A selection of the more well known of the leading 19th century figures featured in Cartoon Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Men of the Day (1873) with drawings by Frederick Watty and accompanied by biographical pieces on each of the subjects. With the exception of one, it is a compilation of all the cartoon portraits that were featured in Once a Week, a magazine originally founded as a result of a dispute between Bradbury and Evans and Charles Dickens. Bradbury and Evans had been Dickens’ publisher since 1844, including publishing his magazine Household Words. In 1859, Bradbury and Evans refused to carry an advertisement by Dickens explaining why he had broken with Mrs. Dickens. In consequence, Dickens stopped work on Household Words and founded a new magazine, All The Year Round, which he decided would be editorially independent of any publisher. Bradbury and Evans responded by founding Once A Week, with veteran editor and abolitionist hero Samuel Lucas at the head. (Wikipedia)

(All images extracted from Cartoon Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Men of the Day (1873) housed by the Internet Archive, and donated by the University of Toronto).

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