Ladies' Home Journal was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883,[2] and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In 1891, it was published in Philadelphia by the Curtis Publishing Company. In 1903, it was the first American magazine to reach one million subscribers.[3]
In the late 20th century, changing tastes and competition from television caused it to lose circulation. Sales of the magazine declined as the publishing company struggled. On April 24, 2014, Meredith announced it would stop publishing the magazine as a monthly with the July issue, stating it was "transitioning Ladies' Home Journal to a special interest publication".[4] It was then available quarterly on newsstands only, though its website remained in operation.[5] The last issue was published in 2016.
Ladies' Home Journal was one of the Seven Sisters, as a group of women's service magazines were known. The name was derived from the Greek myth of the "seven sisters", also known as the Pleiades.
Early history
1891 edition of Ladies' Home Journal
The Ladies' Home Journal was developed from a popular double-page supplement in the American newspaper Tribune and Farmer titled Women at Home. Women at Home was written by Louisa Knapp Curtis, wife of the paper's publisher Cyrus H. K. Curtis.[when?][6] After a year it became an independent publication, with Knapp as editor for the first six years. Its original name was The Ladies' Home Journal and Practical Housekeeper, but Knapp dropped the last three words in 1886.
Knapp continued as the magazine's editor till Edward William Bok succeeded her as LHJ editor in late 1889. Knapp remained involved with the magazine's management, and she also wrote a column for each issue. In 1892, LHJ became the first magazine to refuse patent medicine advertisements.[7] In 1896, Bok became Louisa Knapp's son-in-law when he married her daughter, Mary Louise Curtis. LHJ rapidly became the leading American magazine of its type, reaching a subscribed circulation of more than one million copies by 1903, the first American magazine to do so.[3]
Bok served until 1919. Among features he introduced was the popular "Ruth Ashmore advice column" written by Isabel Mallon.[8] At the turn of the 20th century, the magazine published the work of muckrakers and social reformers such as Jane Addams. In 1901 it published two articles highlighting the early architectural designs of Frank Lloyd Wright.[9][10] The December 1909 issue included a comic strip which was the first appearance of Kewpie, created by Rose O'Neill.[11]
Bok introduced business practices at the Ladies' Home Journal that contributed to its success: low subscription rates, inclusion of advertising to off-set costs, and reliance on popular content. This operating structure was adopted by men's magazines like McClure's and Munsey's roughly a decade after it had become the standard practice of American women's magazines. Scholars argue that women's magazines, like the Ladies' Home Journal, pioneered these strategies "magazine revolution".[12]
There was also a controversial aspect to the magazine during Edward Bok's tenure. He authored more than twenty articles opposed to women's suffrage which threatened his "vision of the woman at home, living the simple life".[13] He opposed the concept of women working outside the home, woman's clubs, and education for women. He wrote that feminism would lead women to divorce, ill health, and even death. Bok solicited articles against women's rights from former presidents Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt (though Roosevelt would later change his mind to become a supporter of women's suffrage). Bok viewed suffragists as traitors to their sex, saying "there is no greater enemy of woman than woman herself."[14]
During World War II, the Ladies' Home Journal was a particularly favored venue of the government to place articles intended for homemakers, in an effort to keep up morale and support.[15]
The annual subscription price paid for the production of the magazine and its mailing. The profits came from heavy advertising, pitched to families with above-average incomes of $1,000 to $3,000 in 1900. In the 1910s it carried about a third of the advertising in all women's magazines. By 1929 it had nearly twice as much advertising as any other publication except for the Saturday Evening Post, which was also published by the Curtis family. The Ladies' Home Journal was sold to 2 million subscribers in the mid-1920s, grew a little during the depression years, and surged again during post-World War II prosperity. By 1955, each issue sold 4.6 million copies and there were probably 11 million readers.[16]
Recent history
A refrigerator advertisement, 1948
The Journal, along with its major rivals, Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, Redbook and Woman's Day, were long known as the "seven sisters", after the prestigious women's colleges in the Northeast.[17] For decades, the Journal had the greatest circulation of this group, but it fell behind McCall's in 1961.[18] By 1968, its circulation was 6.8 million compared to McCall's 8.5 million. Society was changing and this was reflected in people's magazine choices.
