How Magazines Helped Shape American History

The archive pays homage to the printed word and the experience magazine readers cherish in turning pages to delight in discovery across a range of essays, poetry, illustration, photography and the graphic arts. “‘Magazine,’ which comes from the word for ‘storehouse,’ shares an etymology with the French magasin, or ‘shop’: the concept was to bring different offerings together, and accordingly they became venues where key dramas of the early nation played out,” writes Nathan Heller for the New Yorker. …

By Nora McGreevy, Smithsonianmag.com