One of the main things that I notice when looking at the covers of Du Bois’ The Crisis magazine is the prevalence of profiles of people’s faces. Most of the subjects appear to be dressed very formally, either in business looking clothes or in uniform (several of the subjects appear to be in the military, and several others wearing athletic uniforms). Many of the pictures (which mostly appear to be hand drawn as opposed to actual photographs, although there are several that are photos) are very detailed closeups of peoples faces featuring various expressions, with some people smiling and looking relaxed and others looking more solemn or serious.

Another thing that I noticed when looking at the covers is that many of the subjects are women, with several also depicting children. The women are depicted in various ways, with one holding a tennis racket, one dressed for a graduation, and others holding kids. They are all portrayed, as are the men, as being very dignified and kind of important seeming. I would guess that at this time in history it would not have been very common to see such portrayals of women on the cover of magazines, especially women of color and on magazine covers that were not specifically for women.

A final observation is that the non-human depicting covers seem to reflect current events of the time. Many of the covers show scenes of soldiers at war, which makes sense because World War 1 was happening at the times of the publication. There are also several allusions to ancient Egypt, including the Sphinx-like face that is found under the heading in earlier editions of the magazine. There are also depictions of people praying and what I am guessing are the Three Wisemen that appear in issues around Christmas time, further reflecting the relation to the covers and current events of the time.

As the Printing the Color Line reading noted, Du Bois’ use of The Crisis to advocate for the NAACP was a direct result of the invention of linotype printing. As a communications major, it is cool to see how new technologies and communications techniques opened the door for people who may previously not have had access to the infrastructure required to share their voice.