That year, Curtis Publishing sold the Ladies' Home Journal, along with the magazine The American Home, to Downe Communications for $5.4 million in stock.[19][20] Between 1969 and 1974 Downe was acquired by Charter Company.[21] In 1982 it sold the magazine to Family Media Inc., publishers of Health magazine, when Charter decided to divest its publishing interests.
In March 1970, feminists led by Susan Brownmiller held an 11-hour sit-in at the Ladies' Home Journal's office, with some of them sitting on the desk of editor John Mack Carter, smoking his cigars, and asking him to resign and be replaced by a woman editor.[22] Carter declined to resign but he listened to their grievances, and as a result, they were allowed to produce a section of the magazine that August. They wanted the magazine to recognize a wider variety of choices for women's lives, as well as give greater attention to women's issues such as sexual discrimination and abortion.[23][22] Other activists continued the protests and seem to have achieved some success. They "may not have liberated the Ladies' Home Journal, but they did help change perceptions of how the media could portray women's lives", according to one source.[24]
In 1986, the Meredith Corporation acquired the magazine from Family Media for $96 million.[25][26] By 1998, the Journal's circulation had dropped to 4.5 million.[27]
The magazine debuted an extensive visual and editorial redesign in its March 2012 issue. Photographer Brigitte Lacombe was hired to shoot cover photos, with Kate Winslet appearing on the first revamped issue. The Journal announced that portions of its editorial content would be crowdsourced from readers, who would be fairly compensated for their work.[28] The arrangement was one of the first of its kind among major consumer magazines.[29]
Although the magazine remained very popular, it ran into increasing difficulty attracting advertising. Despite its high subscriber base (3.2 million in 2016), it was not a leader in the women's service category. These factors prompted the decision to end monthly publication.[30] The magazine was relaunched as a quarterly.[30] At the same time, the headquarters of the magazine moved from New York City[31] to Des Moines, Iowa.[30] Meredith offered its subscribers the chance to transfer their subscriptions to Meredith's sister publications.[5]
In 2016, Meredith partnered with Grand Editorial to produce Ladies' Home Journal. Only one issue was created.[32][33]
Features
Ladies' Home Journal issue from January 1889
The most famous cooking teacher of her time, Sarah Tyson Rorer, served as LHJ's first food editor from 1897 to 1911,[34] when she moved to Good Housekeeping.
In 1936, Mary Cookman, wife of New York Post editor Joseph Cookman, began working at the Ladies' Home Journal. In time, she was named its Executive Editor, and she remained with LHJ till 1963.[35] She was known throughout most of her career as Mary Bass. Cookman died in 1991.
In 1946, the Journal adopted the slogan, "Never underestimate the power of a woman", which it continues to use today.[36]
The magazine's trademark feature is "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" In this popular column, each person of a couple in a troubled marriage explains their view of the problem, a marriage counselor explains the solutions offered in counseling,[37] and the outcome is published. It was written for 30 years, starting in 1953, by Dorothy D. MacKaye under the name of Dorothy Cameron Disney.[38] MacKaye co-founded this column with Paul Popenoe, a founding practitioner of marriage counseling in the U.S. The two jointly wrote a book of the same title in 1960. Both the book and the column drew their material from the extensive case files of the American Institute of Family Relations in Los Angeles, California.[39] MacKaye died in 1992 at the age of 88. Subsequent writers for the feature have included Lois Duncan and Margery D. Rosen.
The illustrations of William Ladd Taylor were featured between 1895 and 1926; the magazine also sold reproductions of his works in oil and water-color.[40]
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination of the three.
