Vanity Fair, Vol. 6, No. 134

Wood engraving cover from the American comic weekly Vanity Fair, published in New York during the Civil War. The illustration depicts a caricatured figure in wide-brimmed hat and period costume, identified as Fernando Wood in his famous role as Oliver Cromwell. The lettering treatment, rendered in ornamental display type with cherubs and decorative elements, frames the cover's title. This issue satirizes New York politics and Union personalities through visual parody and verse—characteristic of Vanity Fair's format (1859–1863) as a weekly organ of political humor and social commentary for Northern audiences during the secession crisis and war.