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 440 visits Life 1883 First Half Title Page
  • Life 1883-01-04 9085 visits Life 1883-01-04
  • Life 1883-01-04a 259 visits Life 1883-01-04a
  • Life 1883-02-15 266 visits Life 1883-02-15
  • Life 1883-07-05 253 visits Life 1883-07-05
  • Life 1883-07-26 251 visits Life 1883-07-26
  • Life 1883-08-16 213 visits Life 1883-08-16
  • Life 1883-08-30 233 visits Life 1883-08-30
  • Life 1883-09-06 222 visits Life 1883-09-06
  • Life 1883-09-13 207 visits Life 1883-09-13
  • Life 1883-09-20 213 visits Life 1883-09-20
  • Life 1883-10-04 214 visits Life 1883-10-04
  • Life 1883-10-11 227 visits Life 1883-10-11
  • Life 1883-10-18 202 visits Life 1883-10-18
  • Life 1883-11-22 227 visits Life 1883-11-22
  • Life 1883-11-29 245 visits Life 1883-11-29
  • Life 1883-12-20 183 visits Life 1883-12-20
  • Life 1883-12-27 163 visits Life 1883-12-27
  • Life 1884-01-10 158 visits Life 1884-01-10
  • Life 1884-01-17 161 visits Life 1884-01-17
  • Life 1884-01-24 147 visits Life 1884-01-24
  • Life 1884-02-07 154 visits Life 1884-02-07
  • Life 1884-02-14 139 visits Life 1884-02-14
  • Life 1884-02-21 145 visits Life 1884-02-21
  • Life 1884-02-28 4294 visits Life 1884-02-28
  • Life 1884-03-13 141 visits Life 1884-03-13
  • Life 1884-03-20 177 visits Life 1884-03-20
  • Life 1884-04-03 186 visits Life 1884-04-03
  • Life 1884-04-10 147 visits Life 1884-04-10
  • Life 1884-05-01 194 visits Life 1884-05-01
  • Life 1884-05-22 145 visits Life 1884-05-22
  • Life 1884-06-19 3955 visits Life 1884-06-19
  • Life 1884-07-17 4213 visits Life 1884-07-17
  • Life 1885 First Half Title Page 3291 visits Life 1885 First Half Title Page
  • Life 1885-01-01 3081 visits Life 1885-01-01
  • Life 1885-01-15 3042 visits Life 1885-01-15
  • Life 1885-01-22 3102 visits Life 1885-01-22
  • Life 1885-02-12 3022 visits Life 1885-02-12
  • Life 1885-02-19 3070 visits Life 1885-02-19
  • Life 1885-02-26 2874 visits Life 1885-02-26
  • Life 1885-04-09 2843 visits Life 1885-04-09
  • Life 1885-04-30 2770 visits Life 1885-04-30
  • Life 1885-05-07 2995 visits Life 1885-05-07
  • Life 1885-06-18 2805 visits Life 1885-06-18
  • Life 1887-01-06 4116 visits Life 1887-01-06
  • Life 1887-01-13 2782 visits Life 1887-01-13
  • Life 1887-01-20 2742 visits Life 1887-01-20
  • Life 1887-01-27 2632 visits Life 1887-01-27
  • Life 1887-02-03 4345 visits Life 1887-02-03
  • Life 1887-02-10 2641 visits Life 1887-02-10
  • Life 1887-02-17 2724 visits Life 1887-02-17
  • Life 1887-02-24 2559 visits Life 1887-02-24
  • Life 1887-03-03 2656 visits Life 1887-03-03
  • Life 1887-03-10 2583 visits Life 1887-03-10
  • Life 1887-03-17 2524 visits Life 1887-03-17
  • Life 1887-03-24 2362 visits Life 1887-03-24
  • Life 1887-03-31 2390 visits Life 1887-03-31
  • Life 1887-04-07 2509 visits Life 1887-04-07
  • Life 1887-04-14 2244 visits Life 1887-04-14
  • Life 1887-04-21 2018 visits Life 1887-04-21
  • Life 1887-04-28 2177 visits Life 1887-04-28
  • Life 1887-05-05 1998 visits Life 1887-05-05
  • Life 1887-05-12 2065 visits Life 1887-05-12
  • Life 1887-05-19 2104 visits Life 1887-05-19
  • Life 1887-05-26 2206 visits Life 1887-05-26
  • Life 1887-06-02 2035 visits Life 1887-06-02
  • Life 1887-06-09 2090 visits Life 1887-06-09
  • Life 1887-06-16 2141 visits Life 1887-06-16
  • Life 1887-06-23 1957 visits Life 1887-06-23
  • Life 1887-06-30 2124 visits Life 1887-06-30
  • Life 1887-07-07 2178 visits Life 1887-07-07
  • Life 1887-07-14 2129 visits Life 1887-07-14
  • Life 1887-07-21 2269 visits Life 1887-07-21
  • Life 1887-07-28 2016 visits Life 1887-07-28
  • Life 1887-08-04 1876 visits Life 1887-08-04
  • Life 1887-08-11 1862 visits Life 1887-08-11
  • Life 1887-08-18 2115 visits Life 1887-08-18
  • Life 1887-08-25 1964 visits Life 1887-08-25
  • Life 1887-09-01 1863 visits Life 1887-09-01
  • Life 1887-09-08 1939 visits Life 1887-09-08
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