August 4, 2022 • 10 mins
On this day in 1821, The Saturday Evening Post published its inaugural issue.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to this Day in History Class,
a show that flips through the pages of history to
deliver old news in a new way. I'm Gay Bluesier,
and today we're talking about the long, prestigious history of
The Saturday Evening Post, an American literary institution that's still
(00:24):
going strong after more than two hundred years. The day
was August four, eighteen twenty one, the Saturday Evening Post
published its inaugural issue. It was produced by Samuel Atkinson,
(00:44):
the owner of a Philadelphia print shop, and by his partner,
Charles Alexander, a local writer. Now considered America's oldest magazine,
the Post began life as a weekly broadsheet newspaper organized
into five densely packed columns spread across four oversized pages.
The paper contained local and national news, as well as
(01:08):
brief articles by the editor and a selection of short
stories and poems. Although it later became known for its
evocative cover illustrations, particularly those by Norman Rockwell, the Saturday
Evening Post originally lacked illustrations of any kind. Nonetheless, it
provided a weekly dose of light reading for subscribers, keeping
(01:30):
them informed and helping them unwind in the era before
Sunday newspapers. In the summer of eighteen twenty one, Samuel
Atkinson became the sole proprietor of a print shop that
had once belonged to Benjamin Franklin. His business partner, David
Hall Jr. Had just passed away, and Atkinson was unsure
(01:50):
how to proceed without him. For the last five years,
they had published a newspaper together called The Pennsylvania Gazette,
the same one that Ben Franklin helped get off the
ground a century earlier. But with his partner gone, Atkinson
wondered if it might be better to close down the
long running Gazette and try something new. The push he
(02:12):
needed came from a friend and collaborator named Charles Alexander.
He approached Atkinson about publishing a popular poem about a
blind woman in Philadelphia who set type by hand. Much
to the printer's surprise, Alexander found two hundred subscribers for
that poem. That response convinced the men to join forces
(02:33):
and start a new literary publication. All their own. Subscribers
would receive a new installment each Saturday, all for the
low cost of two to three dollars per year, depending
on whether or not you paid in advance. Atkinson and
Alexander chose to publish on Saturdays for two reasons. First,
(02:53):
it would give them the whole week to prepare the
next issue's content, and second, it would allow the paper
to reach readers on the weekend when they had the
most free time. Back then, u s mail was delivered
twice a day, once in the morning and again in
the evening. The publishers planned to have each issue printed
in time for the second mail delivery on Saturdays, and
(03:16):
it's from that schedule that the magazine got its name,
The Saturday Evening Post. Although it was an entirely new venture,
the Post still owed a great deal to the past.
Not only was the paper printed on Ben Franklin's original press,
it was also written in his same matter of fact style,
slightly skeptical and high minded, but always with a dash
(03:39):
of humor. They may have cribbed from the past when
it came to tone, but the Post's young publishers were
eager to make the paper appealing to readers from all
walks of life and from places outside of Philadelphia. To
that end, they included stories on just about everything, from
business and foreign affairs to fashion and etiquette. The poetry
(04:01):
that helped launch the paper remained a fixture as well,
with much of it contributed by readers who hoped to
see their own names in print. The Post steered clear
of political controversies to avoid ruffling feathers, but it did
include more innocuous political content, such as letters exchanged between
former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. With that variety
(04:23):
of content, you might assume The Saturday Evening Post had
a sizeable staff, but that wasn't the case. Instead, the
Post reprinted much of its content from other newspapers. That
was a common practice at the time and it still
is today, with multiple publications running the same story in
different regions and markets. The Post included new writing as well,
(04:46):
some of which was no doubt reused by other papers.
That free sharing of content sometimes gave bizarre local interest
stories a much larger platform than they may have warranted.
For instance, consider this not so newsworthy story that The
Saturday Evening Post picked up from a Connecticut newspaper. It reads, quote,
(05:07):
there is now residing in Stafford a man by the
name of Nolan, who is at present married to his
twenty sixth wife, and has by the whole seventy three children.
He is one hundred and five years of age, and
his present wife is now pregnant. That silly and somewhat
disturbing story has been making the rounds in various sources
(05:29):
since the eighteen twenties, and I'm proud to carry on
that tradition today. In all fairness, though the content of
the Post steadily improved as the paper grew. Before long
it featured plenty of high quality writing, including the works
of beloved American authors such as Edgar Allan, Poe Washington, Irving,
Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Mark Twain. Those new voices helped
(05:52):
increase the magazine circulation to about ninety thousand readers in
the eighteen fifties and sixties. Unfortunate Lee, the Saturday Evening
Post lost its luster by the late eighteen hundreds, when
it started to lean too heavily on trivia, fashion news
and reprinted articles with no fresh, enticon content to keep
subscribers invested. The post circulation dwindled to just over two
(06:17):
thousand readers by the late eighteen nineties. Ownership of the
paper had changed hands several times by then, and at
the turn of the twentieth century, it was Cyrus Curtis's
turn at the Helm. Curtis was the founder of Ladies
Home Journal, which was the first American magazine to reach
a circulation of one million readers. He hoped to work
(06:38):
that same magic on the Post by revamping both its
content and its style. He started by doing away with
a reliance on reprinted content and by commissioning full color
illustrations for every issue's cover. Within a year, that new
direction had boosted the Saturday Evening Post to two hundred
and fifty thousand subscribe ibers. Eight years later, in eight
(07:03):
Curtis reached his goal of one million readers, a well
earned payoff considering the publisher had already invested more than
one point two million dollars in the Post. George Lorimer
was another person key to the success of the magazine's relaunch.
