1910 was the Age of the New Publishing. Hundreds of magazines covering a dizzying range of topics were being produced. Magazines were considered educating influences and, as the world was changing, and getting 'smaller' with  the new communications and transportation technology,  it was deemed important for people to learn as much as they could about it. The articles within these magazines were very long ( and editors didn't demand that the writers 'show' not 'tell' as they do today). 

A good many of these magazines were aimed at women. Many of these women's magazines boasted huge readerships, 600,000 for the Delineator to over 1,000,000 for Ladies' Home Journal.

You can find out all about these magazines at www.magazineart.org. One scholar has written a book about the Ladies' Home Journal of that era; relatively easy to do as that publication has been preserved in archives. I conduct my personal research using eBay. The articles on this web site are from magazines purchased on eBay and are in the public domain.

Here's a summary of what I've learned  from my adventures in print medium deconstruction.

Just like today, the women's magazines of that era sent out many mixed messages; a woman's place was in the home, but, wait, not necessarily. A woman lived to find the right man; but, wait, she also had a life. Many articles, mostly of a scholarly nature, attacked these conflicting notions head on.

I've posted many such articles on this web site: A Woman's Proper Sphere: Does Love Matter to a Suffragette; the Society Woman's New Role.   The letters and essays on Tighsolas tell the truth about things.

The Delineator was a thick magazine, filled with fashion plates and many articles about pressing social issues, but fewer ads because they made money by selling patterns.. The Pictorial Review was a shorter version of the same. The Ladies' Home Journal, however, had plenty of advertising. Indeed, a bit later on LHJ  became the favorite venue of  the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. Guess which magazine has survived until modern times.

The Ladies' Home Journal was against universal suffrage, as were  most of the mainstream newspapers in Montreal.  Today's women's magazines seldom print controversial articles: they survive on advertising. And although there are many different magazines on the market, today, most are owned by a few media conglomerates. Chatelaine Magazine, in the 60's, tackled feminist issues under editor Doris Anderson..

I once was commissioned to write a  piece about shift work and how it impacted on family life for a  major market magazine; the experts I talked to all agreed shift work was difficult for families, especially families with young children.. The article was dropped because, I suspect, a major advertiser for the magazine had recently gone over to shift work at its factories. Another time I had a humour piece about women's periods published in a  major market magazine. Most people loved it, but my editor was upset. Why? Because  ONE woman had phoned in and cancelled her subscription.  A recent survey revealed that today, in 2006, there are relatively few women columnists writing for the 'important' magazines and newspapers in the US. So, if women's magazines publish fluff (or at least avoid politics) and women don't write for the 'important' magazines...what does that say?

But,  it's the ads we like looking at, isn't it? Especially those glossy, sensuous ads in magazines like Vogue. That's why many magazines today are merely giant catalogues filled with tantalizing advertisements and sinus-perforating perfume samples. The important thing is to be aware of what we are  seeing. Some articles are merely editorial copy, ads disguised as impartial information.

If you want to read about an amazing woman, a scholarly lady of letters who didn't look down upon the average woman's  interests, and who created the modern women's magazine format when she co-founded Marie Claire in 1937 CLICK HERE   Click here for "Advertisers in 1910.