The Civil War remains the single most critical and costliest (in terms of human lives) crisis in the history of the United States.  Its seminal event was the end of slavery and the beginning of the struggle for equal rights for all Americans.  Abraham Lincoln, who managed the Union’s hard fought victory over the Confederacy and paid for it with his life, will have his bicentennial birthday later in this decade.

Now HarpWeek, through the Internet, brings you the 1860 events leading up to the Civil War, including a close look at the electoral campaigns of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and the two southern candidates (John Breckinridge and John Bell).  Not everybody could read but they could understand the illustrations and, for the most part, the cartoons.

You can follow the election of Lincoln in 1860, the subsequent course of the Civil War from Fort Sumter through Appomattox, the assassination of Lincoln and the rough beginning of Reconstruction in 1865.  Moreover, you can do so through the pages of 49 different periodicals, almost all of them illustrated, published in 17 different cities, and representing both Union and Confederate points of view.  These 49 newspapers and magazines can be fully-searched individually or in any combination; by year or in any group of years; or by topic.  Follow them from issue to issue as the Civil War progressed, in the same manner as the people of that time did.

Now you can authentically and realistically experience the uncertainty, the criticism, the gloating, the remorse, the stiff upper lip, the foreboding and the week-to-week results of the war as seen and interpreted by the newspaper audiences of the time.  See the illustrations, cartoons and maps that brought the visual aspects of the war home to its readers just as it happened.

Background:  Primary Source Material

When this project was initiated in March 2001, HarpWeek had no idea that so much exceptional primary material from 1860-1865 was available in scattered museums and libraries.  In addition to our private collection, 15 institutions permitted HarpWeek to scan and include their rare and often unique treasures.

For some publications such as New York Illustrated News, Douglass’ Monthly, and Southern Illustrated News, we were able to put together the most complete runs known to exist.  In other cases, especially with most of the campaign newspapers, only the one run we scanned is known to survive.

A special feature is the inclusion in the collection of eleven publications that were pro-Confederacy.  Four of these – The Illustrated London News, Punch, Fun, and The Index – were published in London; consequently, they were not subject to the paper, ink and manpower shortages that crippled the four Richmond publications.  The Index, which had a maximum circulation of less than 2,000 in America, deserves special attention as the unofficial voice of the Confederacy during the 40 months it published from May 1862 through August 1865.

Another unique feature consists of the thirteen political satire publications –nine with Northern political sympathies and four favoring the South.  While the humor often is raw and sometimes politically incorrect in today’s culture, the collection provides a comprehensive look at the cartoons and jokes of the time from all points of view.

The two abolitionist publications – The Liberator and Douglass’ Monthly – represent the first time these publications have been made fully searchable.  Black History scholars should benefit in particular from their ability to search these journals electronically.

Also included is the Union-oriented New York Tribune Almanac for 1861-1866.  Although published by a newspaper, it technically is not one.  However, it contains complete and detailed records of the make-up of Congress and the governments of both the Union and the Confederacy, legislation, party platforms, public resolutions and proclamations, census information and election returns by county for every state.  It can be searched individually or in conjunction with the newspapers, and provides a comprehensive factual base for determining the accuracy of much of the newspaper content.

Finally, the compilation of 15 campaign newspapers is unique.  All four candidates for the 1860 presidency – Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge and John Bell – are represented via 11 publications.  In 1864, Lincoln and George McClellan are each represented by two campaign publications.  The 15 campaign newspapers in this collection were published in 12 different cities, several of which are surprising locations for the candidates they supported.

List of Sources

While each of these sources made an important contribution, four in particular stand out.  The American Antiquarian Society provided 10 different periodicals. The Lincoln Museum gave us access to three periodicals, and pointed us to Lincoln College for two more. Rich West of Periodyssey not only sold HarpWeek parts of seven of these publications over time, but also loaned HarpWeek eight political satire periodicals from his extensive private collection and provided explanations for them. Stephen Rhind-Tutt, President of Alexander Street Press, permitted HarpWeek to select 600 letters and diaries from his private company’s collection of more than 100,000 pages in exchange for some other HarpWeek material.

HarpWeek is grateful to the curators and administrators of all these organizations. Without their exceptional cooperation and assistance, this collection could not have been put together.

Operations and Acknowledgements

To create this collection, we located new sources for missing issues and new publications as we proceeded.  Sometimes we found references or were given them by other curators; other times we coincidentally found material on shelves or in file drawers, or drew out curators in conversation.  We expect the collection to grow as additional publications are called to our attention or we stumble upon them.

There have been a number of innovative steps developed in the operational phase of this production.

• Scanning  – All pages have been scanned at high resolution, some of them as large as 20 by 29 inches.  In some cases, where pages were not loose and could not be disbound, we had to use a special high-end digital camera.  Natasha Pick, Elizabeth Caynor and Helen Hussey have done a remarkable job of scanning over 65,000 pages of aged text and illustrations.

• Marking-up – Every page had to be reviewed and coded by Daniel Worthington and his crew of HarpWeek indexers to provide article type instruction to the typing organization.

• Re-typing and XML-encoding  –  TechBooks of Fairfax, VA and Delhi, India, re-typed and XML-encoded the 65,000 pages at 99.995% accuracy (1 error in 20,000).  Stephen Simon of TechBooks has done a fine job of supervising this two-year effort, and developing new quality control procedures.

• Search engine development – To search 65,000 pages and come up with answers in less than three seconds was beyond the ability of any existing search engine known to us.  With the new product’s existence on the line, Greg Weber, HarpWeek’s Executive Vice President for Operations, literally invented a new search engine.  In conjunction with Jim Barker of Aptigent and his Cleveland team, that engine has given new meaning to collection searching.

• Management and Coordination – Greg Weber has worked hand in glove with me to create this product in every aspect of the process.  Without his imagination and technical and operational ability – honed over his nine-year career with HarpWeek – there would be no Lincoln and the Civil War.com.  Greg has been ably assisted by Dan Lewis, Marge Nee and Richard Roy in particular.