Magazines Collect More Than Dust as They Age

American magazines have been around for more than 250 years--Benjamin Franklin came within three days of publishing the first--but only recently have they been appreciated as collectibles.

Now some enthusiasts go in for set collection, assembling a complete series of a particular magazine. Others collect premier issues, or the work of important illustrators such as Norman Rockwell, or magazines that contain short stories by important authors such as Rudyard Kipling, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner or F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Still others concentrate on content, especially magazines featuring on their covers such people as Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Greta Garbo or Marilyn Monroe.

America’s first magazine was published in 1741--but not by Franklin. Franklin had announced in 1740 that he would soon release The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle, For all the British Plantations in America. Franklin’s archrival, Andrew Bradford, recruited Franklin’s editor and on Feb. 13, 1741, rushed to the presses his own periodical, American Magazine, or A Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies. He beat Franklin by three days.

American Magazine folded after three issues; Franklin’s after six editions. Other magazines followed, with limited success. Not until the Post Office Act of 1794, which allowed for delivery of magazines, did publishers feel they could compete with newspapers.

As the United States approached its 50th anniversary, magazines entered their first golden age. Reduced illiteracy, improved technology and more efficient distribution, plus a desire for magazines independent of the influential British press, inspired more than 1,000 new magazines before 1860, including The Saturday Evening Post in 1821.

Two of the more successful magazines, Graham’s Magazine and Knickerbocker Magazine, featured such fine American writers as James Fenimore Cooper, William Cullen Bryant, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and John Greenleaf Whittier.

One of the 19th Century’s most successful magazines was Godey’s Lady’s Book, with the most influential female editor of the century, Sarah Hale. While she campaigned for the education of women, she stopped short of endorsing women’s suffrage, stating in 1846 “that woman must influence while man governs.”

The second golden age of magazines occurred during the first quarter of the 20th Century.

For a few decades before radio, movies and television, Americans relied on magazines for photography, in-depth reporting, and examination of social, political and cultural issues. The undisputed leader was The Saturday Evening Post that Cyrus Curtis bought for $1,000 in 1897.

Magazines are valued by scarcity, demand and condition. Collectors and dealers have developed a scale by which the condition of magazines from any era can be evaluated.

It ranged from Mint (M), for magazines that appear just as they did when first displayed on the newsstand, no evidence of wear or damage; to Poor (P), for a magazine missing the cover or inside pages and damaged beyond practical value.

Magazines should be stored completely flat in acid-free boxes, which are available through antiques and hobby magazines.

Never display a rare magazine in direct sunlight or leave it lying out for anyone to handle. You can protect especially valuable magazines by inserting them into clear Mylar bags.

Never remove a cover, an article or an ad, for once a magazine has been defaced, it will never achieve its ultimate value.