The Carpet-Bag, Vol. II, No. 23

The Carpet-Bag, Vol. II, No. 23 (Boston, 1852)

The masthead depicts a hand grasping a carpet bag, flanked by two oval vignettes showing domestic and street scenes. This Boston weekly (1851–1853) mixed burlesque, tall tales, light verse, and woodcut caricature under editor Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber. The Carpet-Bag inherited the tradition of American humor periodicals like the Spirit of the Times, publishing comic sketches and comic characters—most notably Shillaber's Mrs. Partington. The paper also introduced readers to early work by Mark Twain and Artemus Ward, establishing itself as a venue where vernacular humor and literary comedy met. As mid-century comic weeklies, such publications bridged folk humor and print culture, shaping popular entertainment before illustrated comic papers became dominant.