General George B. McClellan

This portrait sketch by Jacques Reich depicts General George Brinton McClellan in military uniform, rendered in pen and ink with characteristic cross-hatching. McClellan, a prominent Union general during the Civil War and later Democratic presidential nominee, remained a figure of public interest in the 1890s. The drawing exemplifies the illustrative tradition of American newspapers and periodicals of the era, when wood engravings and ink portraits served as the primary means of visual journalism. Such portrait studies appeared regularly in Sunday papers and weekly magazines, establishing visual conventions that would influence early comic strip art and newspaper illustration.