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AURELIUS O. REVENAUGH
(American, 1840-1908)

Newsboy, late 1800s
Oil on canvas
Gift of Mrs. Silas Starr 1939.22.7

Newsboys were popular subjects in art, literature, and song during the 1800s. Their depictions, however, usually were romanticized and rarely revealed the harsh realities of the boys’ lives. In actuality, newsboys were often homeless orphans who lived in poverty and deprivation. In an age before newsstands and home delivery, nineteenth-century newspaper publishers sold their papers to youths, who in turn sold them to the public. Competition was fierce and the boy who could run the fastest and yell the loudest usually sold the most papers.

In his painting of a Louisville Courier-Journal newsboy, Aurelius Revenaugh engages the viewer’s sympathy for the young merchant by depicting him peddling his papers in the midst of a winter snowstorm.