Journal
The Day Press Journal
Deep dives on single pieces, short histories of the illustrators and the magazines, and practical notes on printing and framing public-domain prints from 1885 to 1928.
In focus: Vogue — February 28, 1918
The Vogue issue dated February 28, 1918 is a spring-forecast number from the final winter of the First World War.
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The birth of the American Sunday comic strip
The American Sunday comic strip was born in the colour newspaper supplements of 1890s New York, a weapon in the circulation war between Pulitzer and Hearst.
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In focus: Vogue — December 31, 1917
The Vogue issue dated December 31, 1917 is a New Year number closing a wartime year.
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Harper’s Weekly: a journal of civilization
Harper's Weekly, published from 1857 to 1916, called itself 'A Journal of Civilization' and was the most influential illustrated news weekly of…
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In focus: Vogue — December 30, 1917
The Vogue issue dated December 30, 1917 is a year-end holiday number, one of the gift-and-hostess issues that closed Vogue's seasonal calendar.
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Ladies’ Home Journal and the rise of the woman’s magazine
Ladies' Home Journal, founded in 1883 and edited by Edward Bok from 1889 to 1919, became the first American magazine to reach a million subscribers.
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In focus: Vogue — January 31, 1917
The Vogue issue dated January 31, 1917 is a late-winter fashion number from the magazine's illustrated-cover era, published in the last weeks of American…
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Cosmopolitan in the age of illustration
Long before it became a women's magazine, Cosmopolitan was a general-interest illustrated monthly.
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In focus: Vogue — August 15, 1920
The Vogue issue dated August 15, 1920 appeared in the very week American women won the vote — Tennessee ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18,…
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Collier’s: the illustrated weekly as muckraker
Collier's was a national weekly founded in 1888 that became a leader of the muckraking movement, pairing investigative journalism with fiction and fine…
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In focus: Vogue — October 31, 1919
The Vogue issue dated October 31, 1919 is an autumn number from the first post-war year, on the very edge of the decade that would make Vogue synonymous…
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The Saturday Evening Post cover tradition
The Saturday Evening Post built the most famous cover tradition in American magazines.
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In focus: Vogue — July 31, 1919
The Vogue issue dated July 31, 1919 is a midsummer number from the first peacetime summer after the First World War.
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In focus: Vogue — June 30, 1919
The Vogue issue dated June 30, 1919 is a midsummer number published two days after the Treaty of Versailles formally ended the First World War on June 28.
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Judge: the Republican answer to Puck
Judge was the Republican answer to Puck — a colour cartoon weekly founded in 1881 by artists who broke away from their rival, and backed by Republican…
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In focus: Vogue — March 31, 1919
The Vogue issue dated March 31, 1919 is a spring number from the first post-war year, published while the Paris Peace Conference was still in session at…
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The original Life: satire before the photo magazine
Before it was a photo magazine, Life was a weekly of humour and satire — founded in 1883, published until 1936, when Henry Luce bought the name for his…
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In focus: Vogue — November 30, 1918
The Vogue issue dated November 30, 1918 is one of the first published after the Armistice ended the First World War on November 11.
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In focus: Vogue — October 30, 1918
The Vogue issue dated October 30, 1918 appeared less than two weeks before the Armistice — and at the deadliest moment of the 1918 influenza pandemic,…
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How we restore a public-domain scan for printing
Restoration turns a raw library scan into a clean, print-ready file.
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In focus: Vogue — August 31, 1918
The Vogue issue dated August 31, 1918 is an autumn-forecast number from the final autumn of the First World War.
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How we date a print honestly
We date every print to the real publication date of its source, and we say exactly how precise that date is.
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In focus: Vogue — July 30, 1918
The Vogue issue dated July 30, 1918 is a 'hot weather' number from the last summer of the First World War.
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Frame sizes explained: 8×10, 11×14, and 16×20
We prepare every file at three standard frame sizes: 8×10, 11×14, and 16×20 inches.
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In focus: Vogue — June 30, 1918
The Vogue issue dated June 30, 1918 is a midsummer number from the final summer of the First World War.
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What chromolithography is, and why it looks like that
Chromolithography is a nineteenth-century method of colour printing that builds an image from many separate stones or plates, one for each colour, layered…
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In focus: Vogue — May 30, 1918
The Vogue issue dated May 30, 1918 is an early-summer number from the last spring of the First World War, and it belongs to the moment when 'fashions for…
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In focus: Vogue — March 31, 1918
The Vogue issue dated March 31, 1918 is a spring number from the last year of the First World War.
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In focus: Vogue — October 31, 1917
The Vogue issue dated October 31, 1917 is an autumn number from the magazine's illustrated-cover era, published in the first wartime autumn after the…
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In focus: Vogue — July 30, 1917
The Vogue issue dated July 30, 1917 is a midsummer 'hot weather fashions' number from the first summer of American involvement in the First World War.
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The Gibson Girl: America’s first pin-up
The Gibson Girl was the pen-and-ink creation of Charles Dana Gibson, who from the early 1890s drew a tall, self-possessed young woman who became the…
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In focus: Vogue — April 30, 1917
The Vogue issue dated April 30, 1917 appeared three weeks after the United States entered the First World War on April 6.
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Vogue cover art before photography
For its first forty years, the cover of Vogue was drawn, not photographed.
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Puck: America’s first successful color cartoon weekly
Puck was the first commercially successful colour cartoon weekly in the United States, published from 1877 to 1918.
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The best paper for printing vintage art at home
The best paper for printing vintage art at home is a heavyweight matte fine-art paper, ideally 200 gsm or more, acid-free, with a smooth or lightly…
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Where these images come from
Our images come from the digitised public-domain collections of major libraries and archives — among them the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the…
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What public domain means, and why it matters here
Public domain means a work's copyright has expired, so anyone may copy, restore, and print it freely.
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How to print and frame a vintage art print at home
To print and frame a vintage art file well, print on good matte fine-art paper at 300 dpi, choose a standard size (8×10, 11×14, or 16×20 inches), add a…
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