Existing comment:
Illustration and the American Magazine
In the first half of the twentieth century, general-interest magazines like the Saturday Evening Post and Collier's, and popular women's magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and McCall's, had built vast, loyal followings.
Emerging from a long period of political and economic transformation following the Great Depression and World War II Americans began to re-imagine themselves and the new lives that they hoped to lead. Production, finely tuned by wartime necessity, enabled a booming peacetime economy with a plethora of new products and modern, time-saving conveniences.
Directly linked to commerce and to selling the notion of affluence for everyone, richly illustrated magazines featured aspirational images depicting ideal standards of living, reflecting and shaping visual culture, public perception, and consumption. Top publications boasted subscriptions of two to nine million in the 1940s and 1950s, and copies were shared among family and friends, bringing readership even higher. J.C. Leyendecker, Norman Rockwell, Al Parker, and other popular illustrators working at the time were far more than picture makers -- they had a crucial role in affecting cultural beliefs and desires. Their influence in shaping the American character as we know it is linked to the development of an industry that embraced the aspirations of a nation and created the American dream. |