Life is an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, a monthly from 1978 until 2000, and an online supplement since 2008. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, Life was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest magazine known for the quality of its photography, and was one of the nation's most popular magazines, regularly reaching one-quarter of the population.
Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis was an American publisher of magazines and newspapers, including the Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post.
Good Housekeeping is an American and British lifestyle media brand that covers a wide range of topics from home decor and renovation, health, beauty and food, to entertainment, pets and gifts. The Good Housekeeping Institute which opened its "Experiment Station" in 1900, specializes in product reviews by a staff of scientific experts. The GH Institute is known, in part, for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," a limited warranty program that evaluates products to ensure they perform as intended.
Myrna Blyth is an American editor and writer. She currently works at AARP Media and has authored four books, including the nonfiction book Spin Sisters.
McCall's was a monthly American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. The publication was established as a small-format magazine called The Queen in 1873. In 1897 it was renamed McCall's Magazine—The Queen of Fashion and subsequently grew in size to become a large-format glossy. It was one of the "Seven Sisters" group of women's service magazines.
Family Circle was an American magazine that covered topics such as homemaking, recipes and health. It was published from 1932 until the end of 2019. Originally distributed at supermarkets, it was one of the "Seven Sisters," a group of seven traditional female-oriented magazines centered on household issues, along with Ladies' Home Journal, McCall's, Good Housekeeping, Better Homes and Gardens, Woman's Day and Redbook.
Edward William Bok was a Dutch-born American editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He was editor of the Ladies' Home Journal for 30 years (1889–1919). He also distributed popular homebuilding plans and created Bok Tower Gardens in central Florida.
The Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became one of the largest and most influential publishers in the United States during the early 20th century. The company's publications included the Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post, The American Home, Holiday, Jack & Jill, and Country Gentleman.
Jack Griffin served as Chief Executive Officer of the Tribune Publishing Company from April 14, 2014 to February 23, 2016. He currently serves as a senior advisor at investment banking firm DeSilva+Phillips.
The Public Ledger was a daily newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, published from March 25, 1836, to January 1942. Its motto was "Virtue, Liberty, and Independence". It was Philadelphia's most widely-circulated newspaper for a period, but its circulation began declining in the mid-1930s. The newspaper also operated a syndicate, the Ledger Syndicate, from 1915 until 1946.
Woman's Home Companion was an American monthly magazine, published from 1873 to 1957. It was highly successful, climbing to a circulation peak of more than four million during the 1930s and 1940s. The magazine, headquartered in Springfield, Ohio, was discontinued in 1957.
Mary Louise Curtis was the founder of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She was the only child of the magazine and newspaper magnate Cyrus H. K. Curtis and Louisa Knapp Curtis, the founder and editor of the Ladies' Home Journal.
Louisa Knapp Curtis, , was an American columnist and the first editor of the Ladies' Home Journal from 1883 to 1889. It became one of the most popular magazines published in the United States and reached a circulation of one million within ten years. Curtis turned over the editorship to Edward Bok in 1889 but she continued to author a column and provide oversight.
The American Home was a monthly magazine published in the United States from 1928 to 1977. Its subjects included domestic architecture, interior design, landscape design and gardening.
Mary Cookman Bass was an American journalist, writer, and executive editor of the Ladies' Home Journal from 1936 to 1963.
The Seven Sisters is a group of magazines that has traditionally been aimed at married women who are homemakers with husbands and children, rather than single and working women. The name is derived from the Greek myth of the "seven sisters", also known as the Pleiades. A major force in 20th century American publishing, only three of the magazines are still published as physical magazines:
A Sunday magazine is a publication inserted into a Sunday newspaper. It also has been known as a Sunday supplement, Sunday newspaper magazine or Sunday magazine section. Traditionally, the articles in these magazines cover a wide range of subjects, and the content is not as current and timely as the rest of the newspaper.
