Unattributed. "Map of the Southern States"

Unattributed. "Map of the Southern States". From Harper's Weekly.

New York: November 1861. 20 x 29 3/4 (neat lines plus margins). Wood engraving. Original hand color. With folds as issued. Repaired tears and reinforcement along vertical fold with archival tape. Slight browning alone vertical center fold. Else, very good condition of a map that is usually found tattered at the edges from folding out of the periodical. Stephenson, Civil War Maps, 14.55.

Harper's Weekly was an illustrated newspaper issued in New York, beginning just before the Civil War and continuing for most of the nineteenth century. Its mission was best described by its subtitle, "A Journal of Civilization." The newspaper had copious articles, but it communicated much of its message through excellent and topical pictures which were drawn by its many staff artists. These pictures were of current events, and it was this paper which supplied the American public with most of the contemporary images of the Civil War. Besides the scenes of soldiers and battlefields, Harper's included a number of maps. This map depicted the entire region of the south and border states and it was intended as the general map which readers could use to follow events.