Can’t make it to the physical exhibition? There is a digital version available at https://grolierclub.omeka.net/exh…/show/american-magazines.  Reservations are free of charge but must be made at least 48 hours in advance via https://grolierclub.eventbrite.com.

The Grolier Club: We are pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibition in our first floor gallery: “Magazines and the American Experience: Highlights from the Collection of Steven Lomazow, M.D.” The exhibition will run through April 24, 2021.

Reflecting the broad spectrum of American culture, printed magazines from the 18th through 21st centuries have both driven and documented the American experience. The Grolier Club’s winter exhibition, “Magazines and the American Experience,” lays out a chronological history of periodical print media in the United States, highlighting specific genres, topics and events using approximately 200 rare and unique magazine issues.

In the colonial era, magazines were the clarions of American thought and identity; the first successful magazine from the eighteenth century proudly proclaimed itself as The American Magazine in 1744, and the first printed statement of American independence appeared in The Pennsylvania Magazine in June 1776. As magazine publication expanded in both number and scope, they fostered the development of distinct communities of Americans by creating extensive networks of communication between people who otherwise would not have been in contact with one another. In studying magazines’ development, we learn the histories of American farmers and tradesmen; women and children; poets, humorists and artisans; reformers and religious groups of every denomination and ethnicity.

Periodicals remain today a valuable and irreplaceable source of information about the American experience. Co-curated by Grolier member and collector Steven Lomazow, M.D., and fellow Grolierite and freelance cataloguer and librarian Julie Carlsen, the exhibition is arranged in two sections. The first presents a chronological history of American culture in magazines from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. The second celebrates the broad spectrum of American culture, including cases devoted to great American artists and humorists, the progress of Black culture and equality, a salute to our national game of baseball, and the development of radio, television and motion pictures.

The accompanying exhibit catalogue is an important source of publishing history and a tribute to this great American art form. It includes a series of essays on the history of American magazines, as well as studies of specific genres, written by leading experts in their field. The book is illustrated with more than 400 color images of the first issues and highlights of the most important periodicals in American history. It is available for purchase at https://www.oakknoll.com/pages/books/135333/steven-lomazow/magazines-and-the-american-experience-highlights-from-the-collection-of-steven-lomazow-m-d.

Dr. Lomazow has been collecting American periodicals since 1972, with his holdings now recognized as the finest magazine collection in private hands; and he has authored books, blogs, and catalogues on the subject. 

Editor's Note. My mother, Catherine Meendsen Martinides  who rose from secretary to Comptroller, was one of the first four employees of Parents' Magazine. I was an employee of Time Magazine and retired as a Senior Reporter.

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