The Carpet-Bag, Vol. II, No. 31

The Carpet-Bag, Vol. II, No. 31 (October 30, 1852)

The masthead features an ornate carpetbag held aloft by a gloved hand, flanked by two woodcut vignettes of domestic and street scenes. This Boston weekly (1851–1853) mixed burlesque, tall tales, light verse, and satirical woodcuts under editor Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber. The Carpet-Bag occupied a distinct niche in antebellum humor publishing—neither penny dreadful nor sensation press, but a literary comic weekly that published early work by Mark Twain and Artemus Ward. Its blend of visual gag and textual humor established a model for American comic periodicals, bridging 18th-century almanac traditions and the illustrated weeklies to come.