Peterson's Magazine - 1877
7/8/24 (updated 12/4/25)Peterson’s Magazine was a long-running 19th‑century American monthly women’s magazine, published in Philadelphia from 1842 until 1898. It was particularly known as a middle‑class, affordable rival to Godey’s Lady’s Book, with a subscription price deliberately set lower than Godey’s to expand its readership.Origins and publishing historyThe periodical originated in 1842 under earlier titles such as The Lady’s World of Fashion and The Ladies’ National Magazine before standardizing as Peterson’s Magazine (or Peterson’s Ladies’ National Magazine) by the late 1840s. It was founded by Charles Jacobs Peterson (in partnership at first with George Rex Graham) and continued under his name as publisher, with later minor name changes like New Peterson Magazine in the 1890s until its cessation in 1898, when it was absorbed into Argosy.Content and featuresPeterson’s offered a characteristic blend of fashion plates, sewing and needlework patterns, domestic advice, recipes, short fiction, poetry, and serialized stories, very much in the mold of a “family and ladies’ book.” Colored and black‑and‑white fashion plates—often adapted from French sources but adjusted for “modest” American tastes—were a major selling point, accompanied by patterns and craft projects that readers could actually use.Readership and cultural roleBy the 1870s, Peterson’s reportedly reached a circulation of around 150,000, placing it among the leading women’s magazines of its day alongside Godey’s. It functioned both as a vehicle for popular literature (with contributions from writers such as Ann S. Stephens and Emily H. May) and as a guidebook to middle‑class domesticity and fashion in Victorian America.Source: Perplexity.ai Curated by G. Ly keyword: 19thCentury
