The Carpet-Bag, Vol. II, No. 3

The Carpet-Bag, Vol. II, No. 3 (1852)

The masthead features ornate scrollwork flanking the title, topped by a hand holding a carpet bag. Below sits a woodcut cartoon: a well-dressed gentleman with a cane administers a thrashing to a small boy. The Carpet-Bag was a Boston weekly devoted to humor, burlesque, light verse, and satirical sketches—a direct heir to earlier American comic periodicals. Edited by Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber, it published tall tales, comic character sketches, and woodcut caricature aimed at a literate audience. The paper launched the first nationally-circulated work by Mark Twain and serialized pieces by Artemus Ward. Unlike sensational penny dreadfuls, it cultivated humor through literary wit and visual comedy, establishing a distinctly American comic tradition in the decades before the Civil War.