A virtual museum of vintage magazine cover and advertising art from the Golden Age of American Illustration More than sixteen thousand covers and ads on this site

IMPORTANT NEWS! We're rolling out the new version of magazineart.org! You may find a few links that don't work. If they still don't work in a couple of days, please drop us a note and we'll try to figure out why. (Links that are grayed-out haven't ever had anything at the other end, due to Time.) Special thanks to regular contributor Tom Harris for his stalwart volunteer labor. Tom has been fixing the Advertisements pages, updating the links to the source magazines, so that they take you to their new locations in the new system...about three thousand of them. That not being enough, he's been fixing the six thousand links in the "What's New" update pages, so that they take you to the new locations. Let's hear it for Tom! WHY THIS SITE? We like art. Art wants to be seen; it does no good if it can't be seen. There's a lot of art that's been hidden away for fifty or a hundred years or morehidden away not because it's bad art, or because someone tried to suppress it, but just because it was part of something transient. Once that transient thing had its day in our living rooms, it fell from view and the art that it held was lost to us.

Text-only cover (click to enlarge)

WHY MAGAZINES?

Unchanging cover design (click to enlarge) Magazines shaped our lives. They came into our homes and showed us how to dress, how to act, what to read, which way to vote, and how to think about ourselves, literature, science, art, and the rest of the world. We've created this website because these magazine covers are difficult to find and study, even considering all the influence they had on us. We're here because we love the art and want to make it available once again. Take a look around; try one of the links in the left or right columns..

ART INTO SOCIETY The great illustrators of the period 1870-1950 had a tremendous influence on us; they affected us both directly, and subconsciously. They painted the covers for the magazines that were published under thousands of titles, in millions and millions of copies. Today those magazines are forgotten, and the artwork that graced their covers is unknown to the general public and obscure even to specialists.

Complex drawing (click to enlarge)

REMEMBRANCE OF ART PAST

Pulp fiction cover (click to enlarge) We're trying to do something about that. We're putting images of the covers up on the web, for you to look at for free. We run a few ads, and you can even donate small amounts of money using the links at the lower left; but, anyway, whatever; you don't have to pay anything to see these images. In fact, you don't have to do anything, except look at the pictures.

THE STATE OF THE ART We have over sixteen thousand cover and advertising images on this site, in a variety of categories, linked from the contents page. More to come; always lots more to come. We also have information pages about specific magazines, publishers, editors, artists, and publishing companies. Have a look!

Middle-class dreams (click to enlarge)

ART FOR ART'S SAKE

Art and decoration (click to enlarge) Why is Art? Is florid decoration Art? Neo-realism, abstraction, cubism, pop and pattern? Do we know what we like? Or do we just like what we know? Who knows; who can tell. Imagine a world without art, sans decoration, minus a garnish and lacking all design. Why do that, we say. Have some art.

SPECIAL NOTE: We now display more than a thousand covers from SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. Check out What's New  Latest update 29 August 2020 Take a look at our list of artists by magazine issue. We need your help scanning or photographing, and cleaning up, cover images from vintage magazines you may own or have access to. If you can help with this, even if only for a single issue, send us e-mail.