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 453 visits Life 1883 First Half Title Page
  • Life 1883-01-04 9109 visits Life 1883-01-04
  • Life 1883-01-04a 275 visits Life 1883-01-04a
  • Life 1883-02-15 278 visits Life 1883-02-15
  • Life 1883-07-05 265 visits Life 1883-07-05
  • Life 1883-07-26 266 visits Life 1883-07-26
  • Life 1883-08-16 228 visits Life 1883-08-16
  • Life 1883-08-30 247 visits Life 1883-08-30
  • Life 1883-09-06 236 visits Life 1883-09-06
  • Life 1883-09-13 221 visits Life 1883-09-13
  • Life 1883-09-20 228 visits Life 1883-09-20
  • Life 1883-10-04 228 visits Life 1883-10-04
  • Life 1883-10-11 240 visits Life 1883-10-11
  • Life 1883-10-18 215 visits Life 1883-10-18
  • Life 1883-11-22 246 visits Life 1883-11-22
  • Life 1883-11-29 259 visits Life 1883-11-29
  • Life 1883-12-20 194 visits Life 1883-12-20
  • Life 1883-12-27 177 visits Life 1883-12-27
  • Life 1884-01-10 174 visits Life 1884-01-10
  • Life 1884-01-17 175 visits Life 1884-01-17
  • Life 1884-01-24 163 visits Life 1884-01-24
  • Life 1884-02-07 167 visits Life 1884-02-07
  • Life 1884-02-14 153 visits Life 1884-02-14
  • Life 1884-02-21 159 visits Life 1884-02-21
  • Life 1884-02-28 4313 visits Life 1884-02-28
  • Life 1884-03-13 151 visits Life 1884-03-13
  • Life 1884-03-20 191 visits Life 1884-03-20
  • Life 1884-04-03 200 visits Life 1884-04-03
  • Life 1884-04-10 159 visits Life 1884-04-10
  • Life 1884-05-01 207 visits Life 1884-05-01
  • Life 1884-05-22 159 visits Life 1884-05-22
  • Life 1884-06-19 3967 visits Life 1884-06-19
  • Life 1884-07-17 4230 visits Life 1884-07-17
  • Life 1885 First Half Title Page 3306 visits Life 1885 First Half Title Page
  • Life 1885-01-01 3097 visits Life 1885-01-01
  • Life 1885-01-15 3057 visits Life 1885-01-15
  • Life 1885-01-22 3115 visits Life 1885-01-22
  • Life 1885-02-12 3037 visits Life 1885-02-12
  • Life 1885-02-19 3085 visits Life 1885-02-19
  • Life 1885-02-26 2887 visits Life 1885-02-26
  • Life 1885-04-09 2859 visits Life 1885-04-09
  • Life 1885-04-30 2785 visits Life 1885-04-30
  • Life 1885-05-07 3013 visits Life 1885-05-07
  • Life 1885-06-18 2820 visits Life 1885-06-18
  • Life 1887-01-06 4130 visits Life 1887-01-06
  • Life 1887-01-13 2793 visits Life 1887-01-13
  • Life 1887-01-20 2755 visits Life 1887-01-20
  • Life 1887-01-27 2645 visits Life 1887-01-27
  • Life 1887-02-03 4360 visits Life 1887-02-03
  • Life 1887-02-10 2656 visits Life 1887-02-10
  • Life 1887-02-17 2738 visits Life 1887-02-17
  • Life 1887-02-24 2573 visits Life 1887-02-24
  • Life 1887-03-03 2667 visits Life 1887-03-03
  • Life 1887-03-10 2595 visits Life 1887-03-10
  • Life 1887-03-17 2537 visits Life 1887-03-17
  • Life 1887-03-24 2377 visits Life 1887-03-24
  • Life 1887-03-31 2404 visits Life 1887-03-31
  • Life 1887-04-07 2522 visits Life 1887-04-07
  • Life 1887-04-14 2255 visits Life 1887-04-14
  • Life 1887-04-21 2031 visits Life 1887-04-21
  • Life 1887-04-28 2188 visits Life 1887-04-28
  • Life 1887-05-05 2011 visits Life 1887-05-05
  • Life 1887-05-12 2079 visits Life 1887-05-12
  • Life 1887-05-19 2116 visits Life 1887-05-19
  • Life 1887-05-26 2219 visits Life 1887-05-26
  • Life 1887-06-02 2051 visits Life 1887-06-02
  • Life 1887-06-09 2105 visits Life 1887-06-09
  • Life 1887-06-16 2153 visits Life 1887-06-16
  • Life 1887-06-23 1968 visits Life 1887-06-23
  • Life 1887-06-30 2137 visits Life 1887-06-30
  • Life 1887-07-07 2189 visits Life 1887-07-07
  • Life 1887-07-14 2141 visits Life 1887-07-14
  • Life 1887-07-21 2280 visits Life 1887-07-21
  • Life 1887-07-28 2030 visits Life 1887-07-28
  • Life 1887-08-04 1889 visits Life 1887-08-04
  • Life 1887-08-11 1873 visits Life 1887-08-11
  • Life 1887-08-18 2129 visits Life 1887-08-18
  • Life 1887-08-25 1978 visits Life 1887-08-25
  • Life 1887-09-01 1877 visits Life 1887-09-01
  • Life 1887-09-08 1951 visits Life 1887-09-08
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