"DOG DAYS" by Thoman Nast. July 11, 1874. Columbia is ridding the street of two bad dogs...(Caption)"Watch-dogs that ought to be taken up."

https://emuseum-2022.hamilton.edu/objects/8706/dogdays-from-harpers-weekly

DESCRIPTION (from Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Arts, Hamilton College):

Woman in Greek/Roman dress dragging two dog police officers on chains. Dragging them towards building with sign reading "N.Y. City Pound." Window reads "50 cents reward for dog stealing / all / dogs / found / on the street / not muzzled / cats allowed to go about / without being / muzzled / the art of dog / stealing / taught by the / city fathers".

Sign on building to left reads "Police outraces / see daily papers / clubbed to death". In background woman and child walking away, police dog trying to get into townhouse, two police dogs clubbing man lying on ground. Bottom right two feet of man not in picture near curb. Captioned "Watch-DOGS that ought to be taken up.

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(From Northern Zephyr Gallery)

Begun in the panic year of 1857, Harpers Weekly built up a vast circulation during the Civil War and became a powerful organ of public opinion. This enviable position of editorial influence was maintained until the 1920’s when it succumbed to the competition of the Sunday newspaper supplements.The Triumph of the Weekly was its artists—men like Thomas Nast, Winslow Homer, C. A. Reinhart, E. A. Abbey, Frederick Remington, A. R. Waud, T. R. Davis, and their compeers—who contributed so much to journalistic illustration.

(PS. Never saw the word”compeers” before! Looked it up and, as I suspected, here’s definition off Google: Who is a compeer? “an equal in rank, ability, accomplishment, etc.; peer; colleague. close friend; comrade.”

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Here’s 1800’s production methods of taking drawings of Thomas Nast and others to final magazine/book printing:

Up until the last years of the 19th century their pictures were either drawn directly on or transferred to blocks of boxwood. Skilled engravers would cut away all the wooden surface not covered by lines of the drawing. The printing was then done in relief directly from the resulting blocks. In order to accomplish this lengthy process speedily enough to issue the paper once a week, a large staff of engravers was employed. Full page and double page illustrations were divided into sections, each of which might be engraved by a different man. Then the sections were locked together in a form from which the entire picture was printed as a unit. The joints between the various component blocks can be seen quite clearly in many of the prints.

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