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 524 visits Life 1883 First Half Title Page
  • Life 1883-01-04 9360 visits Life 1883-01-04
  • Life 1883-01-04a 351 visits Life 1883-01-04a
  • Life 1883-02-15 356 visits Life 1883-02-15
  • Life 1883-07-05 340 visits Life 1883-07-05
  • Life 1883-07-26 341 visits Life 1883-07-26
  • Life 1883-08-16 309 visits Life 1883-08-16
  • Life 1883-08-30 315 visits Life 1883-08-30
  • Life 1883-09-06 301 visits Life 1883-09-06
  • Life 1883-09-13 286 visits Life 1883-09-13
  • Life 1883-09-20 294 visits Life 1883-09-20
  • Life 1883-10-04 297 visits Life 1883-10-04
  • Life 1883-10-11 300 visits Life 1883-10-11
  • Life 1883-10-18 281 visits Life 1883-10-18
  • Life 1883-11-22 313 visits Life 1883-11-22
  • Life 1883-11-29 322 visits Life 1883-11-29
  • Life 1883-12-20 257 visits Life 1883-12-20
  • Life 1883-12-27 242 visits Life 1883-12-27
  • Life 1884-01-10 242 visits Life 1884-01-10
  • Life 1884-01-17 247 visits Life 1884-01-17
  • Life 1884-01-24 236 visits Life 1884-01-24
  • Life 1884-02-07 239 visits Life 1884-02-07
  • Life 1884-02-14 219 visits Life 1884-02-14
  • Life 1884-02-21 230 visits Life 1884-02-21
  • Life 1884-02-28 4409 visits Life 1884-02-28
  • Life 1884-03-13 215 visits Life 1884-03-13
  • Life 1884-03-20 267 visits Life 1884-03-20
  • Life 1884-04-03 266 visits Life 1884-04-03
  • Life 1884-04-10 227 visits Life 1884-04-10
  • Life 1884-05-01 274 visits Life 1884-05-01
  • Life 1884-05-22 226 visits Life 1884-05-22
  • Life 1884-06-19 4032 visits Life 1884-06-19
  • Life 1884-07-17 4319 visits Life 1884-07-17
  • Life 1885 First Half Title Page 3380 visits Life 1885 First Half Title Page
  • Life 1885-01-01 3211 visits Life 1885-01-01
  • Life 1885-01-15 3157 visits Life 1885-01-15
  • Life 1885-01-22 3226 visits Life 1885-01-22
  • Life 1885-02-12 3137 visits Life 1885-02-12
  • Life 1885-02-19 3194 visits Life 1885-02-19
  • Life 1885-02-26 2969 visits Life 1885-02-26
  • Life 1885-04-09 2952 visits Life 1885-04-09
  • Life 1885-04-30 2883 visits Life 1885-04-30
  • Life 1885-05-07 3110 visits Life 1885-05-07
  • Life 1885-06-18 2920 visits Life 1885-06-18
  • Life 1887-01-06 4211 visits Life 1887-01-06
  • Life 1887-01-13 2860 visits Life 1887-01-13
  • Life 1887-01-20 2830 visits Life 1887-01-20
  • Life 1887-01-27 2708 visits Life 1887-01-27
  • Life 1887-02-03 4432 visits Life 1887-02-03
  • Life 1887-02-10 2720 visits Life 1887-02-10
  • Life 1887-02-17 2811 visits Life 1887-02-17
  • Life 1887-02-24 2640 visits Life 1887-02-24
  • Life 1887-03-03 2731 visits Life 1887-03-03
  • Life 1887-03-10 2664 visits Life 1887-03-10
  • Life 1887-03-17 2603 visits Life 1887-03-17
  • Life 1887-03-24 2444 visits Life 1887-03-24
  • Life 1887-03-31 2476 visits Life 1887-03-31
  • Life 1887-04-07 2589 visits Life 1887-04-07
  • Life 1887-04-14 2332 visits Life 1887-04-14
  • Life 1887-04-21 2101 visits Life 1887-04-21
  • Life 1887-04-28 2253 visits Life 1887-04-28
  • Life 1887-05-05 2083 visits Life 1887-05-05
  • Life 1887-05-12 2147 visits Life 1887-05-12
  • Life 1887-05-19 2189 visits Life 1887-05-19
  • Life 1887-05-26 2284 visits Life 1887-05-26
  • Life 1887-06-02 2107 visits Life 1887-06-02
  • Life 1887-06-09 2171 visits Life 1887-06-09
  • Life 1887-06-16 2230 visits Life 1887-06-16
  • Life 1887-06-23 2033 visits Life 1887-06-23
  • Life 1887-06-30 2215 visits Life 1887-06-30
  • Life 1887-07-07 2262 visits Life 1887-07-07
  • Life 1887-07-14 2211 visits Life 1887-07-14
  • Life 1887-07-21 2352 visits Life 1887-07-21
  • Life 1887-07-28 2099 visits Life 1887-07-28
  • Life 1887-08-04 1962 visits Life 1887-08-04
  • Life 1887-08-11 1943 visits Life 1887-08-11
  • Life 1887-08-18 2198 visits Life 1887-08-18
  • Life 1887-08-25 2048 visits Life 1887-08-25
  • Life 1887-09-01 1947 visits Life 1887-09-01
  • Life 1887-09-08 2024 visits Life 1887-09-08
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