As editor, he strived to find the best writers of
the day and made sure to pay them promptly as
(07:24):
a way to foster loyalty. This approach attracted a whole
new crop of talented authors, including Jack London, Joseph Conrad,
and Oh Henry Lorimer was also responsible for selecting many
of the post's iconic covers. He featured many famous artists
during his thirty seven year tenure, such as Andrew Wyath,
(07:45):
George Hughes, and J. C. Linedecker. However, the Post's most
famous cover artist by far was Norman Rockwell. He did
his first cover for the magazine in nineteen sixteen, and
over the course of the next five deack cades he
went on to produce a total of three hundred and
twenty one covers, leaving an indelible impression on generations of readers.
(08:09):
With Curtis and Lorimer leading the way, the Saturday Evening
Post continued to grow its circulation throughout the first half
of the twentieth century. The magazine peaked in the early
nineteen sixties with about seven million readers, but thanks to
the rise of television and a crop of new competing magazines,
the Post's readership had cratered by the end of the decade.
(08:32):
The magazine closed up shop in nineteen sixty nine, but
was revived just two years later, although now as a
quarterly publication. The Saturday Evening Post had been saved again,
but it's two year laps in publication had cost it
the title of America's oldest continuously published magazine. That honor
(08:53):
now belongs to Scientific American, which was founded in eighteen
forty five. It's glory days may be behind it, but
the Saturday Evening Post still lives on. It continues to
be published on a bi monthly basis by a nonprofit
group dedicated to keeping this historic institution alive. The current
(09:13):
iteration of the magazine features a similar blend of news articles,
works of fiction, and humorous illustrations. The dedicated staff has
also created an online archive of the magazine's full existing backlog.
So if you're jonesing for more weird, old timey consent
like that report about the hundred and five year old
(09:33):
father to be, while the Saturday Evening Post has still
got you covered, I'm Gabeluier and hopefully you now know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
If you have a second and you're so inclined, consider
following us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at T D
(09:53):
I HC Show. And if you have any comments or suggestions,
you can always send them my way at this Today
at I heart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays
for producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll
see you back here again tomorrow for another day in
history class.
The Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to this Day in History Class,
a show that flips through the pages of history to
deliver old news in a new way. I'm Gay Bluesier,
and today we're talking about the long, prestigious history of
The Saturday Evening Post, an American literary institution that's still
(00:24):
going strong after more than two hundred years. The day
was August four, eighteen twenty one, the Saturday Evening Post
published its inaugural issue. It was produced by Samuel Atkinson,
(00:44):
the owner of a Philadelphia print shop, and by his partner,
Charles Alexander, a local writer. Now considered America's oldest magazine,
the Post began life as a weekly broadsheet newspaper organized
into five densely packed columns spread across four oversized pages.
The paper contained local and national news, as well as
(01:08):
brief articles by the editor and a selection of short
stories and poems. Although it later became known for its
evocative cover illustrations, particularly those by Norman Rockwell, the Saturday
Evening Post originally lacked illustrations of any kind. Nonetheless, it
provided a weekly dose of light reading for subscribers, keeping
(01:30):
them informed and helping them unwind in the era before
Sunday newspapers. In the summer of eighteen twenty one, Samuel
Atkinson became the sole proprietor of a print shop that
had once belonged to Benjamin Franklin. His business partner, David
Hall Jr. Had just passed away, and Atkinson was unsure
(01:50):
how to proceed without him. For the last five years,
they had published a newspaper together called The Pennsylvania Gazette,
the same one that Ben Franklin helped get off the
ground a century earlier. But with his partner gone, Atkinson
wondered if it might be better to close down the
long running Gazette and try something new. The push he
(02:12):
needed came from a friend and collaborator named Charles Alexander.
He approached Atkinson about publishing a popular poem about a
blind woman in Philadelphia who set type by hand. Much
to the printer's surprise, Alexander found two hundred subscribers for
that poem. That response convinced the men to join forces
(02:33):
and start a new literary publication. All their own. Subscribers
would receive a new installment each Saturday, all for the
low cost of two to three dollars per year, depending
on whether or not you paid in advance. Atkinson and
Alexander chose to publish on Saturdays for two reasons. First,
(02:53):
it would give them the whole week to prepare the
next issue's content, and second, it would allow the paper
to reach readers on the weekend when they had the
most free time. Back then, u s mail was delivered
twice a day, once in the morning and again in
the evening. The publishers planned to have each issue printed
in time for the second mail delivery on Saturdays, and
(03:16):
it's from that schedule that the magazine got its name,
The Saturday Evening Post. Although it was an entirely new venture,
the Post still owed a great deal to the past.
