1880 A.B. Frost Gun-Shy, Cowboys, Andre, Nast — Harper's Weekly — Oct 2

📜 ABOUT THIS PIECE OF HISTORY 📜
The October 2, 1880 issue of Harper's Weekly is a collector's prize of the first order — A.B. Frost delivers a magnificent full-page hunting illustration that is among his finest sporting work of the entire year, W.A. Rogers contributes two pieces including a full-page cowboys scene that is one of the most important western documentary illustrations of the 1880 run, Thomas Nast delivers two full-page political cartoons in the crucial final weeks of the presidential campaign, a Revolutionary War scene of the capture of Major André fills a full page with one of the great dramatic episodes of the American founding, and a panoramic view of New York from the Jersey City ferry captures the harbor city at a moment of extraordinary growth and vitality. This is an issue that rewards every collector who encounters it.

🎨 FULL FRONT PAGE — THOMAS NAST: "THE TOODLES TICKET — THE FIRST THING HE SEES ON RETURNING TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS THOMPSON WITH A P!"
Thomas Nast opens the issue with a front-page political cartoon of characteristic wit and pointed literary allusion — "The Toodles Ticket" invoking the well-known temperance drama "Timothy Toodles" to make an argument about the Democratic Party's internal contradictions and the shock awaiting those who returned to its fold. The reference to "Thompson with a P!" adds a specific layer of comic and political meaning that Harper's Weekly's readers — steeped in the theatrical culture of the era — would have caught immediately. In the final weeks of the 1880 presidential campaign, with every vote in every doubtful state potentially decisive, Nast's front pages were targeted interventions in specific political debates, and this one carries all the wit and precision of a cartoonist at the absolute peak of his powers. A fully displayable and historically rich Nast front page for collectors of his work and the 1880 presidential election.

🐕 FULL PAGE — A.B. FROST: "GUN-SHY"
The visual sporting crown jewel of this issue — a magnificent full-page hunting illustration by A.B. Frost, one of the most beloved and technically accomplished American illustrators of the Gilded Age. "Gun-Shy" captures one of the most recognizable and most humbling experiences in the hunting field — the dog that flinches at the shot, the hunting companion whose nerve has failed at the critical moment, the comedy and frustration of a carefully planned hunt undone by one animal's involuntary terror. Frost — celebrated throughout his career for his ability to render the human and animal comedy of outdoor life with warmth, specificity, and extraordinary draftsmanship — brings all of those qualities to this scene, producing an illustration that any hunter who has experienced a gun-shy dog will recognize instantly and anyone else will find immediately and irresistibly funny. A fully displayable and deeply sought-after piece for collectors of A.B. Frost illustration, hunting history, sporting art, and Victorian American outdoor culture.

🎨 FULL PAGE — THOMAS NAST: "AS SOLID AND DEFIANT AS EVER"
The second Thomas Nast full-page political cartoon of the issue — "As Solid and Defiant As Ever" targeting the Democratic Party's Southern Solid South strategy and its claim that the redeemer governments of the former Confederate states represented a legitimate and permanent political settlement. The "solid" South — the bloc of former Confederate states voting unanimously Democratic in every election — was the foundation of Democratic presidential strategy in 1880, and Nast's response to its "defiance" is characteristically pointed. Two Thomas Nast full-page political cartoons in a single issue is always an exceptional collector's find, and this pairing — the literary Toodles front page and the political Solid South inside — shows Nast working the final weeks of the campaign from multiple angles simultaneously.

🤠 FULL PAGE — W.A. ROGERS: "AMONG THE COWBOYS"
One of the most historically significant and visually extraordinary illustrations in this entire run — W.A. Rogers's magnificent full-page documentary of cowboy life on the western range, capturing one of the great iconic subjects of American history at a specific and irreplaceable moment. The cowboy in 1880 was not yet a myth — he was a working man, driving longhorns up the Chisholm Trail and the Western Trail from Texas to the Kansas railheads, living the genuinely hard and genuinely dangerous life of the open range before the barbed wire and the homesteaders closed the free range forever. Rogers — whose eye for authentic western detail and human character made his frontier illustrations among the finest of the era — brings documentary honesty and genuine artistic quality to this scene, producing an illustration that is simultaneously a work of art and a primary source document of one of the most significant occupational cultures in American history.
The cowboy's golden age was brief — roughly 1867 to 1886, when the open range cattle drives that created the figure ended with the fencing of the range and the devastating winter of 1886-87. W.A. Rogers was documenting that world while it still existed, and this full page captures it with the authenticity of direct observation. For collectors of western history, cowboy history, cattle drive history, W.A. Rogers illustration, and the history of the American West, this full page is an irreplaceable primary source document of exceptional importance and beauty.

