War/Peace (Jefferson Davis Optical Illusion)

This hand-colored lithograph employs a reversible optical illusion—a visual trick that predates comic strip conventions yet shares their interest in sequential narrative. Viewed one way, the image shows Confederate President Jefferson Davis's profile amid battle scenes labeled "War." Inverted, it depicts a donkey, transforming the composition into political satire. The surrounding vignettes of combat, cavalry, and encampments anchor the propaganda message within concrete scenes of Civil War violence. Though not a newspaper comic, this print demonstrates how 19th-century printmakers experimented with visual trickery and panel arrangement to convey political commentary—techniques that would evolve into the speech balloons and sequential panels defining early comics.