Collier's Magazine - part 1

Collier's Christmas Number
cover by Jessie Wilcox Smith

Collier's was an American magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was initially launched as Collier's Once a Week, then changed in 1895 to Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal, and finally shortened in 1905 to simply Collier's. The magazine ceased publication with the issue dated for the week ending January 4, 1957, though a brief, failed attempt was made to revive the Collier's name with a new magazine in 2012.

It was launched as a magazine of "fiction, fact, sensation, wit, humour, and news", and it became known widely for its investigative journalism and social reform-seeking values. Collier’s commissioned well-known writers, including Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, Jack London, F. Scott Fitzgerald, J. D. Salinger, John Steinbeck, Pearl S. Buck, and Kurt Vonnegut to report on historical events, such as World War I and the Spanish Civil War, political events, or to write a short story or serialization of a novel.

Known for our vibrantly illustrated cover art, leading illustrators contributed to covers of Collier’s. They included C.C. Beall. Howard Chandler Christy, Harrison Fisher, James Montgomery Flagg, the Leyendecker brothers, Maxfield Parrish, Edward Penfield, and Charles Dana Gibson among others. In 1903 Gibson signed a $100.000 contract, agreeing to deliver a hundred illustrations during the next four years. From 1904 to 1910, Parrish was under exclusive contract to Collier’s, which published his famed Arabian Nights paintings in 1906-07.

By the early 1950's Collier's covers were increasingly using photography. At its peak Collier's reached 2.8 million readers across the world. The magazine ceased publication with the issue dated 4 January 1957, though a brief, failed attempt was made to revive Collier's name with a new magazine in 2012.

This is part 1 of a 15-part series on Collier’s magazine:

1899 Easter Number
cover by Joseph Christian Leyendecker

1902 July 12
cover by Albert M. Sterner

1902 September 6
cover by Frank Xavier Leyencecker
gouache on board 47 x 38.1 cm
National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI

1902 September 6
cover by Frank Xavier Leyencecker

1902 December 6
cover by Frank Xavier Leyendecker

1902 December 20
cover by Frank Xavier Leyendecker
Fiction Number

1903 May 16
cover by Edward Penfield

1903 May 23
cover by Ethel Franklin Betts

1903 July 25
cover by Frank Xavier Leyendecker
Household Number for August

1903 August 22
cover by Blendon R. Campbell

1903 September 26
cover by Frederic Dorr Steele

1903 October 3
cover by Edward Penfield
"Harvesting Wheat in the West"

1903 October 10
cover by Blendon R. Campbell

1903 October 17
cover by Blendon R. Campbell

1903 November 21
cover by Edward Penfield

1903 December 26
cover by Frederic Dorr Steele
Household Number for January

1904 January 2
cover by John Sloan

1904 Household Number for January
cover by Jessie Wilcox Smith
"Kept In"

1904 February 4
cover by Jessie Wilcox Smith
Easter 1904

1904 February 27
cover by Frederic Dorr Steele
Household Number for March

1904 March 19
cover by Edward Penfield

1904 April 30
cover by Jessie Wilcox Smith
"The May Pole"

1904 June Fiction Number
cover by Frank Xavier Leyendecker
"The Swing"

1904 October 8
cover by Frank Xavier Leyendecker
"The Green Adventure"

1904 October 15
cover by Charles Dana Gibson
Gibson Number

1904 October 29
cover by Frederic Dorr Steele
"The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez"
Household Number for November

1904 December 24
cover by Edward Penfield
Yule-tide Number

1905 January 7
cover by Maxfield Parrish
Annual Review Number

1905 February 4
cover by Frederic Dorr Steele
The Crisis in Russia

1905 February 18
cover by Frank Xavier Leyendecker
"The Juggler"

1905 April 1
cover by Joseph Christian Leyendecker
"Pay Day"

1905 June 3
cover by Maxfield Parrish

1905 "Summer" by Maxfield Parrish

1905 July 15
cover by Frank Xavier Leyendecker
"The Dragon Painter"

1905 September 9
cover by Frank Xavier Leyendecker
"The Rivals"

1905 October 21
cover by Charles Dana Gibson
Gibson Number

1905 November 11
cover by Frank Xavier Leyendecker
"The End of the Day"

1906 January 6
cover by Maxfield Parrish
New Year's Number

1907 February 9
cover by J. Walter Taylor
"Lincoln the Lawyer"

1906 March 24
cover by Frank Xavier Leyendecker
"The Circus"

1907 August 31
cover by Frank Xavier Leyendecker
"The Balloon Man"

1906 June 23
cover by Maxfield Parrish
"The Gardener"

1906 December 1
cover by Albert M. Sterner

1906 December 8
cover by Walter Appleton Clark

1907 January 19
cover by Frank Xavier Leyendecker
"The Speed God"

1907 March 16
cover by Jessie Wilcox Smith
"The March Wind"

1907 April 6
cover by Edward Penfield
"Lord of the North"

1907 April 20
cover by Albert Sterner
"The Mirror"

1907 May 4
cover by Walter Appleton Clark
"The Quiet Hour"

1907 May 18
cover by Frank Xavier Leyendecker
"His Wife"

1907 June 8
cover by Walter Appleton Clark
"Close Hauled"

1907 June 22
cover by Albert M. Sterner
"The Picnic"