American Children’s Periodicals, 1789-1872 E-BOOK

Between 1789 and 1873, over 400 periodicals for children were published in the United States.

They contained the work of major writers and artists. Harriet Beecher Stowe edited the Youth's Magazine and Juvenile Harp and wrote for Our Young Folks; Louisa May Alcott edited and wrote for Robert Merry's Museum; Nathaniel Hawthorne published in Boys' and Girls' Magazine. Winslow Homer provided illustrations for Our Young Folks. Thomas Nast illustrated The Little-Pig Monthly.

They were read by future presidents (Theodore Roosevelt enjoyed Our Young Folks even in his 50s) and future architects (Daniel Hudson Burnham read Robert Merry's Museum as a boy). And they were read by ordinary Americans.

American Children's Periodicals, 1789-1872 is an attempt to describe every American periodical for children founded or publicly proposed before 1873. Each periodical is described as completely as possible, with interesting or revealing quotes from the periodical. A bibliography at the end of each description lists places where the periodical has been described or mentioned.

Separate sections list the titles, the editors, the publishers, and the places of publication. Other lists highlight periodicals edited by female editors, periodicals in languages other than English, religious periodicals, literary periodicals, periodicals devoted to temperance, periodicals for the very young, antislavery periodicals, periodicals founded in the Confederacy, and periodicals affected by the Chicago Fire. A separate list includes titles not in this bibliography which have appeared in other works on early American periodicals for children. A annotated bibliography lists works about early American children's periodicals in general. An introduction gives a brief history of American children's periodicals and discusses aspects of founding and editing them.

American Children's Periodicals, 1789-1872 is the most complete discussion available of these periodicals and the result of over 30 years of research. It should be valuable to anyone interested in the history of works for children or the history of American periodicals.

Pat Pflieger earned a PhD in American Studies at the University of Minnesota and was a university professor for 30 years. Her dissertation was a study of Robert Merry's Museum, and she has been studying early American periodicals for children since the 1980s.  Her research on 19th-century Americans and what they read appears online.