Rare Book Monthly
Articles - August - 2005 Issue
Introducing an Index of American Magazines: 1741:1826
The Columbian Phenix: Mott 80
By January 1800 Frank Luther Mott in his "A History of American Magazines" counts seventy-nine publications as having been born and by the close of 1810 adds another sixty-eight while also admitting he ignored some. With increasing numbers came specialization and in the first twenty-five years of the 19th century a panoply of fields were surveyed: European and American literature, women, history, weekly, local, religion, theater and drama, children's, political, poetry, missionary, medical, literary, and philosophy. Within a few years education, math, sciences, the law, pharmacy, mineralogy and humor have also found their publishers if not their audiences. The urge to publish was strong even if the reading public was small.
Complicating the publications' situation were severe delivery problems. The road system was poor, in many areas non-existent, and the cost of delivery high. Perspective in printed media tended to be narrow because news was not easily collected or dispersed. Circulations were small as the initial publishing model did not comfortably include advertising. People didn't have disposable income and frequently the income they did have was in barter-able material, not cash. Franklin could accept eggs in trade but he could not be paid in eggs entirely. The reliable currency we take for granted today was something still in the future as in the early part of the 19th century there wasn't even agreement about the appropriateness of a central bank. So magazines, like all the trades that would later flourish in an environment of universal currency and growing consumerism were, at the outset, primarily dependent on the highly enthusiastic for support, as small a market then as they generally are today.
The dawn of the magazine age was approaching although full bloom would not occur until the end of the nineteenth century. By then, in a single year more magazines would be launched than in the first 60 years of American magazine publishing.
Looking back what comes into view are a limited number of small circulation periodicals that acted as intermediary between the immediacy of the newspaper and the perspective of the book. And they look to be a very interesting and currently under-appreciated way to augment collections and aid the researcher and their institutions in building a clearer record of emerging American culture and incremental historical events. Toward that end this month we are adding a bibliographical source in the AED: North American Magazines that will aid the interested in finding information about them.
Click Submit above to take a look at what Mott describes as the first American magazines. We include the first 254 of them beginning with the American Magazine in 1741 and continuing through 1826.
Try some keywords that reflect your interests. Here are some examples of matches: Ohio 4, Boston 50, New York 61 and Philadelphia 73. In the year ahead we will build resources to support dealers, librarians and collectors who appreciate the importance of this material.
