George Washington and "Relieving the Poor"

In "Illustrating The Moonstone in America: Harper's Weekly and Transatlantic Introspection” (2014), Molly Knox Leverenz reminds readers that The Moonstone was published in the United States of America in the years following the Civil War (21). She notes that this was a time period in American history when the nation was intensely self-reflective (41) and concerned with “a growing sense of American identity on the global stage” (24).

The page that precedes part nine of The Moonstone in Harper’s Weekly is dominated by three images: a portrait of George Washington, and two images that are both titled “Relieving the Poor.” One image depicts a crowd of people outside the Young Men’s Christian Association and is subtitled “Dinner Hour.” The second image shows a young American man feeding a young impoverished family—primarily girls—at a soup kitchen. It is subtitled “Serving Soup.” The portrait of George Washington occupies the top half of the page, with the remaining two images grouped together in the lower half—as if George Washington is overseeing the philanthropy of the American people. This idealized view of American benevolence towards the poor and lower classes is strategically positioned within the periodical to contrast with images of English poverty in The Moonstone. Reading The Moonstone “intratextually” (25) within Harper’s Weekly reveals instances where American editors manipulated material conditions such as page positioning and image placement in order to exaggerate and critique elements of British ideology. By depicting American peoples as benevolent towards the lower classes, the American publication attempts to distinguish the nation in opposition to its former colonizers.

Works Cited

Leverenz, Molly Knox. "Illustrating The Moonstone in America:Harper's Weekly and Transatlantic Introspection." American Periodicals 24.1 (2014): 21-44. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.