Vintage Magazines
I was cleaning out my office this weekend and came across this 1966 issue of American Vogue. It’s in tatters and crumbles a bit more every time I flip through it, but it is truly amazing. Luckily, in the digital age, it’s easier than ever to view past magazine covers and issues!
1. Cover Browser is my favorite source for vintage magazine covers because it has the most specific categories to choose from and the Vogue Gallery is organized by issue numbers.
2. Old Magazine Checklists and Cover Galleries includes links to sites that have either a gallery of cover images or checklists of magazine contents. This is the definitive source for tons of magazine-related links.
3. Magazine Art has compiled thousands of vintage magazine covers and advertising images from the golden age of American illustration and is neatly organized into specific categories.
4. In the Condé Nast Store, you can purchase exhibition quality prints of classic covers from Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Mademoiselle, Gourmet and more. Some date as far back as the 1890′s!
5. The Pulp Gallery features a collection of thousands of pulp and pinup images. The gallery primarily focuses on covers from the 1920′s through the 1950′s.
Happy browsing (and reading)!
Tags: Consumption, Design, research
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7 People have left comments on this post
All of these are amazing resources. I especially love Cover Browser and Pulp Gallery. Thanks for sharing!
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I like the how the Vogue magazine is actually tattered, it adds a nice tactility to the image.
When you look at how beautiful the design was of Vogue back in those days… (compared to today), it’s amazing how effective it was because of its simplicity.
Thanks for these resources Nubby. I am a sucker for vintage/retro design and I haven’t come across these ones before.
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Thankyou Nubby! I’m rather partial to vintage magazines (I generally prefer them to some modern magazines!), but occasionally struggle to find things, so this is incredibly useful.
My local library had loads of archives for Vogue & Harpers Bazaar though. The Vogues were all bound up in volumes and there were so many that I wasn’t allowed to them all at once!
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You should frame it or put it in a shadow box. It would make a great piece of art. I’m obsessed with vintage Vogue covers, they are so more imaginative than anything today. Thanks for the links!
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great resources, thanks! and I have a photo somewhere that must be from that same vogue photoshoot! It’s of the same model in that exact outfit but she’s sitting at a vanity putting on make-up.
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I would put each page in a sheet protector, and then put that into a binder to coordinate with the colors. Then, you would be able to read it at any time!
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Amelia Arsenic: I do, too. At some point, I;ll have to scan all the amazing makeup ads. So mod! Each cover back then was a true work of art…it makes me sad to see the state of it now.
Leah: You’re so lucky! I’d have a scanner going for days….take full advantage of that library!!!
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