🎨 THREE-QUARTER PAGE — W.A. ROGERS: "TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD — IS IT TOO LATE?"
W.A. Rogers contributes a second piece to the issue — a three-quarter page political cartoon asking one of the most urgent questions of the 1880 campaign's final stretch. "Transfusion of Blood — Is It Too Late?" deploys the medical metaphor of blood transfusion to ask whether the Democratic Party could be revived in time to win the November election — whether the energy, the argument, and the popular appeal required to defeat Garfield could be infused into the Hancock campaign before the polls opened. The answer, as November would prove, was almost — the closest popular vote in American presidential history, decided by fewer than 2,000 votes. Rogers's cartoon captures the anxiety of that moment with the political wit and draftsmanship that made his campaign illustration work a worthy complement to Nast's.

⚔️ FULL PAGE — "THE CAPTURE OF MAJOR ANDRÉ" — REVOLUTIONARY WAR
A dramatic and historically significant full-page illustration of the capture of Major John André — the British Army officer whose arrest by American militiamen on September 23, 1780 had exposed Benedict Arnold's treason and saved West Point from falling into British hands. André — elegant, cultivated, genuinely admirable in many respects — had been serving as the go-between in Arnold's plot to surrender West Point to the British, and his capture with the incriminating papers hidden in his boot had been one of the most dramatic moments of the Revolutionary War. André was subsequently tried by a board of American officers and executed as a spy — his death mourned even by many of his captors as the death of a man who had been honorable in an ignoble enterprise. This full-page illustration — accompanied by an article — is a primary source document of one of the great dramatic episodes of the American founding, rendered with the historical imagination and pictorial skill that Harper's Weekly brought to its finest Revolutionary War coverage. A wonderful piece for collectors of Revolutionary War history, Benedict Arnold history, and American founding history.

🌊 FULL PAGE — "VIEW OF NEW YORK FROM A CORTLANDT STREET FERRY-BOAT, JERSEY SIDE"
A magnificent and historically evocative full-page panorama of New York City as seen from a Cortlandt Street ferry crossing from the Jersey City side — one of the great urban vistas of the Gilded Age, the Manhattan skyline rising above the Hudson River with the towers and steeples and commercial buildings of a city in the full flush of its extraordinary growth. The Cortlandt Street ferry was one of the busiest crossings on the Hudson — carrying commuters, workers, and travelers between the Jersey shore and lower Manhattan in the years before the great bridges and tunnels that would eventually make the ferries unnecessary. The view from the ferry deck — the river, the harbor, the growing skyline, the ships and boats of one of the world's great ports — was one of the defining visual experiences of the Gilded Age, and this full-page illustration captures it with panoramic ambition and documentary precision. A wonderful and fully displayable piece for collectors of New York City history, harbor history, and the history of New York's waterfront.

🔍 CONDITION & TRANSPARENCY 🔍
Completeness: Complete 16-page issue with additional prints and related text.
Authenticity: Guaranteed original printing from October 2, 1880 — not a reproduction.
Condition Report: Presents well for its 145-year age with natural toning to the newsprint consistent with paper of this era. The Thomas Nast front page, the A.B. Frost Gun-Shy full page, the second Nast full page, the W.A. Rogers Cowboys full page, the Rogers political cartoon, the Capture of André full page, and the New York harbor panorama are all clear and displayable. I have photographed every page — please review all images carefully and don't hesitate to ask for additional close-ups of any area before purchasing.

📦 SHIPPING & PRESERVATION 📦
Housed in an acid-free archival folder with Mylar overlay to protect the 145-year-old newsprint
Flat-shipped with heavy-duty reinforcement to ensure safe arrival
Fully tracked for your peace of mind

In October 1880 A.B. Frost's gun-shy dog was flinching at the shot, W.A. Rogers was among the cowboys on the open range, the ghost of Major André was riding through the Revolutionary War pages, and Thomas Nast was loading both barrels for the final weeks of the election. What a paper. What a week.

🏷️ TAGS
1880 AB Frost Gun Shy Hunting, AB Frost Harper's Weekly, WA Rogers Cowboys Western, Among the Cowboys 1880, Capture of Major Andre Revolutionary War, Thomas Nast Toodles Ticket, Thomas Nast Solid Defiant, New York Harbor Cortlandt Ferry, WA Rogers Political Cartoon, Benedict Arnold Andre Treason, Open Range Cowboy History, Gilded Age Western Documentary, New York Skyline 1880, Antique Newspaper 1880, Harper's Weekly 1880, AB Frost Sporting Illustration