Frank Leslie

Background

Frank Leslie was born in Ipswich, England, the son of Joseph Leslie and Mary Elliston Carter, and was named Henry.

Career

His father, a glove-manufacturer, urged the boy to enter his business, but he preferred to carve wood and at the age of thirteen astonished his elders by making a wood-engraving of the coat-of-arms of the town of Ipswich. "Frank Leslie" was at first a pseudonym which he employed on sketches and engravings submitted surreptitiously to various publications. His work attracted the attention of the Illustrated London News and at twenty-one he was employed in that journal's engraving department.

Firm in the belief that there was a wider field in the United States for his art he emigrated to New York in 1848. His name appears in the directory of the following year as "Leslie, F. , engraver, 98 Broadway, " although his name was not legally changed until 1857. In 1852 he was employed in Boston on Gleason's Pictorial, in which many of his full-page engravings appeared, but at the end of the year he returned to New York to become superintendent of the engraving department of a new publication, the Illustrated News, which was first issued on January 1, 1853. The issue of July 30, 1853, carried a double-page engraving bearing Leslie's name and entitled "Inauguration Ceremonies of the Crystal Palace. " An engraving of this size ordinarily required four months' time to complete, but through Leslie's ingenuity, this picture was completed in three days. After the drawing had been made, he had divided it into thirty-four blocks and had set as many engravers to work, thus accomplishing the feat. Using the same device subsequently in his own papers Leslie was able to picture events the day following their occurrence.

Before the end of 1853 the Illustrated News had merged with Gleason's Pictorial and Leslie had started the first publication of his own, Frank Leslie's Ladies' Gazette of Paris, London, and New York Fashions, first issued in January 1854. About a year later he bought out an unsuccessful publication, the New York Journal, which appeared under a new name, Frank Leslie's New York Journal, in January 1855. His next publication, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, which was to give him enduring fame, was first issued on December 15, 1855. In his initial editorial he declared that the earlier illustrated newspapers, such as Gleason's Pictorial, lacked "the artistic facilities for seizing promptly and illustrating the passing events of the day. " Leslie had discovered how to succeed where others had failed.

Beginning August 15, 1857, he pleased the German-reading population by printing each weekly issue in German under the title Illustrirte Zeitung. Frank Leslie's Monthly, at first known as Frank Leslie's New Family Magazine, was started in September 1857, absorbing the earlier Gazette of Fashion. During the Civil War Leslie's profits increased at a rapid rate. His artists were found wherever the campaigns were hottest. As his revenues increased, so did the number of his publications. They included the Chimney Corner, Lady's Magazine, Lady's Journal, Boy's and Girl's Weekly, Sunday Magazine, Chatterbox, Pleasant Hours, Boys of America, Jolly Joker, Illustrated Almanac, Comic Almanac, all bearing the name of Frank Leslie. It was his desire to provide "mental pabulum" for all classes of society. To one publication, the Day's Doings, "Illustrating Extraordinary Events of the Day, Police Reports, Important Trials, and Sporting News, " he did not attach his name. When the Times editor called it "a most wicked and disgusting sheet", Leslie merely stated that he was indebted to the Times for the news items on which the pictures were based.

Leslie took great satisfaction, as a member of the New York state board of managers for the Centennial at Philadelphia, in producing a magnificently illustrated volume: Frank Leslie's Historical Register of the United States Centennial Exposition, 1776 (1777). This was a distinct financial loss, however, and, coupled with colossal expenditures in connection with his estate "Interlaken, " at Saratoga, and a pleasure trip to California, and with the general financial depression of 1877, brought him to bankruptcy. He left to his widow liabilities aggregating $300, 000.

Achievements

• Leslie founded a number of newspapers and periodicals, most notably "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper". The newspaper used extensive illustrations and engravings to help portray the news. Illustrations made by Leslie and his artists on the battlefield during the American Civil War were well regarded for their historical value. Leslie greatly prized a gold medal presented to him by Napoleon III "pour services rendus" as a United States commissioner to the Exposition Universelle of 1867 at Paris.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Vol. 11: November 24, 1860 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Vol. 1...)

  • Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Vol. 13: November 23, 1861 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Vol. 1...)

  • Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Vol. 15: September 27, 1862 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Vol. 1...)

  • Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine, Vol. 10: July to December, 1881 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine, Vol. 10: Jul...)

  • Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine, Vol. 11: January to June, 1882 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine, Vol. 11: Jan...)

Connections

Until Frank Leslie was married a second time, July 13, 1874, to Mrs. Miriam Florence Squier his domestic life was particularly unhappy. By his first wife, whom he married in England, he had three sons. Litigation attending his divorce extended over several years. He also had additional litigation against his two surviving sons in 1879 because they used the name "Frank Leslie" in connection with a journal they were publishing.

Father:

Joseph Leslie

manufacturer

Mother:

Mary Elliston Carter

Spouse:

Miriam Florence Squier