Contents.

Magazines in the early national period looked considerably different from those of today. There were no color pictures, of course. Occasionally there were woodcuts or copperplate engravings, although often crudely done. Most early magazines were simply sheets of paper stitched together. A few had thin, colored covers. There was hardly any advertising by our standards. Advertisements were usually confined to the inside covers, if there were any, or to a separate set of pages at the back of the magazine. Ads were not for nationally advertised consumer products but for local booksellers and general stores, or announcing services such as ferryboats or stagecoaches. They were more like the want ads of today's newspapers. The print in early American magazines was small, usually six-point type. The densely filled pages were made of stiff, heavy rag paper, not the glossy paper of today. Magazines ranged in...