Periodicals

The bohemians of antebellum New York published regularly in the daily newspapers, literary weeklies, and monthly magazines that proliferated throughout the United States in the years leading up to the Civil War. Writers and artists at the beginnings of their careers published in periodicals as a way to build their reputations and attract the attention of book publishers. A number of the periodicals that began during this period, such as The New York Tribune and Harper's Monthly, became very successful and continued to be published well into the twentieth century. Many other periodicals, however, lasted only for a few years. Two such periodicals, The New York Saturday Press and Vanity Fair, began around the tables at Pfaff's bar. The Saturday Press ran from October 1858 until December 1860, and was briefly revived in August 1865 only to cease publication again in June 1866. Similarly, Vanity Fair began publishing in December 1859 and ended its run in July 1863. During that brief window, however, the two periodicals were a showcase for a variety of irreverent, playful, and socially savvy literary and artistic productions. Vanity Fair regularly featured illustrations and was primarily a humor magazine with a strong political bent; the Saturday Press was text-only and focused on literary and theatrical arts, as well as commentary on current events. When the Pfaff's bohemians no longer had Vanity Fair and the Saturday Press available to them as publication venues, many of them began contributing to The New York Leader, a weekly that ran from 1856 to 1871.

The Vault at Pfaff's provides scanned page images of the Saturday Press, Vanity Fair, and the Leader in an Islandora viewer. Poems, illustrations, and articles from the Saturday Press and Vanity Fair have been indexed, with metadata and abstracts searchable on the site. Selections from the Leader will be indexed at a later date. In addition, many pieces by and about the Pfaff's bohemians that appeared in periodicals such as Harper's, Putnam's, The Knickerbocker, and Frank Leslie's Paper have been indexed for searching and, where available, links have been provided to external websites that house scanned page images or transcriptions.

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Winter, William. "Satirical Sentiments Together with a Very Solemn and Refreshing Song [for the New York Saturday Press]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-23).
Anonymous. "Pious Criminals." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
"The Japanese Viewing Niagara [from The World]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-23).
Anonymous. "[Editorial Notes]." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
R. G. S. (?). "The Vicissitudes of Babies [for the New York Saturday Press]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-23).
The American People. "To the Trustees of the Forth Ward Schools." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
Anonymous. "[Editorial Notes]." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
"The Semi-Detached House." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-23).
Anonymous. "222." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
Greeley, Horace. "Copy of an Antique Manuscript [from 'Vanity Fair']. Brutus Greeley to Ceasar Steward." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-23).
"Vanities from 'Vanity Fair'." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-23).
D. D.. "The Bohemian in Literature." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-23).
EFM. "How They Do It." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
Von Puck, Hans. "Germantown Graphics." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
Anonymous. "Punning Made Easy." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
Anonymous. "A Word to Reporters." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
Anonymous. "The Unworldly World." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
Karr, Alphonse. "The Tree of Gold. [Translated from the French of Alphonse Karr, by the late H. J. Richards] [for the New York Saturday Press]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-23).
Anonymous. "Mighty Moderate." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
Bryant, W. C.. "Hymn." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-23).
Anonymous. "A New Martyr." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
"The Magazines for July." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-23).
Anonymous. "A New Essay on Criticism." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
All Souls. "Fragments from the Table of an Intellectual Epicure [for the New York Saturday Press]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-23).
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. "A Panoramic Picture [from the Independent, June 21]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-23).
"Lady Ellenborough." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-23).
EFM. "The Game of the Sociable Snake." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
Anonymous. "An Incautious Mrs. Bobbitts." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-23).
"Convention." Saturday Press. (1860-6-25).
Whitman, Walt. "The Errand-Bearers; I6th 6th Month, Year 84 of the States." New York Times. (1860-6-27).
