freedom, the lifelong champion of Black civil rights — had died on March 11, 1874. His body was brought to lie in state in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol — one of the highest honors the nation could bestow. Black Americans came from across Washington D.C. and the surrounding region to pay their respects: free people, former slaves, veterans of the United States Colored Troops, domestic workers, ministers, teachers, politicians. They came because Charles Sumner had been their champion when champions were rare. This front-page illustration — the coffin, the Rotundas great dome, the mourners gathered around it — is a primary document of African American grief and tribute in the Reconstruction era. For Black history collectors, civil rights history researchers, African American history enthusiasts, Reconstruction era scholars, Massachusetts history buffs, and anyone who understands what Sumner meant to the Black community — this page is irreplaceable.⚰️ INSIDE — SUMNERS FUNERAL — MULTIPLE ILLUSTRATIONS
Additional interior illustrations document the full arc of Sumners state funeral — the processions, the ceremonies, the public mourning. Together with the front page, these pages form a complete visual record of one of the great public funerals of the Reconstruction era.🎨 ILLUSTRATIONS — VICTOR HUGO WITH VIGNETTES RE. HIS WORK
Victor Hugo — author of Les Misérables, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and some of the most celebrated poetry in the French language — depicted with multiple vignettes illustrating his literary work. Following Harpers earlier coverage of his Guernsey exile and his house, this spread connects Hugo the man to Hugo the writer — the novels, the characters, the ideas that made him the most famous French author alive. For Hugo collectors, French literature enthusiasts, Les Misérables history buffs, and Victorian literary culture researchers.🐕 HALF PAGE — "COURSING — THE SLIP"
Greyhound coursing — the ancient English sport of hunting by sight rather than scent, with greyhounds released ("slipped") to pursue hares across open country — rendered in a half-page illustration at the moment of the slip: dogs released, hare in flight, handlers watching. Coursing was one of the great aristocratic rural sports of Victorian England and remains a subject of passionate interest for greyhound enthusiasts and English country sport THE SUPPLEMENT "SKETCHES IN THE FAR WEST — CURING HIDES & BONES"
The dark industry that was transforming the Great Plains. As the great buffalo herds were slaughtered by hunters, a secondary industry emerged: collecting and curing the hides and bones left behind. Buffalo hides went to tanneries; bones went to fertilizer factories; the Plains were being stripped of their ecological foundation. These "Sketches in the Far West" document the curing operations — the racks, the workers, the scale of it — as a matter of commercial fact, without the romance of the hunt. For Western Americana collectors, buffalo/bison history researchers, and Plains ecology historians, this is a primary document of the hide-and-bone trade.🍬 "SUGAR MAKING IN TEXAS"
Texas sugar cane cultivation and processing — one of the states agricultural industries of the post-Civil War era. Sugar was grown in the coastal lowlands of Texas, and the labor of formerly enslaved Black Texans was central to the industrys continuation after emancipation. This illustration of the sugar making process is a document of Texas agriculture, Southern industry, and the post-emancipation labor economy. For Texas history collectors, agricultural history enthusiasts, and Southern Reconstruction economy researchers.🚶 "ARKANSAS PILGRIMS"
Travelers or settlers moving through Arkansas — the "pilgrims" of the frontier, on the road through one of the poorest and most contested states of the Reconstruction South. Arkansas in 1874 was a state of enormous racial, economic, and political tension; these travelers on the road are a human-scale document of that photographs of every page — including all supplement pages — are included in this listing. Please review all images carefully. Questions are very welcome, and Im happy to photograph any specific page or detail on ········ Harpers Weekly
Date ··············· April 4, 1874
City ··············· New York
Pages ·············· Complete · 16 pages + Supplement
Format ············· Illustrated folio SEO Sumner lying in state, Charles Sumner funeral, Sumner Capitol Rotunda, abolitionist funeral 1874, Black mourners Sumner, African American history Reconstruction, civil rights history antique, Sumner memorial print, Massachusetts senator funeral, Capitol Rotunda funeral historical, Reconstruction mourning, Black community Sumner, USCT veterans Sumner, abolitionist collectible, Victor Hugo illustration, Victor Hugo literary vignettes, Les Miserables history, Hugo French literature Victorian, Victor Hugo portrait work, greyhound coursing illustration, coursing the slip Victorian, Victorian dog sport, greyhound Victorian print, Far West hides bones, buffalo hide curing, Plains bison industry, hide trade Victorian, buffalo slaughter aftermath, Western Americana supplement, sugar making Texas, Texas sugar cane, Texas agriculture Victorian, Black labor Texas Reconstruction, Southern agriculture post-Civil War, Arkansas pilgrims illustration, Arkansas Reconstruction era, frontier travelers illustration, Harpers Weekly 1874, antique newspaper 1874, Victorian illustrated newspaper, Gilded Age newspaper, antique illustration engraving, Victorian wall art, framing quality print, Black history collectible, African American history print, abolitionist history collectible, civil rights history print, Texas history collectible, history lover gift, rare newspaper collectible, museum quality ephemera, Gilded Age ephemera, French literature collectible, state funeral historical print, Capitol building historical