Frank Leslie

Frank Leslie (born March 29, 1821, Ipswich, Suffolk, Eng.—died Jan. 10, 1880, New York, N.Y., U.S.) was a British-U.S. illustrator and journalist. The Illustrated London News published his early sketches. He moved to the U.S. in 1848. There he founded numerous newspapers and journals, including the New York Journal (1854), Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (1855)—having changed his name in 1857—and Frank Leslie’s Boys’ and Girls’ Weekly (1866). His illustrations from Civil War battlefields earned him his greatest profits. His second wife, Miriam Florence Leslie (1836–1914), legally changed her name to Frank Leslie after his death and continued his business after his death, twice rescuing it from debt. When she died a wealthy woman, she left most of her estate to the feminist Carrie Chapman Catt in the service of the suffragist cause.