Vanity Fair, Vol. 6, No. 137

Wood engraving cover depicting George Opdyke, Mayor of New York and First Recruiting Sergeant to the Union, as a uniformed military figure in caricatured stance, holding a recruitment notice. The masthead treatment uses bold letter forms populated with small figures. Published by the New York comic weekly Vanity Fair (1859–1863), this issue satirizes Civil War recruitment efforts and Union personalities during the secession crisis. The paper, which at various points featured editor Charles Farrar Browne, combined political caricature, comic verse, and social commentary to address contemporary events and public figures, establishing a tradition of American satirical humor journalism.