Art
| 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! |
| 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. |
| 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! |
