1950s covers from Galaxy magazine, now available for free at Archive.org

Galaxy magazine was a pulpy, science fiction paradise from 1950 to 1980, publishing some of the most important futuristic voices of the 20th century—to say nothing of the amazing cover illustrations. And you can read hundreds of issues from its heyday online, all thanks to Archive.org.




The magazines have been online for a few years now, but like so much on the Internet Archive, it has gone largely overlooked. But no longer. Everyone from Boing Boing to The Verge has caught wind of the online treasure trove.

As you flip through the Galaxy covers you’ll probably notice plenty of images that have gone viral in retro-future circles over the years in places like Reddit and Pinterest. Some of the ones that stand out to me are the January 1955 issue featuring a woman talking on a videophone and the January 1956 cover featuring a futuristic Santa Claus.


1950s covers from Galaxy magazine, now available for free at Archive.org

The 355 issues that have been uploaded online include stories by such scifi legends as Ray Bradbury, Frederik Pohl, and Isaac Asimov.



From Open Culture:

A series of editors—including Frederik Pohl—took over from [founding editor H.L.] Gold after a car accident in 1961, and by 1977—eight years after Pohl’s departure—the magazine was on its decline. There were more iterations, reprints, anthologies, and online versions, but the essential run is here. And those first ten years changed American science-fiction forever, paving the way for experimental writers like Philip K. Dick and William Gibson.


Do you have a favorite story or cover illustration from Galaxy? Any tips on where fellow readers should start?