Not only was the paper printed on Ben Franklin's original press,
it was also written in his same matter of fact style,
slightly skeptical and high minded, but always with a dash
(03:39):
of humor. They may have cribbed from the past when
it came to tone, but the Post's young publishers were
eager to make the paper appealing to readers from all
walks of life and from places outside of Philadelphia. To
that end, they included stories on just about everything, from
business and foreign affairs to fashion and etiquette. The poetry
(04:01):
that helped launch the paper remained a fixture as well,
with much of it contributed by readers who hoped to
see their own names in print. The Post steered clear
of political controversies to avoid ruffling feathers, but it did
include more innocuous political content, such as letters exchanged between
former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. With that variety
(04:23):
of content, you might assume The Saturday Evening Post had
a sizeable staff, but that wasn't the case. Instead, the
Post reprinted much of its content from other newspapers. That
was a common practice at the time and it still
is today, with multiple publications running the same story in
different regions and markets. The Post included new writing as well,
(04:46):
some of which was no doubt reused by other papers.
That free sharing of content sometimes gave bizarre local interest
stories a much larger platform than they may have warranted.
For instance, consider this not so newsworthy story that The
Saturday Evening Post picked up from a Connecticut newspaper. It reads, quote,
(05:07):
there is now residing in Stafford a man by the
name of Nolan, who is at present married to his
twenty sixth wife, and has by the whole seventy three children.
He is one hundred and five years of age, and
his present wife is now pregnant. That silly and somewhat
disturbing story has been making the rounds in various sources
(05:29):
since the eighteen twenties, and I'm proud to carry on
that tradition today. In all fairness, though the content of
the Post steadily improved as the paper grew. Before long
it featured plenty of high quality writing, including the works
of beloved American authors such as Edgar Allan, Poe Washington, Irving,
Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Mark Twain. Those new voices helped
(05:52):
increase the magazine circulation to about ninety thousand readers in
the eighteen fifties and sixties. Unfortunate Lee, the Saturday Evening
Post lost its luster by the late eighteen hundreds, when
it started to lean too heavily on trivia, fashion news
and reprinted articles with no fresh, enticon content to keep
subscribers invested. The post circulation dwindled to just over two
(06:17):
thousand readers by the late eighteen nineties. Ownership of the
paper had changed hands several times by then, and at
the turn of the twentieth century, it was Cyrus Curtis's
turn at the Helm. Curtis was the founder of Ladies
Home Journal, which was the first American magazine to reach
a circulation of one million readers. He hoped to work
(06:38):
that same magic on the Post by revamping both its
content and its style. He started by doing away with
a reliance on reprinted content and by commissioning full color
illustrations for every issue's cover. Within a year, that new
direction had boosted the Saturday Evening Post to two hundred
and fifty thousand subscribe ibers. Eight years later, in eight
(07:03):
Curtis reached his goal of one million readers, a well
earned payoff considering the publisher had already invested more than
one point two million dollars in the Post. George Lorimer
was another person key to the success of the magazine's relaunch.
As editor, he strived to find the best writers of
the day and made sure to pay them promptly as
(07:24):
a way to foster loyalty. This approach attracted a whole
new crop of talented authors, including Jack London, Joseph Conrad,
and Oh Henry Lorimer was also responsible for selecting many
of the post's iconic covers. He featured many famous artists
during his thirty seven year tenure, such as Andrew Wyath,
(07:45):
George Hughes, and J. C. Linedecker. However, the Post's most
famous cover artist by far was Norman Rockwell. He did
his first cover for the magazine in nineteen sixteen, and
over the course of the next five deack cades he
went on to produce a total of three hundred and
twenty one covers, leaving an indelible impression on generations of readers.
(08:09):
With Curtis and Lorimer leading the way, the Saturday Evening
Post continued to grow its circulation throughout the first half
of the twentieth century. The magazine peaked in the early
nineteen sixties with about seven million readers, but thanks to
the rise of television and a crop of new competing magazines,
the Post's readership had cratered by the end of the decade.
(08:32):
The magazine closed up shop in nineteen sixty nine, but
was revived just two years later, although now as a
quarterly publication. The Saturday Evening Post had been saved again,
but it's two year laps in publication had cost it
the title of America's oldest continuously published magazine. That honor
(08:53):
now belongs to Scientific American, which was founded in eighteen
forty five. It's glory days may be behind it, but
the Saturday Evening Post still lives on. It continues to
be published on a bi monthly basis by a nonprofit
group dedicated to keeping this historic institution alive. The current
(09:13):
iteration of the magazine features a similar blend of news articles,
works of fiction, and humorous illustrations. The dedicated staff has
also created an online archive of the magazine's full existing backlog.
So if you're jonesing for more weird, old timey consent
like that report about the hundred and five year old
(09:33):
father to be, while the Saturday Evening Post has still
got you covered, I'm Gabeluier and hopefully you now know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
If you have a second and you're so inclined, consider
following us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at T D
(09:53):
I HC Show. And if you have any comments or suggestions,
you can always send them my way at this Today
at I heart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays
for producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll
see you back here again tomorrow for another day in
history class.
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