Black Troops – Missouri newest - Island Mound - 1863 – Civil War Woodcut

Original 1863 woodcut of the battle of Island Mound in Missouri fought by the First Kansas Colored Volunteers published by Harper's Weekly. There are a number of sites that have the complete Harper's Weekly - Civil War year's newspapers archived. Many of the woodcuts have a page number after the title; you can look up the article it's related to. From page 174 of Harpers; “With regard to their fighting qualities we can not do better than reproduce the following extracts. The first is from a letter to the New York Times, describing the battle, or rather the skirmish of Island Mounds, where a detachment of the First Kansas Colored Volunteers attacked and routed a band of rebels.”

Harper's Weekly, published in New York, was the most widely read journal in the United States throughout the period of the Civil War. The Weekly had supported newest the Stephen A. Douglas presidential campaign against Abraham Lincoln, but as the American Civil War broke out, it fully supported Lincoln and the Union.

Note: there is a repair to bottom center

The page measures 16” x 22”. This is a double page woodcut from a bound volume of Harper's. They were printed on a single sheet and folded whether it was bound or not. Harper's offered to their subscribers the opportunity to have their delivered papers bound (You will find on some bound volumes handwritten names at the top) or they reprinted each copy that year and bound them. The bound editions will have small holes on the center fold where the string used in the binding was. Please look at the pictures closely and you can see them. I have used archival tape to attach to the back a narrow strip of original newsprint to hide the holes. Some of them do have a little separation but will frame up well. They each come rolled in their own 18” x 22” acid free, archival “Clear Bag”. Because of the size it's the only way to ship safely.

The term “woodcut” describes the method of how the print was made. Artist in the field would sketch out scenes that were sent back to the newspapers. The fastest way to create a printing block was to carve it on wood; it was the only way for “weekly” papers to publish pictures. In some prints you will find faint lines, these are the glue lines where smaller blocks of wood were glued together to achieve a flat surface. The woodcuts appeared on their regular pages and will in some cases show faint printing from the reverse. The quality paper used was a higher standard than used today and although aged is in good condition.

All of the woodcuts are guaranteed to be original Civil War issue or as stated. A hand signed and dated “Certificate of Authenticity” will be issued by Collectors Frame with a photograph of the items purchased.

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