Emoticons (Puck Magazine, 1881)

Typographical art — the first emoticons — made their appearance in print in a March 30, 1881 issue of Puck. They are joy, melancholy indifference and astonishment.  The small item in the middle of this page reads as follows:

“Typographical Art”

“We wish it to be distinctly understood that the letterpress department of this paper is not going  to be trampled on by any tyrannical crowd of artists in existence.  We mean to let the public see that we can lay out, in our own typographical line, all the cartoonists that ever walked.  For fear of startling the public we will give only a small specimen of the artistic achievements within our grasp, by way of a first instalment.  The following are from Studies in Passions and Emotions.  No copyright.”