Two Advertisement Pages from Harper's Weekly

FIG. 1. Harper’s Weekly, certainly, was well aware of the diversity in individuals that purchased their newspaper. This can most readily be seen in the advertisement pages. The first page of advertisements is filled with an assortment of objects related to all things literary; everything from “golden pens, pen and pencil cases” and even an ad stating that “every man should own his own printer” can be seen. Furthermore, the assortment of journals, novels, and guides for sale cannot be overlooked. These guides cater to all, from “Essays for Young Men on the Errors and Abuses Incident to Youth and Early Manhood” to an “Illustrated Guide to the Flower and Vegetable Garden” to “Two Paths in Womanhood.” Clearly, the diversity in both the class and gender of the Victorian newspaper reader was vast.  

Notably, many of the journals offered are free of charge. For example, the “Holiday Journal” filled with “large pages of parlour plays, games, experiments, problems and puzzles” can be delivered to one’s home free of charge. Similarly, the aforementioned “Essays for Young Men” is also provided free of charge. Certainly, the middle-lower class “new reader” would have been particularly concerned with such advertisements.We can assume that many publishers would capitalize on the growing readership of Victorians, in the form of reading materials becoming more readily available at a cheap or free price. Furthermore, the inclusion of such advertisements in Harper’s itself shows that the newspaper also was in high demand of middle-lower class readership, since others advertised similar minded works within it. 

 FIG. 2. The second page of advertisements continues to follow the first. Though significantly less literary in nature, the second page does contain a few objects of literary importance. The inclusion of the “Patent Book Clamp” is particularly interesting. The clamp is said to combat “ruined books” by means of clamping one’s materials together under a convenient handle for carrying. This interesting advertisement illustrates a demand and interest of the Victorian reader for accessories related to printed material. It shows not only the popularity of cheaply printed novels, but importantly the diversity at which such materials are now available. Of course, the demand for the accessory would not exist without the demand for the object it is intended for.  

Lastly, Harper’s includes an illustration of a common “social problem” at the top of the advertisement page. The caption states: “The Street Car Question Again” and appears to outline problems associated with street car/railway etiquette. The image on the left details a group of men seated in the car while a young woman fails to find a seat. Notably, each of the men has a newspaper lifted to his face, reading on the car. As Altick notes in his book, “‘Railway reading’ was another influential [book] trade development” (301). Cheap reading material was born of railway travel, where one could read in relative peace, with respectable lighting, in order to pass the time. The illustration of such “railway reading” in Harper’s only further exemplifies the hold literature, news, and reading had upon the common Victorian. 

Alitck, Richard. The English Common Reader : A Social History of the Mass Reading Public, 1800-1900. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1957. Print.