Checklists and Cover Galleries
Old Magazine Checklists and Cover Galleries
This page includes links to sites which have either a gallery of cover images or comprehensive checklists of magazine contents. All are free sources of information, though some may be commercial in nature. This will be a constantly evolving page with links added as I come across relevant sites.
Contents and Index Pages:
Cornell University Library’s Making of America
Includes listings of contents from several magazines, notably The Atlantic Monthly (1857 – 1901), The Century (1881 – 1899), Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (1850 – 1899), The North American Review (1815 – 1900), Scribner’s Magazine (1887 – 1896), and several others. If you want to spend some time on the site and drill down into the listings a little they have actually reproduced the entire contents of the issues as well.
The FictionMags Index
Incredible index that allows you to search for contents by magazine, author, or even story title.
Research Society for American Periodicals
This link leads to the RSAP’s Resource Page which includes a list of many links to other archives.
Google Books
Complete Archives for these magazines on Google:
Popular Science 1872-2009
Life Magazine 1936-1972
Billboard 1942-2008
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 1945-1998
Jet 1951-2008
American Motorcyclist 1955-2007
Ebony 1959-2008
New York Magazine 1968-1997
Competition Science Vision 1998-2008
Prevention 2006-2008
Runner’s World 2006-2008
Revolver 2007-2009
Note: There appear to be several more and the list will continue to grow. While Google offers code for a snazzy looking Google Books search, those of us looking for items in their magazines archives are best off starting with this Advanced Books Search form from Google which defaults to Magazines only.
Cover Galleries:
Esquire Cover Gallery
From Esquire’s own site. Beginning with the Autumn 1933 issue and running through to the present.
LIFE photo archive hosted by Google – Wow, can’t blow Google’s horn much better than they do themselves: “Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today.”
MagazineArt.org
The link above is to the top level of the gallery pages at MagazineArt.org. Includes cover galleries and information about artists for several magazines including Collier’s and the original LIFE. Packed!
New Yorker
From the Cartoon Bank, A New Yorker Magazine Company. This is a commercial site selling prints of New Yorker covers, but it’s search will call up many covers from the New Yorker archives.
Saturday Evening Post
From Curtis Publishings own site. The navigation is a little confusing but they seem to have published all of their Saturday Evening Post covers starting from 1923 here and indexed them by artist as well.
Sports Illustrated
Takes you to SI.com’s Advanced Cover Search page. Options to search by keyword, date, or even a pre-selected group of subjects.
TIME Magazine
From TIME’s own site. Every cover from TIME Magazine. You can also access the table of contents for individual issues.
Specialized Contents and Index Pages:
J.D. Salinger Uncollected Works
Lists all of Salinger’s appearances in magazines, both mainstream and small literary publications.
Norman Rockwell Magazine Covers
From Best Norman Rockwell Art.com. I was looking for information to create a Norman Rockwell checklist and was surprised to discover that it had already been done…perfectly! I printed out all of the sections comprising 1913-1980 and have used it a couple of times already. More than Post covers this list includes everything!
Thomas Wolfe – A Publishing Chronology
By Aldo P. Magi. Lists all of Wolfe’s appearances in magazines, both mainstream and small literary publications.
Other Stores & Helpful Sites
Old Magazine Articles .com – Well designed site containing complete reprints of old magazine articles. Sorted by areas of interest.
Vintage-Ads.com – Vintage-Ads.com offers thousands of classic retro magazine advertisements from the pre 1900’s thru the 1970’s. Categories include beer, alcohol, cigarettes, auto, home related, movies and many, many more.
