HarperCollins Publishers

Social Change: Thomas Nast, Illustrator

Illustrator Thomas Nast first made his name documenting the Civil War in all its gruesome reality, but he is best known for developing the political cartoon form and our modern depictions of Santa Claus. More

Periodicals: Harper’s Weekly, Harper’s New Monthly and Harper’s Bazaar

The Harper brothers consistently sought ways to reach more readers with less expensive publications, and in 1850 they revolutionized the concept of the modern literary magazine with Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. More

George Eliot

Mary Anne Evans, born in 1819, led a turbulent life that often broke with Victorian social norms. More

1862: Thomas Nast documents the Civil War and politics in Harper’s Weekly

Harper's Weekly A Journal of Civilization. New York, Saturday, January 3, 1863

Thomas Nast begins documenting the Civil War and politics through caricature in Harper’s Weekly. More

Social Change: The Harper Brothers and The American Civil War

An illustrated cover of Harper’s Weekly just after the outbreak of the Civil War, dated July 20, 1861.

Literacy became both a predictor of and influence on the American Civil War, being one of the disparities between North and South. More

1871: Harper’s Weekly serializes Middlemarch by Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot)

Harper’s Weekly serializes Middlemarch by Mary Ann Evans, who worked under the male pseudonym George Eliot. More

Middlemarch

Ranked number one in a 2015 BBC poll of the 100 greatest British novels. More