Users can track the major political, social and military stories of the day, along with the editorial comment, humor, literature and even gossip that related to them. Some of these leaders in the arts, government, religion, medicine, science, business, law and military affairs played major roles in shaping the dynamic events of the time, but have been ignored or minimized in subsequent biographical sources. As the leading illustrated periodical of its time, Harper's Weekly used the best artists, photographers and cartoon-ists in the country. HarpWeek has recognized this by indexing illustrations by artist, photographer and cartoonist wherever identifiable. Users can pull up a list of all of Mathew Brady's portraits, Alfred Waud's Civil War battle scenes, Winslow Homer's illustrations, or Thomas Nasts's cartoons in a few seconds, and then retrieve the relevant pages, reproduced with clarity that micro-film of Harper's Weekly cannot come close to matching.
Users can search broad classifications like cartoons, maps, portraits and panoramic views.
In addition, subject access allows for the retrieval of visual information on such entries as Confederate ships, cartoons about women's clothing, black soldiers, or violence against blacks. It isn't just a who's who for the period. This is how readers learned about the newsmakers of the day. Harper's Weekly profiles interesting figures of the day who were ignored or minimized in subsequent biographical sources, but who played major roles in shaping the volatile events of the time and whose lives and roles will be of interest to modern scholars. Its general fiction and poetry recreated the daily lives of 19 th century Americans, along with their concerns about family, love and marriage.