Home > Back to Search Results >
Ben Franklin's famous "Unite Or Die" engraving in the masthead...
Ben Franklin's famous "Unite Or Die" engraving in the masthead...
Item # 687418
September 06, 1775
THE PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL; AND THE WEEKLY ADVERTISER, Philadelphia, September 6, 1775
* Benjamin Franklin's "Unite Or Die" cartoon
If there was one graphic that represented the spirit of the Revolutionary War it would have to be the ubiquitous segmented snake with the famous "Unite Or Die" caption. The engraving, a prominent device in the masthead of this newspaper, shows a snake cut into various pieces, each with a label of a colony with the implied message that only by each of the separate colonies uniting under a single cause could the country--the snake--hope to strike back & be successful in defeating the British.
Ben Franklin is credited with creating this device, considered the very first political cartoon when he used it in his Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754 to rally the colonies to unite during the advent of the French & Indian War. It would become a symbol of colonial freedom during the Revolutionary War. This engraving is found in most history books, but very rarely is such an issue of the Pennsylvania Journal found & offered to the collector market. We have had but a few, and this is the nicest of those issues we have had.
Although the content would pale in comparison to the terrific masthead, pages 2 and 3 have much fine content from the early months of the Revolutionary War. Rather than detail the content in text, the photos show much of the interesting articles within.
Four pages, never bound nor trimmed with the original wide margins, nicely inked throughout. This is the best issue with this historic engraving we have encountered thus far. Great condition.
* Benjamin Franklin's "Unite Or Die" cartoon
If there was one graphic that represented the spirit of the Revolutionary War it would have to be the ubiquitous segmented snake with the famous "Unite Or Die" caption. The engraving, a prominent device in the masthead of this newspaper, shows a snake cut into various pieces, each with a label of a colony with the implied message that only by each of the separate colonies uniting under a single cause could the country--the snake--hope to strike back & be successful in defeating the British.
Ben Franklin is credited with creating this device, considered the very first political cartoon when he used it in his Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754 to rally the colonies to unite during the advent of the French & Indian War. It would become a symbol of colonial freedom during the Revolutionary War. This engraving is found in most history books, but very rarely is such an issue of the Pennsylvania Journal found & offered to the collector market. We have had but a few, and this is the nicest of those issues we have had.
Although the content would pale in comparison to the terrific masthead, pages 2 and 3 have much fine content from the early months of the Revolutionary War. Rather than detail the content in text, the photos show much of the interesting articles within.
Four pages, never bound nor trimmed with the original wide margins, nicely inked throughout. This is the best issue with this historic engraving we have encountered thus far. Great condition.
Category: Revolutionary War
Add to Cart
