This page includes links to sites which have either a gallery of cover images or comprehensive checklists of magazine contents. All are free sources of information, though some may be commercial in nature. This will be a constantly evolving page with links added as I come across relevant sites.
Contents and Index Pages:
- Cornell University Library’s Making of America – Includes listings of contents from several magazines, notably The Atlantic Monthly (1857 – 1901), The Century (1881 – 1899), Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (1850 – 1899), The North American Review (1815 – 1900), Scribner’s Magazine (1887 – 1896), and several others. If you want to spend some time on the site and drill down into the listings a little they have actually reproduced the entire contents of the issues as well.
- The FictionMags Index – Incredible index that allows you to search for contents by magazine, author, or even story title.
- magawiki – My site consisting of thousands of pages of magazine tables of contents. If you’re looking for a specific article or trying to find articles by specific authors or about certain subjects, try searching the magawiki!
Google Books:
Complete Archives for these magazines on Google:
- Popular Science 1872-2009
- Life Magazine 1936-1972
- Billboard 1942-2008
- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 1945-1998
- Jet 1951-2008
- American Motorcyclist 1955-2007
- Ebony 1959-2008
- New York Magazine 1968-1997
- Competition Science Vision 1998-2008
- Prevention 2006-2008
- Runner’s World 2006-2008
- Revolver 2007-2009
Note: There appear to be several more and the list will continue to grow. While Google offers code for a snazzy looking Google Books search, those of us looking for items in their magazines archives are best off starting with this Advanced Books Search form from Google which defaults to Magazines only.
Cover Galleries:
- Esquire Cover Gallery – From Esquire’s own site. Beginning with the Autumn 1933 issue and running through to the present.
- LIFE photo archive hosted by Google – Wow, can’t blow Google’s horn much better than they do themselves: “Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today.”
- MagazineArt.org – The link above is to the top level of the gallery pages at MagazineArt.org. Includes cover galleries and information about artists for several magazines including Collier’s and the original LIFE. Packed!
- New Yorker – From the Cartoon Bank, A New Yorker Magazine Company. This is a commercial site selling prints of New Yorker covers, but it’s search will call up many covers from the New Yorker archives.
- Saturday Evening Post – From Curtis Publishings own site. The navigation is a little confusing but they seem to have published all of their Saturday Evening Post covers starting from 1923 here and indexed them by artist as well.
- Sporting News Covers – Like The New Yorker page this gallery is geared towards selling you prints of the covers, but it’s got a lot of images to look back dating to the 1960’s.
- Sports Illustrated – Takes you to SI.com’s Advanced Cover Search page. Options to search by keyword, date, or even a pre-selected group of subjects.
- TIME Magazine – From TIME’s own site. Every cover from TIME Magazine. You can also access the table of contents for individual issues.
Specialized Contents and Index Pages:
- The Complete New Yorker Silent Film Review Index by Jason Liller – Includes dates and page numbers of where to find every silent film review published by The New Yorker Magazine between 1925-1929. A page on my own Immortal Ephemera classic movie website.
- J.D. Salinger Uncollected Stories – Lists all of Salinger’s appearances in magazines, both mainstream and small literary publications.
- Norman Rockwell Magazine Covers – From Best Norman Rockwell Art.com. I was looking for information to create a Norman Rockwell checklist and was surprised to discover that it had already been done…perfectly! I printed out all of the sections comprising 1913-1980 and have used it a couple of times already. More than Post covers this list includes everything!
- An Edith Wharton Chronology – From The Edith Wharton Society, this page is mainly a chronology of Wharton’s life, but of more interest to us is the compilation of titles at the far right of the page noting first appearances of Wharton poetry and fiction in magazines.
- Thomas Wolfe – A Publishing Chronology – By Aldo P. Magi. Lists all of Wolfe’s appearances in magazines, both mainstream and small literary publications.
Other Helpful Sites:
- Old Magazine Articles .com – Well designed site containing complete reprints of old magazine articles. Sorted by areas of interest.
- XYZ Collectibles – A social site for helping you track your collection. Old magazines are the focus.
