1874 Thomas Nast · Uncle Sam & the Donkey · Grant — Harper's Weekly May 23

🗞️ HARPER'S WEEKLY · May 23, 1874
Complete Issue + Supplement Pages · New York

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Two Thomas Nast cartoons — including the one that cemented the Democratic donkey as a permanent symbol of American politics. Plus supplement pages with the gymnastic chimpanzee "Joe" at the London Zoo, the Java Rhinoceros, Victorian tourists lunching on the Great Pyramid, and Albrecht Dürer sketching the skyline of Antwerp. All in a single copy of Harper's Weekly, with its supplement pages still intact.

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🖼️ THE MAIN ISSUE
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🎨 FRONT PAGE — THOMAS NAST: "THE NEXT THING IN ORDER"
Full front page. Uncle Sam faces the Democratic Donkey in the cartoon that fixed that animal as the party's permanent symbol. Thomas Nast invented this icon — and this is the original published page where it lives. For political history collectors, cartoon history collectors, and anyone who has wondered where that symbol came from, this is the primary source.

🦅 THOMAS NAST: "PUBLIC OPINION — APRIL 22, 1874"
A second full-page Nast — Ulysses Grant at the center of a churning public debate. Grant's second term was consumed by scandal: Crédit Mobilier, the Whiskey Ring, corruption accusations that never stopped coming. Nast had been Grant's most powerful visual defender. Here he wrestles with that in one of his most layered compositions. Two Nast pages in a single issue is exceptional.

🌿 DOUBLE-PAGE CENTERFOLD — "MAY-DAY IN 'MERRIE ENGLAND'"
A lush double-page spread of English May Day festivities — maypoles, dancers, full Victorian pastoral warmth. A beautiful counterweight to the political fire on the surrounding pages.

🏹 "AN INDIAN GRAVE ON THE YELLOWSTONE RIVER" & "ANTELOPE HUNTING IN THE WEST"
Half-page illustrations of the American West in 1874 — the year Custer's Black Hills expedition lights the fuse of the final Plains Wars. A burial scaffold on the Yellowstone. Antelope on open ground. The West that was vanishing, captured week by week.

🐎 "HARE AND HOUNDS" · "LUNCH-TIME IN THE BARN" · "LOOKING FOR FATHER"
Genre illustrations of Gilded Age rural and domestic life — sporting, pastoral, and quietly tender.

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📄 THE SUPPLEMENT PAGES
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This copy retains supplement pages from both this issue and the following week — a remarkable survival that most copies cannot claim.

🐒 "THE GYMNASTIC CHIMPANZEE 'JOE' — LONDON ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS"
Full-page. Joe was a genuine celebrity animal of his era — a performing chimpanzee at the London Zoo who drew enormous crowds and provoked real scientific debate about primate intelligence. Here he swings upside-down from a rope, bucket in hand, keeper watching below. Charming, precise, and completely irresistible.

🦏 "JAVA RHINOCEROS — LONDON ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS"
The Javan rhinoceros — one of the rarest animals on earth even then — rendered in careful detail from the London Zoo's specimen. Outstanding for natural history and zoology collectors.

🔺 "LUNCHING ON THE PYRAMIDS — A CHRISTMAS LUNCHEON ON THE GREAT PYRAMID"
Victorian tourists picnicking on top of the Great Pyramid of Giza. This is exactly what it sounds like — and it captures the audacity and wonder of the Victorian Grand Tour in a single image.

🎨 "ALBERT DÜRER SKETCHING THE PANORAMA OF ANTWERP"
A large, beautifully composed supplement double-page — Albrecht Dürer at the Antwerp waterfront, sketching the city's famous skyline. Based on a painting by John Nettleship exhibited in Paris, 1873. Richly detailed figures, the cathedral spires rising behind them. Art-historical, frame-worthy, and genuinely beautiful.

🦎 "ALBERT DURER IN ANTWERP" · "LIVING ON THE CHAMELEONS"
Additional supplement features continuing the art history and natural history themes.

🏪 PERIOD ADVERTISEMENTS
· Smith's Illustrated Pattern Bazaar — imported fashions
· Freeman & Burr — Boys' Suits & Clothing
· Herring's Safes · Decker Bros. Pianos
· Geo. A. Prince & Co. Organs & Melodeons
· Wood Brothers Co. Silver Bridal Gifts
· Magic Lanterns · Goodenough Horse Shoe
· Fishermen's Twines and Netting
A full Gilded Age commercial portrait, dense and visually rich.

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📋 CONDITION
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Intake photographs of every page — including all supplement pages — are included in this listing. Please review all images carefully. Questions are very welcome, and I'm happy to photograph any specific page or detail on request.

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📌 DETAILS
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Publication ········ Harper's Weekly
Date ··············· May 23, 1874
City ··············· New York
Pages ·············· Complete · 16 pages + Supplement
Format ············· Illustrated folio newspaper

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🔍 SEO TAGS
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