Popular Science Monthly

First issued in 1872, POPULAR SCIENCE is still being published today, and you can click here to subscribe. Their website is well worth looking at. You can buy your own historical issues of the magazine: Search eBay for issues of POPULAR SCIENCE.

What can we say about this magazine that isn't obvious just from looking at the covers? It started out as a dry, technical magazine for the popular academic audience. By late 1915, with declining circulation, the publisher sold the title, and a new, popularized version came out (what had been WORLD'S ADVANCE now continued under the POPULAR SCIENCE name). The original magazine continued under the name of SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY, lasting until 1958 when it was merged into SCIENCE. This was confusing then, and it is confusing now; thanks to Michael Holley for extricating the publishing history of these magazines.

To illustrate the change, we include two 1915/16 issues even though they are not of our usual minimum quality; they are the best we have. The last items in this album are the covers of WORLD'S ADVANCE from just before the change (again, sorry about the poor quality, but it's all we have), and the cover of the new magazine SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY, for reference; note the similarity to early issues of POPULAR SCIENCE.