Anonymous. "Natural History. The Hotel Waiter." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
Robinson. "Delavigne's Poems [for the New York Saturday Press]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
"A Female Hogarth [Tribune]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
"G. P. R. James, the Novelist [N. Y. Times]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Ward, Artemus. "Honest Old Abe." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Nightshade, Ghoul, M.D.. "More Martyrdom." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
"Jonathan Swift." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Oman, A. S. H.. "Help Me Cassius or I Sink." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
Arnold, George. "Cui Bono? [for the New York Saturday Press]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Anonymous. "[Editorial Notes]." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
"Tom Taylor and Hume the Spiritualist." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Anonymous. "[Editorial Notes]." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
"The Religious Press." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Bigges, Enos; HLS. "Germantown Graphics." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
EFM. "Got Hold of the Wrong Man." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
Spuytentuyful, Broadway; Mullen. "The Telegraph Tour of Broadway Spuytentuyful and His Cousin, Peytona Randolph de Accomac." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
Anonymous. "The Japanese Ball." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
"Rutledge." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
"The World, The Great Eastern, and the Ark." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
"Obituary of a Newspaper [from the Evening Post]." New York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
[Clapp, Henry, Jr.]. "Walt Whitman and American Art." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
"The Wind-Wave." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
CDS. "The Parachenille." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
All Souls. "Fragments from the Table of an Intellectual Epicure [for the New York Saturday Press]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Anonymous. "A Page From the History of the Baltimore Convention." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
"Another Sensation." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Anonymous. "Poor Boston." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
Your Subscriber. "A Secession." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
"'The World'." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Anonymous. "Professional Ardor." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
"Leslie's Autobiography and Letters." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Petit, Lizzie. "L'Inconstant [for the New York Saturday Press]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
"The Japanese." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
J.M.D.. "Harmony at the Convention." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
Quelqu'un [Winter, William]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Cornwell, H. S.. "The Fairies [for the New York Saturday Press]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Whitman, Walt. "The Errand-Bearers [from the New York Times, June 27]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Anonymous. "[Editorial Notes]." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
"The Ship and the Bird." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Anonymous. "Tommy and the Times." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
"The Biographical Showman." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
D. D.. "The Bohemian as a Gentleman." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Anonymous. "The Way of the World." Vanity Fair. (1860-6-30).
"Tommy." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-6-30).
Ludlow, Fitz Hugh. "The Cruise of the Two Deacons. A Tale in Eight Chapters [Chapters 1-3]." Harper's New Monthly Magazine. New York: Harper and Bros. (1860-7-1).
Spuytentuyful, Broadway; Mullen, EF. "The Telegraph Tour of Broadway Spuytentuyful and His Cousin, Peytona Randolph de Accomac." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "Novel Weapon of Offense." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "The Result." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "The Black Leopard." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "The Torch Bearer. A Paean for the Fourth of July." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Curio, Caleb; Anonymous. "Equine Gymnastics." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "[Editorial Notes]." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "The Small Dog and His Man." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "[Untitled]." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Stephens. "Serene Above Them All." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "A Moral for the Immoral." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "[Untitled]." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "Curious Freak of Nature. The Enright." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
J.D.S.. "Those Worms." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
The Hermit. "A Letter from the Hermit." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "A Remonstrance." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "The Fourth in Town." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "So Like Matrimony." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "Here and There." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Anonymous. "The Ambition of Youth." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
Mullen, EF. "The Great Eastern." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-7).
"Early Piety." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
"The 'Great Eastern'." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "The Fourth of July." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
"National Academy of Design." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "The State of Europe." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "Messrs. Hammett and Co." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
"Visit of the Prince of Wales." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "A Simple Catechism for Republicans." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
Mullen, EF. "A Little Soliloquy." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
Ward, Artemus. "Artemus Ward Encounters the Octoroon." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "[Editorial Notes]." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
"Wit of 'The Times'." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "[Editorial Notes]." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
Mullen. "The Burglars' Carnival (Cartoon)." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
Prettyman, Charles (Fitz-James O'Brien?). "A Word from a Horror-Stricken Counter Jumper." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
"The Prince of Wales [from the London Times, June 27]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
"Art and Politics." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Quelqu'un [Winter, William]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "A Good Thing for Bonner." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
"The Hanging." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "[Editorial Notes]." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
"Ge-Lang! Git Up! [from the New Orleans Delta]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "Punning Made Easy." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
Mullen, EF. ""What is Home Without a Button?"." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
"Thunder and Lightning [from 'Vanity Fair']." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "[Editorial Notes]." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
"Vanities from 'Vanity Fair'." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "What'll We Do with Him?." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
"How to Pay the National Debt of England." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
"Earl Grey & Co." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
"A Theatrical Exhibition." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "Garibaldi." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "Little Stephen A. Trying to Fit into a Very High Chair." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
"Mr. Everett and the British Constitution." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
J.D.S.. "A Crack at Some Folks." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "Thunder and Lightning." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
"Sale of Burton's Theatrical Robe [from the New York Herald, July 11th]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
HLS. "What Else Could They Be?." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "See the Conquering Hero." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
Massachusetts. "Harvard University [from the Boston Evening Transcript]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Anonymous. "Whereabouts of Fowler." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
"Walt Whitman [from the New Orleans Delta]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Mullen. "The Usual English Growl." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
Balzac, Honore de. "Comedians Without Knowing It [translated for the New York Saturday Press]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-14).
