At the same time that Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was drawing his most famous illustration for Harper’s Weekly, “A Sharp-Shooter on Picket Duty” (1862), he was also illustrating children’s books, including Bessie Grant’s Treasure (GAX Hamilton 1726) and Fred Freeland or The Chain of Circumstances.
Original wood engravings created after his designs for the stories were reprinted in numerous advertisements for these books. Boston publishers Walker, Wise & Co. ran sixteen pages of advertising in the back of Susan Lander’s Spectacles for Little Eyes (1862) (Graphic Arts GAX 2011- in process). Three Homer prints can be found in these back pages.
Thanks to donor Tom Lange for discovering these prints and delivering them to graphic arts where they take their place alongside the wood engravings of the Sinclair Hamilton collection.
