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 434 visits Life 1883 First Half Title Page
  • Life 1883-01-04 9072 visits Life 1883-01-04
  • Life 1883-01-04a 257 visits Life 1883-01-04a
  • Life 1883-02-15 261 visits Life 1883-02-15
  • Life 1883-07-05 249 visits Life 1883-07-05
  • Life 1883-07-26 248 visits Life 1883-07-26
  • Life 1883-08-16 209 visits Life 1883-08-16
  • Life 1883-08-30 227 visits Life 1883-08-30
  • Life 1883-09-06 219 visits Life 1883-09-06
  • Life 1883-09-13 203 visits Life 1883-09-13
  • Life 1883-09-20 206 visits Life 1883-09-20
  • Life 1883-10-04 211 visits Life 1883-10-04
  • Life 1883-10-11 222 visits Life 1883-10-11
  • Life 1883-10-18 199 visits Life 1883-10-18
  • Life 1883-11-22 222 visits Life 1883-11-22
  • Life 1883-11-29 241 visits Life 1883-11-29
  • Life 1883-12-20 176 visits Life 1883-12-20
  • Life 1883-12-27 156 visits Life 1883-12-27
  • Life 1884-01-10 154 visits Life 1884-01-10
  • Life 1884-01-17 155 visits Life 1884-01-17
  • Life 1884-01-24 144 visits Life 1884-01-24
  • Life 1884-02-07 150 visits Life 1884-02-07
  • Life 1884-02-14 136 visits Life 1884-02-14
  • Life 1884-02-21 140 visits Life 1884-02-21
  • Life 1884-02-28 4289 visits Life 1884-02-28
  • Life 1884-03-13 137 visits Life 1884-03-13
  • Life 1884-03-20 172 visits Life 1884-03-20
  • Life 1884-04-03 181 visits Life 1884-04-03
  • Life 1884-04-10 140 visits Life 1884-04-10
  • Life 1884-05-01 188 visits Life 1884-05-01
  • Life 1884-05-22 141 visits Life 1884-05-22
  • Life 1884-06-19 3953 visits Life 1884-06-19
  • Life 1884-07-17 4207 visits Life 1884-07-17
  • Life 1885 First Half Title Page 3287 visits Life 1885 First Half Title Page
  • Life 1885-01-01 3072 visits Life 1885-01-01
  • Life 1885-01-15 3035 visits Life 1885-01-15
  • Life 1885-01-22 3090 visits Life 1885-01-22
  • Life 1885-02-12 3015 visits Life 1885-02-12
  • Life 1885-02-19 3062 visits Life 1885-02-19
  • Life 1885-02-26 2865 visits Life 1885-02-26
  • Life 1885-04-09 2831 visits Life 1885-04-09
  • Life 1885-04-30 2766 visits Life 1885-04-30
  • Life 1885-05-07 2986 visits Life 1885-05-07
  • Life 1885-06-18 2799 visits Life 1885-06-18
  • Life 1887-01-06 4111 visits Life 1887-01-06
  • Life 1887-01-13 2780 visits Life 1887-01-13
  • Life 1887-01-20 2739 visits Life 1887-01-20
  • Life 1887-01-27 2628 visits Life 1887-01-27
  • Life 1887-02-03 4342 visits Life 1887-02-03
  • Life 1887-02-10 2638 visits Life 1887-02-10
  • Life 1887-02-17 2721 visits Life 1887-02-17
  • Life 1887-02-24 2555 visits Life 1887-02-24
  • Life 1887-03-03 2653 visits Life 1887-03-03
  • Life 1887-03-10 2576 visits Life 1887-03-10
  • Life 1887-03-17 2519 visits Life 1887-03-17
  • Life 1887-03-24 2359 visits Life 1887-03-24
  • Life 1887-03-31 2386 visits Life 1887-03-31
  • Life 1887-04-07 2505 visits Life 1887-04-07
  • Life 1887-04-14 2240 visits Life 1887-04-14
  • Life 1887-04-21 2013 visits Life 1887-04-21
  • Life 1887-04-28 2173 visits Life 1887-04-28
  • Life 1887-05-05 1994 visits Life 1887-05-05
  • Life 1887-05-12 2058 visits Life 1887-05-12
  • Life 1887-05-19 2097 visits Life 1887-05-19
  • Life 1887-05-26 2203 visits Life 1887-05-26
  • Life 1887-06-02 2032 visits Life 1887-06-02
  • Life 1887-06-09 2087 visits Life 1887-06-09
  • Life 1887-06-16 2137 visits Life 1887-06-16
  • Life 1887-06-23 1953 visits Life 1887-06-23
  • Life 1887-06-30 2119 visits Life 1887-06-30
  • Life 1887-07-07 2172 visits Life 1887-07-07
  • Life 1887-07-14 2125 visits Life 1887-07-14
  • Life 1887-07-21 2264 visits Life 1887-07-21
  • Life 1887-07-28 2011 visits Life 1887-07-28
  • Life 1887-08-04 1872 visits Life 1887-08-04
  • Life 1887-08-11 1857 visits Life 1887-08-11
  • Life 1887-08-18 2111 visits Life 1887-08-18
  • Life 1887-08-25 1960 visits Life 1887-08-25
  • Life 1887-09-01 1857 visits Life 1887-09-01
  • Life 1887-09-08 1936 visits Life 1887-09-08
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