The later covers of LIFE resemble nothing so much as the first covers of THE NEW YORKER. The magazines even overlapped in time, publishing many of the same artists months apart. Yet many LIFE covers looked totally unlike the cover of the preceding issue, or the next one; and sometimes not like anything ever published on any other magazine. It must have been a challenge to find it on the newsstand.
For a fuller discussion of LIFE, read the profile page. The first 80 volumes of the magazine are online at Hathi Trust.
In the period 1895-1920 a number of hardcover collections of material from the magazine were published, and sometimes turn up. In a couple of cases there were also regular magazine-like instalments of favorite images etc., and we try to include those as periodicals here. Here are some examples of the book versions, from Warren Bernard's collection as posted online by Christopher Wheeler.
Brenda Wiard, at 2Neat Magazines, has an extensive list of artists who drew for LIFE. They sell back issues of LIFE, and have provided us with numerous cover scans.
Quick Links by year:
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930

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Life 1883 First Half Title Page
1350 visits
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Life 1883-01-04 001
594 visits
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Life 1883-01-04a
872 visits
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Life 1883-02-15
865 visits
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Life 1883-07-05
867 visits
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Life 1883-07-26
848 visits
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Life 1883-08-16
809 visits
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Life 1883-08-30
817 visits
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Life 1883-09-06
816 visits
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Life 1883-09-13
785 visits
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Life 1883-09-20
819 visits
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Life 1883-10-04
844 visits
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Life 1883-10-11
841 visits
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Life 1883-10-18
858 visits
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Life 1883-11-22
837 visits
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Life 1883-11-29
854 visits
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Life 1883-12-20
752 visits
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Life 1883-12-27
744 visits
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Life 1884-01-10
755 visits
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Life 1884-01-17
821 visits
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Life 1884-01-24
737 visits
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Life 1884-02-07
742 visits
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Life 1884-02-14
719 visits
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Life 1884-02-21
742 visits
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Life 1884-02-28
5318 visits
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Life 1884-03-13
716 visits
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Life 1884-03-20
774 visits
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Life 1884-04-03
775 visits
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Life 1884-04-10
729 visits
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Life 1884-05-01
767 visits
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Life 1884-05-22
747 visits
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Life 1884-06-19
4518 visits
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Life 1884-07-17
5140 visits
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Life 1885 First Half Title Page
4044 visits
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Life 1885-01-01
4311 visits
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Life 1885-01-15
4063 visits
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Life 1885-01-22
4290 visits
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Life 1885-02-12
4132 visits
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Life 1885-02-19
4355 visits
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Life 1885-02-26
3791 visits
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Life 1885-04-09
3764 visits
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Life 1885-04-30
3804 visits
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Life 1885-05-07
3971 visits
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Life 1885-06-18
4097 visits
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Life 1886-07-01
1499 visits
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Life 1886-07-08
507 visits
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Life 1886-07-15
521 visits
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Life 1886-07-22
502 visits
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Life 1886-07-29
440 visits
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Life 1886-08-05
478 visits
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Life 1886-08-12
486 visits
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Life 1886-08-19
483 visits
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Life 1886-08-26
502 visits
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Life 1886-09-02
472 visits
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Life 1886-09-09
484 visits
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Life 1886-09-16
516 visits
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Life 1886-09-23
494 visits
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Life 1886-10-07
526 visits
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Life 1886-10-14
522 visits
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Life 1886-10-21
472 visits
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Life 1886-10-28
496 visits
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Life 1886-11-04
484 visits
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Life 1886-11-11
455 visits
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Life 1886-11-18
472 visits
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Life 1886-11-25
489 visits
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Life 1886-12-02
498 visits
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Life 1886-12-16
452 visits
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Life 1886-12-23
480 visits
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Life 1887-01-06
539 visits
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Life 1887-01-13
513 visits
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Life 1887-01-20
520 visits
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Life 1887-01-27
554 visits
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Life 1887-02-03
504 visits
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Life 1887-02-10
465 visits
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Life 1887-02-17
508 visits
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Life 1887-02-24
489 visits
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Life 1887-03-03
494 visits
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Life 1887-03-10
484 visits
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Life 1887-03-17
463 visits
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Life 1887-03-24
493 visits