Everybody knows about LIFE, the magazine of photojournalism that first appeared in 1936 and still is with us today in various printed forms. But LIFE was also the name of the foremost American humor magazine of the period 1890-1930, and LIFE (the humor magazine) was an important and influential magazine in its time.br> When the founders of TIME wanted to start a new magazine that would show America the world, they decided that the title had to be "Life." Someone was already using that title; so they bought it from them. LIFE, which hadn't been doing well during the Depression, was combined into JUDGE. And That was That.

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.

Quick Links by year:
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
  • Life 1883 First Half Title Page 487 visits Life 1883 First Half Title Page
  • Life 1883-01-04 9288 visits Life 1883-01-04
  • Life 1883-01-04a 312 visits Life 1883-01-04a
  • Life 1883-02-15 314 visits Life 1883-02-15
  • Life 1883-07-05 301 visits Life 1883-07-05
  • Life 1883-07-26 303 visits Life 1883-07-26
  • Life 1883-08-16 265 visits Life 1883-08-16
  • Life 1883-08-30 280 visits Life 1883-08-30
  • Life 1883-09-06 266 visits Life 1883-09-06
  • Life 1883-09-13 254 visits Life 1883-09-13
  • Life 1883-09-20 262 visits Life 1883-09-20
  • Life 1883-10-04 263 visits Life 1883-10-04
  • Life 1883-10-11 271 visits Life 1883-10-11
  • Life 1883-10-18 250 visits Life 1883-10-18
  • Life 1883-11-22 282 visits Life 1883-11-22
  • Life 1883-11-29 290 visits Life 1883-11-29
  • Life 1883-12-20 229 visits Life 1883-12-20
  • Life 1883-12-27 211 visits Life 1883-12-27
  • Life 1884-01-10 205 visits Life 1884-01-10
  • Life 1884-01-17 212 visits Life 1884-01-17
  • Life 1884-01-24 201 visits Life 1884-01-24
  • Life 1884-02-07 202 visits Life 1884-02-07
  • Life 1884-02-14 183 visits Life 1884-02-14
  • Life 1884-02-21 192 visits Life 1884-02-21
  • Life 1884-02-28 4375 visits Life 1884-02-28
  • Life 1884-03-13 183 visits Life 1884-03-13
  • Life 1884-03-20 227 visits Life 1884-03-20
  • Life 1884-04-03 233 visits Life 1884-04-03
  • Life 1884-04-10 191 visits Life 1884-04-10
  • Life 1884-05-01 242 visits Life 1884-05-01
  • Life 1884-05-22 191 visits Life 1884-05-22
  • Life 1884-06-19 4001 visits Life 1884-06-19
  • Life 1884-07-17 4284 visits Life 1884-07-17
  • Life 1885 First Half Title Page 3350 visits Life 1885 First Half Title Page
  • Life 1885-01-01 3173 visits Life 1885-01-01
  • Life 1885-01-15 3114 visits Life 1885-01-15
  • Life 1885-01-22 3184 visits Life 1885-01-22
  • Life 1885-02-12 3100 visits Life 1885-02-12
  • Life 1885-02-19 3155 visits Life 1885-02-19
  • Life 1885-02-26 2934 visits Life 1885-02-26
  • Life 1885-04-09 2912 visits Life 1885-04-09
  • Life 1885-04-30 2843 visits Life 1885-04-30
  • Life 1885-05-07 3074 visits Life 1885-05-07
  • Life 1885-06-18 2883 visits Life 1885-06-18
  • Life 1887-01-06 4169 visits Life 1887-01-06
  • Life 1887-01-13 2827 visits Life 1887-01-13
  • Life 1887-01-20 2789 visits Life 1887-01-20
  • Life 1887-01-27 2677 visits Life 1887-01-27
  • Life 1887-02-03 4395 visits Life 1887-02-03
  • Life 1887-02-10 2687 visits Life 1887-02-10
  • Life 1887-02-17 2771 visits Life 1887-02-17
  • Life 1887-02-24 2607 visits Life 1887-02-24
  • Life 1887-03-03 2698 visits Life 1887-03-03
  • Life 1887-03-10 2630 visits Life 1887-03-10
  • Life 1887-03-17 2570 visits Life 1887-03-17
  • Life 1887-03-24 2410 visits Life 1887-03-24
  • Life 1887-03-31 2437 visits Life 1887-03-31
  • Life 1887-04-07 2555 visits Life 1887-04-07
  • Life 1887-04-14 2291 visits Life 1887-04-14
  • Life 1887-04-21 2065 visits Life 1887-04-21
  • Life 1887-04-28 2219 visits Life 1887-04-28
  • Life 1887-05-05 2046 visits Life 1887-05-05
  • Life 1887-05-12 2113 visits Life 1887-05-12
  • Life 1887-05-19 2154 visits Life 1887-05-19
  • Life 1887-05-26 2253 visits Life 1887-05-26
  • Life 1887-06-02 2079 visits Life 1887-06-02
  • Life 1887-06-09 2138 visits Life 1887-06-09
  • Life 1887-06-16 2190 visits Life 1887-06-16
  • Life 1887-06-23 1998 visits Life 1887-06-23
  • Life 1887-06-30 2172 visits Life 1887-06-30
  • Life 1887-07-07 2223 visits Life 1887-07-07
  • Life 1887-07-14 2173 visits Life 1887-07-14
  • Life 1887-07-21 2313 visits Life 1887-07-21
  • Life 1887-07-28 2060 visits Life 1887-07-28
  • Life 1887-08-04 1920 visits Life 1887-08-04
  • Life 1887-08-11 1905 visits Life 1887-08-11
  • Life 1887-08-18 2161 visits Life 1887-08-18
  • Life 1887-08-25 2008 visits Life 1887-08-25
  • Life 1887-09-01 1911 visits Life 1887-09-01
  • Life 1887-09-08 1984 visits Life 1887-09-08
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