Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Magazine Archives Online


Subject index for public domain magazines prior to 1900


To find an image amongst the millions of magazines published prior to 1926 is not an easy task: First one must find the online archive where the magazine one wants is hiding. Then one must try to find a subject index to that particular magazine. Finally, within the subject index one must go shopping for articles that may or may not be illustrated with images and vectors that serve one's own chosen subject of interest.

This is a time-consuming task.

To solve this problem, I've built a separate blog dedicated entirely to finding magazine archives (and their indexes) online:

Zinefinder


The links list at the right-hand side of Zinefinder contains links to hundreds of free, digital magazines in the public domain, as well as the following key sources:

Hathi Trust's list of American Periodical Indexes online

1600 - 1900 The Western European Periodicals - Indexes and Guides Page 

1800 - 1900 The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals 

1824 - 1900 The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals


On the Zinefinder blog, I've provided a simple hyperlinked list of all the online copies of the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature available through Hathi Trust way, way down at the bottom of the links list on the right-hand side. 

Just click the link and you can browse the volume you want.

Admittedly, most of the volumes of the Readers' Guides to Periodical Literature are dated after 1900, which leaves a bit of a gap: The 19th Century.

It is very difficult to find a free, online index to the public-domain magazines of the 19th Century.

Luckily, one of the best all-in-one content-subject indexes for 19th-Century magazines may be found at Google Books:

Congreave, Alfred. A Contents-Subject Index to General and Periodical Literature.


Because it was published in 1900, almost everything listed within Congreave's content-subject index will be in the public domain within the United States. Best of all, this book may be read online or downloaded at Google Books for free.

The first step to take, when looking for public domain images from the 19th Century, is to go to Congreave's Index, look up the subject one wants, and list magazine articles of interest. One then goes on a hunt for free copies of those public domain magazines in archives online.

Here's a list of some of the main online archives.
CORNELL UNIVERSITY'S "MAKING OF AMERICA" COLLECTION

Many magazines published in the United States prior to 1900 have been archived online at the Cornell University Library's "Making of America" digital collection. This public domain collection  "is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction."

This site "provides access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints. The project represents a major collaborative endeavor in preservation and electronic access to historical texts."

As a courtesy, please be sure to read Cornell's guidelines for use of public domain documents and images found on its website.  Understandably, they would like some credit for scanning these magazines and making all of their illustrations available in electronic format.

Browse Cornell University's MoA Journal Collection

 Wikipedia articles describing each publication may be found here, with additional links to online collections:

SEE ALSO THE WIKIPEDIA LISTS FOR:
 
AMERICAN MAGAZINES

ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINES

ARCHIVE.ORG MAGAZINE COLLECTIONS

Archive.org is a searchable database of internet websites, movies, music, magazines, books, maps, manuscripts, and historical documents that are now in the public domain.

Note: The “Way Back Machine” on the splash page searches billions of records and gives very broad results that include audio recordings, video files, movies and e-book collections. To drill down into magazines and public domain images requires some effort.

For a useful index to magazine collections and government document collections at Archive.org, see “Additional Collections.”


MAGAZINE RACK

 Archive.org’s MagazineRack is a collection of 95,087 digitized magazines and monthly publications.

·   To find public domain material, use the search box in the far left column to search on any year before 1926. Simply type the year you want, hit enter, and review the results.

Vintage magazines may also be found by title. Public Domain material includes old issues of: 
  • Scientific American (1845 - 1909),
  • The Strand
  • The American Socialist newspaper (1915 - ),
  • Social magazine (1915 – 1926) – a 1920s fashion magazine illustrated in color
  • Aviation and Aeronautical Engineering (1920s) - old images of bi-planes
Archive.org’s Magazine Rack collection also provides vintage images that are probably copyright protected.  Please be cautious with these publications, and seek permission when necessary:
  •  The Phonographic Monthly Review (1928 - ),
  • Radio Guide magazine (1930 - ),
  • Movie - Radio Guide (1940 - ) with glam photos of 1940s movie stars in color,
  • The Idaho Times News (1942 - ), about 19,000 issues available for viewing,  
  •  Thousands of modern (post-1950) magazines in English, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, etc., and
·          
Archive.org’s “ComicBooks and Graphic Novels Archive” presents 14,000+ items. Note that this collection may be sorted by date, and downloaded in several ebook formats. Many of the Manga comics are fairly recent and suitable for mature audiences only. This collection includes Amazing Story magazines from the 1930s forward and Walt Disney comic books from the 1940s forward. 

Please note that Disney enforces its copy rights vigorously and will probably prosecute anyone who reproduces these comics without permission. The claim that they are copyright free is probably wishful thinking and not at all certain.

Archive.org’s “Government Documents Collection” and “National Security Internet Archive” – Please see the Government Documents section of this blog (hyperlinked at right). The Archive.org collection offers more than 1 million government publications, pamphlets and manuals that could, technically, be called magazines, but there are so many in the public domain that they deserve their own section.

Archive.org’s “PulpMagazine Archive” lists more than 4,900 items, including many examples of cover art from such popular pulp magazines as:
  • Romance,
  • The Black Mask,
  • I Confess, and
  • Amazing Stories. 

Archive.org provides full-text HD copies of the originals, which are searchable by date and downloadable for free in several e-book reader formats.  When downloaded as PDFs, all images are zoomable and clippable offline. For example, dozens of copies of the Railroad Man’s Magazine (1900 – 1912) contain line art, vectors, pen-and-ink drawings and retro advertisements that are all in the public domain. They are excellent sources for free clip art and vectors.

Archive.org’s “ScientificAmerican Collection” (1845 – 1909) provides great line art and illustrations of scientific gizmos, steamships, dinosaurs, motor cars, bi-planes, engines, radios and inventions of all sorts. Many illustrations in color. All public domain.

ART MAGAZINES

BRITISH PERIODICALS OF THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES 
Wikipedia List of British periodicals of the 18th -19th centuries


 COMIC BOOKS

 Comic Book Readers.  In order to read comic books and graphic novels on one’s tablet or personal computer, one may wish to download one of the Comic Book Readers at the following website:  https://bdzmag.actualitte.com/-Comic-Book-Reader-Library-

 The Digital Comic Museum
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/

FASHION MAGAZINES

HEALTH AND FITNESS MAGAZINES

MEN’S MAGAZINES

POLITICAL MAGAZINES

PULP MAGAZINES

ThePulp Magazines Project – “an open-access archive and digital research initiative for the study and preservation of one of the twentieth century's most influential print culture forms: the all-fiction pulpwood magazine. The Project also provides information and resources on publishing history, multiple search and discovery platforms, and an expanding library of high-quality, cover-to-cover digital facsimiles.”
Pulp Magazine Project – Search Engine
Pulp Magazine Digital Archives Hub
Pulp Magazine Project – Cover Gallery
Pulp Magazine Cover Art – Pulp Gallery 1


TheVintage Library (includes Pulp Magazine collections)

  Pulp Fiction Genres

RAILROAD-RELATED PERIODICALS

SATIRICAL MAGAZINES

SCIENCE MAGAZINES

TEEN MAGAZINES

TRAVEL MAGAZINES

WOMEN’S MAGAZINES
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