Spuytentuyful, Broadway; M. "The Telegraph Tour of Broadway Spuytentuyful and His Cousin, Peytona Randolph de Accomac." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-14).
"The Saturday Press Book-List." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
"A Few Words About Words [from the Evening Post]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
"Art." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
All Souls. "Fragments from the Table of an Intellectual Epicure." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
"Cruden's Insanity." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
"Marriage by Clergymen [From Boston Journal]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
Hugo, Victor. "Victor Hugo on the Sicilian Revolution." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
Quelqu'un [Winter, William]. "Dramatic Feuilleton [To the General Public]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
The Author of John Halifax [Dinah Maria Mulock Craik]. "Our Father's Business: Holman Hunt's Picture of Christ in the Temple [From Macmillan's magazine]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
Coleridge, S[amuel] T.. "Liberty." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
D. D.. "The Bohemian in Government." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
"Devotional Eloquence." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
A Day-Laborer. "My Love." Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
"The Origin of Hail Columbia [published in 'Recollections of Washington']." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
Spike, Ethan. "Thrilling." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
[Winter, William]. "The Torch-Bearers: A Paean for the Fourth of July, After Walt Whitman [from Vanity Fair]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
Balzac, Honore' de'. "Comedians Without Knowing It [To Count Jules Castellane]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
"The Mount Vernon Papers." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
"The Newspaper and the Reader." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
Bartleti, Samuel Ripley. "Across the Sea [From the Christian Inquirer]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
"Great Sale of Drawings [From the London Athenaeum]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
"Independence Bell--July 4, 1776." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-17).
Spuytentuyful, Broadway. "The Telegraph Tour of Broadway Spuytentuyful and His Cousin, Peytona Randolph de Accomac." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
The Undersigned. "The Great Eastern." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
"Summer." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
HLS. "Cool!." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
Balzac, Honore de. "Comedians Without Knowing It [translated for the New York Saturday Press]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
"A Discovery." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
"Rough Poetry [from the Portland Transcript]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
Anonymous. "The Other Side of the Picture." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
"The Universal Letter Writer." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
Anonymous. "He Should Be an Actor." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
Symonds, William L.. "Novels [from the Atlantic Monthly]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
Anonymous. "Another Grand Reception." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
M. "The Chase of the Bounding Rustic." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
"Lord Bacon [from the Philadelphia Press]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
Anonymous. "A Glimpse of the Honeymoon As Seen Through an Aquarium at Nixon's." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
Verite. "The Mount Vernon Papers [from the Boston Saturday Evening Express, July 14]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
Henry Bibbs, William. "Little Bibbs Has Been to See the Hanging." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
Whittier, John G.. "The River Path [from the Independent, July 19]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
"Woman in the Kitchen." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
"Harvard College." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
Anonymous. "[Editorial Notes]." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
Quelqu'un [Winter, William]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
Anonymous. "Thouvenel." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
"Cavaliere Servente [from 'Lyrics and Legends of Rome']." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
Anonymous. "Inconsistent Already." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
M. "Sabbatarian Grammar." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
SCS. "Natural History. The Man about Town." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
Ward, Artemus. "Wimmin's Rites." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
Stephens. "The Modern Pyramus and Thisbe." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
Anonymous. "Summer Solitude in New York, No. 1." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
Burroughs, John. "A Thought on Culture [for the New York Saturday Press]." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
Winter, William. "Beauty." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
"Lichen Tufts." New-York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
Anonymous. "Indigenous Jocularity." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
"New Yorkers." New York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).
Anonymous. "Prizes for Subscriptions." Vanity Fair. (1860-7-21).
"The Opera of Semiramis." New York Saturday Press. (1860-7-21).