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Art
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Harper's Weekly was a popular, illustrated journal that began publishing in 1857 and continued to
publish well into the 1900's. It was world-famous for its many illustrations, themselves works of art,
executed in wood block engraving and later pen-and-ink. Civil War enthusiasts are very familiar
with the Harper's Weekly-style of battle field art and reportage. The Venus Transits of 1874 and 1882
both found their stories told in this journal along-side articles that specialized in social commentary,
politics and literature. Harper's Weekly ran a cover on April 28, 1883 that was unusual. It shows a
group of children standing outside a cabin in Appalachia. One is holding a piece of smoked glass and
watching the transit!
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There was also an engraving showing a man and a woman
observing the transit of Venus in 1769. Of course, viewing the sun
in this way would have caused severe eye damage.
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This satellite image, taken by the Swedish Vacuum Telescope of the May 2003 transit of
Mercury, is a work of art but
contains lots of important
scientific information too!
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