Vanity Fair, Vol. 6, No. 139

Wood engraving cover from the American satirical weekly Vanity Fair, depicting William Lloyd Garrison, the abolitionist editor, seated and gesturing upward as tiny figures swarm from his head like insects or imps. The title treatment, with dancing cherubs holding banner letters, crowns the composition in characteristic mid-nineteenth-century comic style. Published in New York during the Civil War, this cover satirizes Garrison's public prominence and the fervor of his political advocacy. The journal, which ran from 1859 to 1863, functioned as a pictorial humor magazine targeting Union-era politics, personalities, and social manners through wood-block caricature and comic verse, establishing conventions that would shape American comic journalism.