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“The News Boy” in The Gift for 1843. Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1842.
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Young boys sold papers on the street in most urban areas of the United States through out the nineteenth century. This depiction of a boy with a jaunty cap and bundle of papers was based on an 1841 painting by the American artist Henry Inman. The placement of the news carrier between a sphinx (symbolizing knowledge) and the rising deluxe Astor Hotel in the background was Inman’s way of stressing the power of the press in America.