The Philadelphia Award is given each year to a citizen of the Philadelphia region who, during the preceding year, acted and served on behalf of the best interests of the community. Created by Edward William Bok in 1921, The Philadelphia Award is among the most cherished, meaningful and prestigious awards conferred in, by and for the Philadelphia community. In establishing the Award, Bok wrote, "service to others tends to make lives happy and communities prosperous." He believed that "the idea of service as a test of good citizenship should be kept constantly before the minds of the people of Philadelphia."
Bruce Gould and Beatrice Blackmar Gould were co-editors of the Ladies' Home Journal for almost 27 years, from 1935 through 1962, including the golden years of the magazine.
↑ "A Home in a Prairie Town". Ladies' Home Journal. February 1901.[full citation needed]
↑ "A Small Home with 'Lots of Room in It'". Ladies' Home Journal. July 1901.[full citation needed]
↑ "Rose O'Neill". The State Historical Society of Missouri. Archived from the original on April 20, 2016. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
↑ Waller-Zuckerman, Mary Ellen (Winter 1989). "'Old Homes, in a City of Perpetual Change': Women's Magazines, 1890-1916". The Business History Review. 63 (4): 715–756. doi:10.2307/3115961. JSTOR3115961. S2CID154336370.
↑ Ward, "The Geography of the Ladies' Home Journal"
↑ Carmody, D. (August 6, 1990). "Identity Crisis for 'Seven Sisters'". The New York Times. p.D1.
↑ "Revolt at Curtis". Time. October 16, 1964. pp.93–94.
↑ Bedingfield, R. E. (August 15, 1968). "Curtis Publishing Sells 2 Magazines; Downe Paying $5.4-Million in Stock". The New York Times. Business and Finance section, p. 54.
↑ "Too Few Believers". Time. August 23, 1968. p.67.
1 2 Leslie Kaufman (September 26, 2014). "John Mack Carter, 86, Is Dead; Led 'Big 3' Women's Magazines". The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2022. …Mr. Carter edited McCall's from 1961 to 1965, Ladies' Home Journal from 1965 to 1974 and Good Housekeeping from 1975 to 1994. … only person to edit all three.…
Bogardus, Ralph F. "Tea Wars: Advertising Photography and Ideology in the Ladies' Home Journal in the 1890s." Prospects 16 (1991) pp: 297-322.
Damon-Moore, Helen. Magazines for the millions: Gender and commerce in the Ladies' Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post, 1880-1910 (SUNY Press, 1994) online
Kitch, Carolyn. "The American Woman Series: Gender and Class in The Ladies' Home Journal, 1897." Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 75.2 (1998): 243-262.
Knight, Jan. "The Environmentalism of Edward Bok: The Ladies' Home Journal, the General Federation of Women's Clubs, and the Environment, 1901-09." Journalism History 29.4 (2004): 154.
Krabbendam, Hans. The Model Man: A Life of Edward William Bok, 1863-1930 (Rodopi, 2001)
Lewis, W. David. "Edward Bok: the editor as entrepreneur." Essays in Economic & Business History 20 (2012).
Mott, Frank Luther. A history of American magazines. vol 4. 1885-1905 (Harvard UP, 1957) pp 536–555. covers Ladies Home Journal.
Snyder, Beth Dalia. "Confidence women: Constructing female culture and community in" Just Among Ourselves" and the Ladies' Home Journal." American Transcendental Quarterly 12#4 (1998): 311.
Steinberg, Salme Harju. Reformer in the Marketplace: Edward W. Bok and the Ladies' Home Journal (Louisiana State University Press, 1979)
Vogel, Dorothy. "'To Put Beauty into the World': Music Education Resources in The Ladies' Home Journal, 1890–1919." Journal of Historical Research in Music Education 34.2 (2013): 119-136. online
Ward, Douglas B. "The Geography of the Ladies' Home Journal: An Analysis of a Magazine's Audience, 1911-55." journalism History 34.1 (2008): 2+ online
Ward, Douglas B. "The reader as consumer: Curtis Publishing Company and its audience, 1910-1930." Journalism History 22.2 (1996): 47+ online
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