The Library owns various magazine archives. Many magazines are indexed in the two Readers' Guide databases listed below. Articles discovered with the help of these indexes can be requested through interlibrary loan.
Included below are instructions on how to discover gender-focused popular magazines in the Library's collection.
Visit the Library's Newspapers & Magazines guide to learn more about research with serial publications. The Library's News guide lists a wide range of current news sources.
Selected Indexes and Archives
Provides access to the full text of American magazines and journals published from the colonial period to the early 20th century.
British Periodicals (ProQuest)
Provides access to British periodicals published from the 17th through the early 20th century with the majority of content from the 19th century. Covers a broad range of topics.
GenderWatch (ProQuest)
Indexes scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, books, conference proceedings, dissertations, and reports in many disciplines on topics relevant to gender studies. Provides a historical perspective on the evolution of the women's movement and changes in gender roles. Includes perspectives typically not represented in the mainstream media. Includes abstracts and full-text for most citations. Coverage extends back to 1970.
Gerritsen Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs (ProQuest)
Features digital copies of books, pamphlets and periodicals related to women's history in general and the movement for women's rights in particular. Coverage is international and extends from the middle of the 15th century to the middle of the 20th century.
Godey's Lady's Book (Accessible Archives)
Presents full text access to the complete run of the magazine from 1830 to 1898. Also published as Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book. Includes all color plates as they originally appeared in the magazine.
LGBT Magazine Archive (ProQuest)
Provides full text access to the most influential LGBT+ news resources including The Advocate (full coverage from its inception in 1967), The Pink Paper, Just for Us, The Albatross, and the notable UK publications Gay News and Gay Times.
Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals (Gale)
Features digital access to a selection of 19th century British magazines on women, children, leisure and sport, humor, anthropology, travel, missionaries, and colonies.
Readers' Guide Full Text Mega (EBSCO)
Provides indexing and selected full text for articles from general interest and popular magazines. Coverage begins in 1983; full text begins in 1994. Covers a broad range of popular subjects.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (EBSCO)
Provides indexing for articles from general interest and popular magazines. Covers 1890 through 1982. Covers a broad range of popular subjects.
Discover Magazines through Library of Congress subjects
WorldCat is ideally suited for the discovery of serial publications. It employs the same Library of Congress subjects used in Falvey’s Books & Media catalog but includes nearly all English language newspapers and magazines ever published as well as many foreign language news sources.
Library of Congress subjects facilitate the discovery of unknown news sources that match a set of criteria. Looking up an already known newspaper or magazine is a good way to start. For example, a title search for Godey's Lady's Book will retrieve a record with four subjects.
Each subject is hyperlinked and will generate a list of books with matching subjects. Alternatively, start with a subject search for women AND periodicals AND "19th century." Note that results will include books about women's periodicals unless search results are controlled by the "Journals" facet.
It is more cumbersome to discover LGBTQ magazines because multiple subjects are used to describe magazines in this category: "transgender people -- periodicals, "lesbians -- periodicals," "transsexuals -- periodicals," "gay men -- periodicals," and so on. Some of the retrieved periodicals will be academic journals. The subject "Periodicals" is used for academic journals as well as for popular magazines.
Books about women's magazines such as American Women's Magazines: An Annotated Historical Guide can be helpful in identifying titles and libraries with holdings. This title is not available at Falvey Library but can be requested through interlibrary loan.