Great Fair Given at the City Assembly Rooms, New York, December, 1861, in Aid of the City Poor

This engraving shows a charity event for the poor held in Manhattan during the first holiday season of the Civil War. Organized by a local women’s group, the benefit was, according to the accompanying text in Harper’s Weekly, “a complete success. The array of beauty and fashion which gathered round the tables has never been surpassed, and the proceeds will prove a handsome fund.” Like the Brooklyn Sanitary Fair three years later, this popular gala provided a variety of entertainments for an urban audience and was orchestrated primarily by women volunteers.