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:Image:Parker125.jpg for the February 1949 issue of Ladies' Home Journal]]

Ladies' Home Journal is a women's magazine which first appeared on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading magazines of the twentieth century. It is currently published by the Meredith Corporation.

History

The Ladies' Home Journal arose from a popular single-page supplement in the magazine Tribune and Farmer titled Women at Home. Women at Home was written by Louisa Knapp Curtis, wife of the magazine's publisher Cyrus H. K. Curtis. [http://www.scripophily.net/curpubcom.html Curtis Publishing Company (Saturday Evening Post & Ladies Home Journal)] After a year it became an independent publication with Knapp as editor for the first six years. Its original name was The Ladies Home Journal and Practical Housekeeper, but she dropped the last three words in 1886. It rapidly became the leading magazine of its type, reaching a circulation of more than one million copies in ten years. At the turn of the 20th Century, the magazine published the work of muckrakers and social reformers such as Jane Addams.

The Journal, along with its major rivals, Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, Redbook and Woman's Day were long known as the 'seven sisters'. Carmody, D. Identity Crisis for 'Seven Sisters'. New York Times. August 6, 1990. For decades, the Journal had the greatest circulation of this group. In 1948, its circulation was 4,520,982, 3/4 of a million greater than it's closest competitor at the time, Woman's Day; in October of that year it carried $2,677,260 worth of advertisements, which was a record for magazines at that time.{{cite news

| last = Anonymous

| title = Ladies' Choice

| work = Time

| language = English

| date = 4 October 1948

| url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799257,00.html

| accessdate = 24 May 2009}}

The Journal's circulation fell behind McCall's in 1961.Anonymous. Revolt at Curtis. Time magazine.Friday, Oct. 16, 1964. In 1968, its circulation was 6.8 million compared to McCall's 8.5 million. That year, Curtis Publishing Company sold the Ladies' Home Journal, along with the magazine The American Home, to Downe Communications for $5.4 million in stock.Bedingfield, R. E. Curtis Publishing Sells 2 Magazines; Downe Paying $5.4-Million in Stock, The New York Times, August 15, 1968, Business and Finance section, p. 54.Anonymous. Too Few Believers. Time. Friday, Aug. 23, 1968 Between 1969 and 1974 Downe was acquired by Charter Company,Anonymous. Magna charter'. Time, Monday, Jun. 16, 1980. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924223,00.html]. which sold the magazine to Family Media Inc., publishers of Health, in 1982 when the company decided to divest its publishing interests. In 1986, the Meredith Corporation acquired the magazine from Family Media for $96 milliion.[http://www.meredith.com/aboutmeredith/history.html History of Meredith Corporation]Anonymous. Meredith Won't Tinker With Added Magazines''. New York Times, November 25, 1985, Late City Final Edition, Section D, Page 2, Column 5. By 1998, the journal's circulation had dropped to 4.5 million. Kuczynski, A. Some Consumer Magazines Are Getting Real. New York Times. November 9, 1998. As of 2008, the Journal's circulation was 3,840,645 making the 12th most widely circulated magazine in the US.

Editors and features

Knapp continued as editor until she was succeeded by Edward William Bok in 1889. However, she remained involved with the magazine's management, and she also wrote a column for each issue. In 1892, it became the first magazine to refuse patent medicine advertisements.[http://www.bartleby.com/197/30.html 30. Cleaning Up the Patent-Medicine and Other Evils. Bok, Edward William. 1921. The Americanization of Edward Bok] In 1896, Bok became Louisa Knapp's son-in-law when he married her daughter, Mary Louise Curtis.

The most famous cooking teacher of her time, Sarah Tyson Rorer served as the Journal's first food editor from 1897 to 1911 Anonymous. 2008. 125 Years of Ladies' Home Journal: Food, Ladies Home Journal 125(8). [http://www.lhj.com/style/covers/125-years-of-ladies-home-journal-food/], when she moved to the magazine Good Housekeeping. Later, Poppy Cannon served as food editor.

In 1946 the Journal adopted the feminist slogan "Never underestimate the power of a woman" which it continues to use today. Anonymous. 2008. A look back in covers. Ladies Home Journal, 125(1). [http://www.lhj.com/style/covers/125-years-of-ladies-home-journal/]

For many years, the magazine's trademark feature was Can This Marriage Be Saved?, a popular column in which each person of a couple in a troubled marriage explains their view of the problem, a marriage counselor explains the solutions offered in counseling, and the outcome is published; it was written for 30 years starting in 1953 by Dorothy D. MacKaye under the name of Dorothy Cameron Disney.{{Citation

| last = Weber

| first = Bruce

| title = Dorothy D. MacKaye Dies at 88; Ladies' Home Journal Columnist

| newspaper = New York Times

| date = 1992-09-08

| url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE0D9113BF93BA3575AC0A964958260}}

Image:1886 March - Ladies Home Journal - folded - 83d40m - LHJandPH - p2s.jpg

Writers

  • Cynthia May Alden
  • Joan Younger Dickinson
  • Helen Reimensnyder Martin
  • Olivia Mackenzie Zecy
  • Kathryn Casey
  • Dorothy Thompson - wrote a monthly article for the Ladies' Home Journal for twenty-four years (1937-1961); its topics were far removed from war and politics, focusing on gardening, children, art, and other domestic and women's-interest topics. [http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/t/thompson_d.htm#d0e88 Dorothy Thompson Papers finding aid, Syracuse University]
  • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott - a frequent contributor of short stories
  • Esther Bubley - contributed 12 photo stories in a series called How America Lives (1948-1960) <[The Goulds] series "How America Lives," beginning in 1940 and focusing first on a Cedar Rapids family, brought in readers and built circulation. The series was intended to run just one year, but proved so popular that it ran 21 years and featured 250 families.> http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/99999999/FAMOUSIOWANS/712020339/1001/NEWS

References

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