Frank Leslie's Budget of Fun Fragment, MSS.3407

Abstract: A fragment of the September 1, 1860, issue of Frank Leslie's Budget of Fun.Scope and Content Note: The collection contains pages 1-2 and 15-16 of the September 1, 1860 issue of Frank Leslie's Budget of Fun. The newspaper contains poems, editorials, and cartoons of a political or humorous nature.Biographical/Historical Note: Frank Leslie was born in Ipswich, England on 29 March 1821, as Henry Carter, son of Joseph Carter, the proprietor of a noted and prosperous glove manufacturing firm. Although he studied and trained for commerce, he was fascinated with engraving. Although his father, uncle and relatives discouraged his artistic endeavors, he submitted sketches to the Illustrated London News, using the pseudonym "Frank Leslie" to insure his anonymity. His work for the ILN was so well-regarded that, at age 20, he gave up commerce and became the superintendent of engraving for that journal. He was inventive and soon learned the operation known as overlaying wood-engravings, a system of regulating light and shading effects, which he was later to introduce to the United States.He came to the United States in 1848, where he legally changed his name to Frank Leslie in 1857. He worked for Gleason's Pictorial in Boston. In 1854, he began publishing on his own account, publishing a number of weekly and monthly journals over the course of his career, including the Budget of Fun.In 1877 the Leslie's (Frank and his second wife, Miriam Folline Squier) took a "lavish" train trip from New York to San Francisco in the company of many friends. However, the expense of the trip and a business depression left Leslie's business badly in debt. When he died in 1880, the debts amounted to $300,000, and his will was contested. Miriam Leslie took the business in hand (she had filled in for and then replaced the editor of Leslie's Lady's Magazine) and turned it around financially. Both are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York