Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, referred to colloquially as Frank Leslie's Weekly, or Leslie's Weekly, was a popular illustrated weekly literary journal and newspaper published in the United States from 1852 to 1922. It began publication under the editorship of John Y. Brown with a total first press run of 30 copies of the first edition and grew to a circulation of 65,000 in 1897. It was published regularly on Tuesday throughout its history. Leslie's Weekly was one of several publications founded by illustrator Frank Leslie, who continued to publish the weekly until his death in 1880. Subsequently, the publication continued under the direction of Leslie's wife, Miriam Florence Leslie, a well-known women's suffragette. Any connection with the Leslie family was severed upon her death in 1902, but the name was by then a well-known brand identity and remained on the masthead until publication ceased two decades later. Throughout its history, Leslie's Weekly published a blend of news stories and illustrations from woodcuts, daguereotypes, and photographs, as printing technology advanced. Photos of John Brown's raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, the Rough Riders during the Spanish Civil War and from the trenches during the First World War were published in the weekly. The weekly also provided illustrated coverage of notable events such as the laying of the Transatlantic Cable in 1858, the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 and the San Francisco Earthquake Writers associated with the weekly included John Bonner, a San Francisco journalist, H. Irving Hancock, Helen R. Martin and Ellis Parker Butler. Illustrators in addition to Leslie included Albert Berghaus and, in the final years, a young Norman Rockwell, who did a number of covers for the publication.

From the Civil War on, Leslie's Weekly took a strongly patriotic, and sometimes bellicose, stance, and frequently featured interviews and reports on individual soldiers and heroic battle scenes.