What began in 1988 as a Nintendo fan club newsletter grew to become a staple in the lives of many 90s kids as Nintendo Power. Nintendo of America executive Gail Tilden built a magazine that in addition to providing video … Continue reading Let’s Read Nintendo Power, April 1992!

How you used to find stuff to watch on TV in a pre-cable world: you channel surfed through all eight channels on your TV (maybe you had a few more with a separate “rabbit ears” antenna on top of the … Continue reading Let’s Read TV Guide, March 1976!

Boys’ Life is the official magazine of the Boy Scouts of America, and has been going for over a century. There’s not much actual Boy Scout-exclusive content in it, so even if you were never a Boy Scout there’s still … Continue reading Let’s Read Boys’ Life, December 1986!

Welcome to the second half of my two-part review of The Cosmopolitan from June 1900! This week will be heavy on the advertisements and cartoons and no less head-scratchingly weird than the first half of the magazine. A blogger who writes … Continue reading Let’s Read The Cosmopolitan, June 1900 Part II

The Cosmopolitan, known today as just Cosmopolitan or Cosmo, has been going since 1886 and has pretty much never not been a massive hit. The magazine just has a shitload of interesting history to cover, from well over a century of … Continue reading Let’s Read The Cosmopolitan, June 1900!

California began life in 1976 as New West, a lifestyle and general interest magazine aimed at the glamorous young people who were moving to California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona in droves at the time. The magazine was sold to Rupert Murdoch … Continue reading Let’s Read California, July 1982

The 1980s! It was a gross decade full of gross people. You may have been born at some point in this decade, as I was, and the event of your birth was a tiny pinpoint of light in an otherwise … Continue reading Let’s Read The Saturday Evening Post, September 1983!

Ladies Home Journal has been in print since 1883 and was founded by Louisa Knapp Curtis, whose original column in a broader interest magazine edited by her husband had grown to support its own feature. (You can find digitized full … Continue reading Let’s Read Ladies Home Journal, October 1975

College Humor Magazine was targeted mostly at young adult men and ran from 1920 to 1943. It has no relation to the current website College Humor. Interestingly, the magazine relied on contributions from college newspaper editors across America for content … Continue reading Let’s Read College Humor, January 1938

Hi there! It’s me, your lying liar librarian on fire who’s terrible at keeping promises! I promised you all College Humor last week but in the interest of time, work productivity, and my post-vacation mental recovery, I’m going to have to … Continue reading Old Magazines: Bonus Features

Hi there! Hope you found me alright. I’m still fumbling my way around WordPress, so bear with me, and thanks for sticking around as we all make the transition to the new Avocado website. As long as I can stay … Continue reading Let’s Read Woman’s Own, March 1956

**Click Here for FAQ & links to previous threads** The Saturday Evening Post has been running since 1821 and is still going today, albeit now only published bimonthly. With the majority of the readership being the American middle class, the magazine is a … Continue reading Let’s Read The Saturday Evening Post from August 8, 1964!

**Links to past Old Magazine threads and FAQ are HERE** This week we’re looking at Man’s Magazine, one of my favorite in the archive’s collection. Man’s ran from 1952 to 1976. In the 60s, the magazine was well known for its hand-painted covers that … Continue reading Let’s Read Man’s Magazine, March 1959!

In light of some brave adventurer finally shattering the cursed amulet that protected the soul of Hugh Hefner for all those years, I thought you’d like to see another Playboy from Hef’s golden age of swingerhood. This isn’t a Hefner tribute per … Continue reading Let’s Read Playboy, July 1964! (Work Safe)

Hey everyone! It’s me, not delivering what I promised last week. Having a cold and staying home from the archive to keep my plague from spreading unfortunately cuts me off from accessing the fun stuff like old Playboy magazines and whathaveyou. Thankfully … Continue reading Let’s Read Life Magazine from 1945!

Welcome to the second half of the WWII-era magazine review! Last week was a working-class general interest magazine from 1941, when America was on the brink of war and desperately itching for a reason to go. This week we’re looking … Continue reading Let’s Read Harper’s Bazaar from 1942!

For this week and next week, I will be spotlighting the great era of American print journalism during World War II. I say “great” in part because of the outstanding quality of art, prose, and intellectualism that the magazines of … Continue reading Let’s Read Liberty Magazine from 1941!

Look magazine ran from 1937-1971 and was a less prestigious but no less popular competitor of Life magazine. Today its lasting legacy is probably for launching the photography career of Stanley Kubrick, but at its peak circulation the magazine was a household fixture … Continue reading Let’s Look at Future Predictions from 1962! (Look Magazine)

Sometimes my job requires me to read through old girlie magazines (I know, poor me). Let’s look at a Playboy together in the garage before mom catches us! I will not post any nude content from the magazine. At worst, the images … Continue reading Let’s Read an Old Playboy! (Work Safe)