Publication Histories
Modern Man: Notes Toward a Publication History
Working research notes on a Chicago monthly that treated its reader as a hobbyist first — and what its run reveals about the 1950s magazine trade.
The Reading Room
Publication histories, preservation notes, and collecting guides — the archive, thinking out loud.
Collecting Guides
What 'Provenance' Means for a Magazine Collection
Why the story of who kept a collection — and how — is part of the historical record, and how we document it.
Preservation Notes
Why Paper Fails: Acid, Light, and the Mid-Century Magazine
The chemistry working against every surviving pre-1970 magazine, and what storage choices actually slow it down.
Preservation Notes
Inside the Scanning Room: How a Magazine Becomes an Archival Record
From accession number to checksummed master file — the workflow behind every preservation scan we make.
Collecting Guides
How We Grade Condition — and Why Every Copy Gets a Written Report
Our six condition grades, what they mean in practice, and why a grade abbreviation alone is never enough.
Collecting Guides
Before the Collection Disappears: A Family's Guide to Old Magazines
What to do — and what not to do — when you find decades of mid-century magazines in a parent's home.