Vanity Fair was a humor magazine which was modeled after the British Punch. The first issue was dated December 31, 1859 and the last July 4, 1863. It only published 12 issues in 1863 -- monthly in January and February, and then not until May 2 when it resumed publication for 10 weekly issues. Its principal problem in 1863 was an inability to obtain paper. Vanity Fair started as a 16-page paper but was down to 8 pages when it died.

Three Stephens brothers served, respectively, as publisher (Louis Henry), general editor (William Allen), and art editor (Henry Louis).  H.L. Stephens (as he signed his cartoons), was especially talented. Frank Bellew and John McLenan, who both also drew cartoons for Harper's Weekly, contributed.

In addition to its cartoons, Vanity Fair was notable for its puns; its column of satire, "Our War Correspondent," written by George Arnold as "Commander McArone" (pronounced "macaroni"); and its parodies authored by Artemus Ward (Charles Farrar Browne). However, four managing editors in three-plus years led to some editorial inconsistency. Its verse was often amusing, then and today.

The Stephens brothers were War Democrats who supported the Union, but were anti-abolition and had little sympathy for blacks. They were critical of the War's progress and Lincoln's policies during 1861 and 1862, and especially of the Emancipation Proclamation. They disliked England and France for sympathizing with the Confederacy, and skewered President James Buchanan in 1860. Abraham Lincoln, his generals, and especially Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, were fair game as the war went badly for the North up to the time when Vanity Fair expired.

Note: This Vanity Fair should not be confused with any of three subsequent magazines of the same name: one published in England from 1868 to 1928; one for the hearth and home published in the United States from 1913 to 1936; or the one published today by Condé Nast.