Unattributed "Foot-Ball at the Wall." [Rugby]

"Foot-Ball at the Wall." [Rugby].  From Harper’s Weekly. 

New York: Harper’s Weekly, February 26, 1876. 11 3/4 x 20 1/4.  Wood engraving.  Old tape on verso on center fold.  Else, good condition.

Harper’s Weekly was a New York based newspaper in the last half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.  In weekly issues, Harper’s presented a mixture of news stories, gossip, poetry, and most notably, wood-engraved illustrations.  These pictures remain among of the best sources for lively, informative images of nineteenth-century America.  Photography was popular but difficult to publish, so these illustrations provided much of the country with its visual information about the events, personalities and places of the time.  Major artists were employed to do drawings on the spot, which were then turned into lively and detailed prints in an amazingly short period of time.  While originally issued in large numbers, few have survived the ages in good condition.  These are interesting, historical and very collectible prints.