“UNITED STATES STEAMER MISSISSIPPI.”

Gleason's Pictorial, 1851

This is a wood engraved single sheet only, which was published over 170 years ago! It appeared in an issue of Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion in 1851. (I got it loose years ago and do not know it’s exact date, but can place it to 1851, because the page has a printed border which the paper used only during its first year of publication.)

The sheet measures 11 x 15.5 inches in size. It shows some tanning from age, and has a light dampstain in its upper left corner, but remains in very good and attractive condition overall.

The page is mostly taken up by two nice wood engravings, separated by a block of explanatory text which is 40 lines long. At the top is a harbor scene showing the U.S. Steamer Mississippi, and at the bottom is a view of “Ball Scene on Board the Mississippi,” showing officers and ladies on a dance floor fitted out on the deck of the steamship.

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Background on Gleason’s Pictorial: Founded in 1851 and published in Boston by James Gleason, Gleason’s Pictorial was America’s first successful illustrated weekly periodical. It changed its name to Ballou’s Pictorial in 1855, but its success soon spawned two stronger competitors, in the form of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated in 1855, and Harper’s Weekly in 1857; and these newer publications put Gleason’s/Ballou’s out of business in 1859. Despite its short existence, though, the Pictorial occupies a significant place in U.S. magazine history, as a pioneer in the illustrated genre.

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