COLLIER'S Magazine Profile

COLLIER'S WEEKLY began in 1888 as a news magazine entitled "ONCE A WEEK." In the 1890's it changed title and slowly began to move its focus from news events to commentaries, and then later to a mix of articles and fiction along with news and photojournalism. It struggled into the second half of the twentieth century, competing strongly with the SATURDAY EVENING POST, but overall unable to deal with the effects of television and other changes in the marketplace for weekly entertainment, information, and news.

Particularly in its earlier years, it published much important popular fiction. It was a generous offer from COLLIER'S that tempted Conan Doyle back into writing new Sherlock Holmes stories, and Holmes was featured on many of the covers at that time (a sure circulation builder). The overall look of COLLIER'S improved dramatically when Will H. Bradley became art editor in 1907.

A much longer summary of the history of the magazine can be found on the Wikipedia site.

We have a good selection of early cover images, including some from the 1890's and hundreds from the first twenty years of the 20th Century. Unfortunately, most of the earliest cover images are from eBay auctions and aren't great quality. Beginning in 1905, however, and generally from 1907 onward, our images are large, high-quality ones from high-resolution scans or digital photographs.

You can click here to go directly to the gallery of galleries of cover images. Because it was published every week, there are so many covers that we've included local pointers in the header of the starting page for this magazine.

With regard to the publishers and editors during the life of the magazine, Phil Stephensen-Payne's vast website and the Wikipedia article say this:
 
Publication dates: 24 April 1888 — 4 January 1957
 
Publishers:
    1888 - 1919: P. F. Collier & Son
    1919 - 1957: Crowell-Collier
 
Editors
    1888 - 1903: Peter Fenelon Collier
    1902 - 1913: Norman Hapgood
    1905 - 1905: Albert Lee, managing editor
    ?: Finlay Peter Dunne
    1908 - 1913: Arthur H. Gleason, associate editor
    1912 - 1914: Robert J. Collier
    1914 - 1917: Mark Sullivan
    1917 - 1919: Peter Finley Dunne
    1925 - 1943: William L. Chenery
    1944 - 1946: Henry La Cossitt
    1946 - 1946: Walter Davenport
    ?: Kenneth McArdle
    1949 - 1952: Louis Ruppel
    ? - 1957: Edward Anthony
 
Frequency: weekly; fortnightly from May 1953 to end.


Sources:

  • Our own files
  • University of California Libraries
  • eBay sellers


Update history:

  • 30 August 2020: Updated links for new display system software.
  • 12 October 2010: Updated remote links.
  • 12 January 2007: New version of this document, for new website version.
  • 14 November 2004: Updated formats
  • 15 October 2002: Added fourteen new images to 1888 through 1910 sections, and 103 new images to 1911-1915 section
  • 16 July 2002: Restructured Collier's pages and added 88 new cover images, 1890's-1915