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 529 visits Life 1883 First Half Title Page
  • Life 1883-01-04 9369 visits Life 1883-01-04
  • Life 1883-01-04a 353 visits Life 1883-01-04a
  • Life 1883-02-15 358 visits Life 1883-02-15
  • Life 1883-07-05 341 visits Life 1883-07-05
  • Life 1883-07-26 344 visits Life 1883-07-26
  • Life 1883-08-16 311 visits Life 1883-08-16
  • Life 1883-08-30 316 visits Life 1883-08-30
  • Life 1883-09-06 302 visits Life 1883-09-06
  • Life 1883-09-13 287 visits Life 1883-09-13
  • Life 1883-09-20 295 visits Life 1883-09-20
  • Life 1883-10-04 297 visits Life 1883-10-04
  • Life 1883-10-11 301 visits Life 1883-10-11
  • Life 1883-10-18 281 visits Life 1883-10-18
  • Life 1883-11-22 314 visits Life 1883-11-22
  • Life 1883-11-29 322 visits Life 1883-11-29
  • Life 1883-12-20 259 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 1884-01-17 248 visits Life 1884-01-17
  • Life 1884-01-24 237 visits Life 1884-01-24
  • Life 1884-02-07 239 visits Life 1884-02-07
  • Life 1884-02-14 220 visits Life 1884-02-14
  • Life 1884-02-21 232 visits Life 1884-02-21
  • Life 1884-02-28 4412 visits Life 1884-02-28
  • Life 1884-03-13 216 visits Life 1884-03-13
  • Life 1884-03-20 268 visits Life 1884-03-20
  • Life 1884-04-03 267 visits Life 1884-04-03
  • Life 1884-04-10 228 visits Life 1884-04-10
  • Life 1884-05-01 274 visits Life 1884-05-01
  • Life 1884-05-22 229 visits Life 1884-05-22
  • Life 1884-06-19 4034 visits Life 1884-06-19
  • Life 1884-07-17 4321 visits Life 1884-07-17
  • Life 1885 First Half Title Page 3380 visits Life 1885 First Half Title Page
  • Life 1885-01-01 3214 visits Life 1885-01-01
  • Life 1885-01-15 3160 visits Life 1885-01-15
  • Life 1885-01-22 3230 visits Life 1885-01-22
  • Life 1885-02-12 3139 visits Life 1885-02-12
  • Life 1885-02-19 3195 visits Life 1885-02-19
  • Life 1885-02-26 2971 visits Life 1885-02-26
  • Life 1885-04-09 2953 visits Life 1885-04-09
  • Life 1885-04-30 2886 visits Life 1885-04-30
  • Life 1885-05-07 3112 visits Life 1885-05-07
  • Life 1885-06-18 2922 visits Life 1885-06-18
  • Life 1887-01-06 4213 visits Life 1887-01-06
  • Life 1887-01-13 2863 visits Life 1887-01-13
  • Life 1887-01-20 2831 visits Life 1887-01-20
  • Life 1887-01-27 2710 visits Life 1887-01-27
  • Life 1887-02-03 4433 visits Life 1887-02-03
  • Life 1887-02-10 2721 visits Life 1887-02-10
  • Life 1887-02-17 2813 visits Life 1887-02-17
  • Life 1887-02-24 2642 visits Life 1887-02-24
  • Life 1887-03-03 2733 visits Life 1887-03-03
  • Life 1887-03-10 2667 visits Life 1887-03-10
  • Life 1887-03-17 2604 visits Life 1887-03-17
  • Life 1887-03-24 2445 visits Life 1887-03-24
  • Life 1887-03-31 2479 visits Life 1887-03-31
  • Life 1887-04-07 2591 visits Life 1887-04-07
  • Life 1887-04-14 2333 visits Life 1887-04-14
  • Life 1887-04-21 2102 visits Life 1887-04-21
  • Life 1887-04-28 2253 visits Life 1887-04-28
  • Life 1887-05-05 2084 visits Life 1887-05-05
  • Life 1887-05-12 2148 visits Life 1887-05-12
  • Life 1887-05-19 2190 visits Life 1887-05-19
  • Life 1887-05-26 2284 visits Life 1887-05-26
  • Life 1887-06-02 2108 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 2035 visits Life 1887-06-23
  • Life 1887-06-30 2216 visits Life 1887-06-30
  • Life 1887-07-07 2265 visits Life 1887-07-07
  • Life 1887-07-14 2212 visits Life 1887-07-14
  • Life 1887-07-21 2354 visits Life 1887-07-21
  • Life 1887-07-28 2102 visits Life 1887-07-28
  • Life 1887-08-04 1963 visits Life 1887-08-04
  • Life 1887-08-11 1947 visits Life 1887-08-11
  • Life 1887-08-18 2200 visits Life 1887-08-18
  • Life 1887-08-25 2049 visits Life 1887-08-25
  • Life 1887-09-01 1949 visits Life 1887-09-01
  • Life 1887-09-08 2027 visits Life 1887-09-08
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