Free Vintage Magazines PDF Archive: Historical Literary Journals

American Magazine

1876-1930

1910-1952 (Assorted)

New York

The American Magazine was founded in 1906 as a continuation of a failed publication purchased from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie. It began as Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly in 1876 and went through two more name changes prior to 1906. When new management took over in 1906, highly respected muckraking journalists Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens and Ida M. Tarbell left McClure’s (also found on this web page) for American Magazine. Besides social issues, American Magazine also focused on human interest stories and fiction.

The American Mercury

1924-1960

New York

Published from 1924 to 1981. Founded by H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured writing by some of the most important writers in the United States through the 1920s and 1930s. After a change in ownership in the 1940s, the magazine attracted conservative writers. A second change in ownership a decade later turned the magazine into a virulently anti-Semitic publication.

American Review of Reviews

1890-1900

New York

Known at various times as the American Monthly Review of Reviews and Review of Reviews, but not to be confused with its British counterpart, also entitled Review of Reviews. It represented the views and concerns of participants in the trans-Atlantic culture of progressive reform.

Atlantic Monthly

Atlantic Magazine Website

1857-1879

1857-2010

Washington, DC: Emerson Collective

Founded in 1857 in Boston, it was a literary and cultural magazine that published leading writers’ commentary on education, the abolition of slavery, and other major political issues of that time. Its founders included Francis H. Underwood and prominent writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Greenleaf Whittier.

Blackwood’s Magazine

1817-1930 (HathiTrust)

1817-1961 (B&W)

Edinburgh, Scotland: Blackwood

Launched in 1817 and originally called the ‘Edinburgh Monthly Magazine’, Blackwood’s was an outlet for aggressive Tory (Conservative party) political views. It contained satire, reviews and criticism, as well as poetry and literary works. It ceased publication in 1980, having remained under Blackwood family ownership for its entire active life.

The Bookman; an Illustrated Literary Journal

1895-1923 (HathiTrust)

New York

Illustrated articles on literary biography, criticism and literary history with occasional discussions of art.

Century Magazine

1870-1930 (HathiTrust)

New York

First published in the United States in 1881. It was the successor of Scribner’s Monthly Magazine (not to be confused with Scribner’s Magazine) and ceased publication in 1930. It gave much space to illustrated articles on history, literary criticism, fiction, poetry, literature, and current affairs. In the 1890s it was the largest periodical in the country.

Collier’s National Weekly

1901-1930 (HathiTrust)

1906-1918 (HathiTrust)

1926-1957 (UNZ)

The volumes below are at Internet Archive

New York

Collier’s magazine was an American weekly, founded in 1888 by Peter Collier, who was a pioneer in investigative journalism. For decades it was politically progressive, and became by 1919 one of the most popular magazines in the U.S. It reached a circulation of 2.8 million by 1946, but soon began a decline and ceased publication in 1957.

Cosmopolitan

Cosmopolitan Magazine Website

Assorted issues 1912-2025

1886-1930 (B&W)

1886-1925 (HathiTrust)

U.S. – Hearst Communications

Cosmopolitan began in NY City as a family magazine in 1886. By the early 1890s it was a leading fiction magazine, with stories by top authors. William Randolph Hearst bought Cosmopolitan in 1905, after which it continued to feature top fiction authors as well as investigative pieces and other nonfiction.
In 1965 Helen Gurley Brown became chief editor, and radically changed Cosmopolitan. ‘Cosmo’ was transformed into a racy, contentious, and highly successful magazine for single career women.

DeBow’s Review

1846-1870 (Internet Archive)

1846-1869 (Univ. of Michigan)

New Orleans

An important magazine of the southern U.S. prior to the American Civil War of 1861-1865. It contained agricultural reports, statistical data, and economic analysis, literature, political opinion, and commentary. The magazine took an increasingly pro-Southern perspective in the late 1850s and early 1860s, and defended slavery.

The Gentleman’s Magazine

1731-1907 (HathiTrust)

London, UK: Edward Cave & others

The first English periodical to be called a “magazine”. Founder Edward Cave’s innovation was to create a monthly digest of news and commentary on any topic the educated public might be interested in, from commodity prices to Latin poetry. It carried original content from a stable of regular contributors, as well as extensive quotations and extracts from other periodicals and books. It was read throughout the English-speaking world and continued to flourish through the 18th century and much of the 19th century.

McClure’s Magazine

1893-1928 (HathiTrust)

New York

McClure’s magazine (1893-1929) is credited with starting the tradition of muckraking journalism (investigative, watchdog or reform journalism). The magazine featured both political and literary content, publishing serialized novels-in-progress. McClure’s published writers Willa Cather, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Lincoln Steffens, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Mark Twain. An example of its investigative journalism was Ida Tarbell’s series in 1902 exposing the monopoly abuses of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company.

North American Review

1815-1930 (HathiTrust)

1815 to 1940 (B&W)

Boston

One of America’s leading literary journals of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Early contributors included William Cullen Bryant, Daniel Webster, John Adams, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Francis Parkman. In the late 1870s, under new ownership, the Review was transformed into a national periodical noted for its critical influence and outstanding writing concerning social and political issues.

Overland Monthly

1868-1923 (HathiTrust)

1868-1935 (B&W)

San Francisco

Monthly. Edited by Bret Harte, the Overland Monthly; devoted to the Development of the Country began publication in 1868 in San Francisco and continued through 1875. It contained non-fiction, short stories and poetry. Some writers were Alice Cary, Jack London, Mark Twain and Henry George.

Scribner’s Magazine

1887-1930 (HathiTrust)

1887-1938 (B&W)

New York

Scribner’s Magazine was produced by the publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons from 1887 to 1939, which also produced Scribner’s Monthly (later renamed Century Illustrated, and found on this web page). Scribner’s Magazine was launched to compete with Harper’s Monthly and Atlantic Monthly (both are found on this web page). Top artists painted the illustrations, including Howard Pyle, Maxfield Parrish and Frederic Remington. Many well-known writers contributed, including Jacob Riis, Theodore Roosevelt and John Galsworthy.

The World’s Work

1900-1930 (HathiTrust)

1900-1932 (B&W)

New York

Covered all kinds of current events in articles by recognized authorities. The social development of the country receives as much attention as its material prosperity. Well illustrated and popular in style.

Westminster Review

1824-1914 (HathiTrust)

Great Britain

Founded by Jeremy Bentham in 1823 as a quarterly venue for the Philosophical Radicals. James Mill was a prominent contributor in its first years. It was and remained, through changes of name and editors, a strong voice for radicalism and progress. Mary Ann Evans (George Elliot) was an editor for a time, and brought John Stuart Mill, Harriet Martineau, Herbert Spencer and other luminaries to the journal. In 1860 it became a prominent supporter of the new theory of Darwinism.

Collection of 19th Century British Periodicals

ca. 1806-1899

This curated collection of vintage magazines at HathiTrust contains long runs of a number of 19th Century periodicals. Over 400 issues.