See the full Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature Digital Collections >>
The St. Nicholas Magazine was a popular American children's magazine, published by Charles Scribner's Sons beginning in November 1873, and designed for children five to eighteen. Mary Mapes Dodge, remembered for Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, served as the Magazine's first editor. Her editorial policy was set out:
"To give clean, genuine fun to children of all ages.
To give them examples of the finest types of boyhood and girlhood.
To inspire them with an appreciation of fine pictorial art.
To cultivate the imagination in profitable directions.
To foster a love of country, home, nature, truth, beauty, and sincerity.
To prepare boys and girls for life as it is.
To stimulate their ambitions--but along normally progressive lines.
To keep pace with a fast-moving world in all its activities.
To give reading matter which every parent may pass to his children unhesitatingly." [1]
In 1881, Charles Scribner's Sons reorganized, withdawing its share of ownership and the Century Company, with Roswell Smith as president, took over the publication of St. Nicholas Magazine.
Many children's classics were first serialized in St. Nicholas Magazine. Its first runaway hit was with "Little Lord Fauntleroy". From the outset, St. Nicholas Magazine published work of the best contemporary illustrators: Charles Dana Gibson, Howard Pyle, Arthur Rackham, and Norman Rockwell. The magazine changed decorously with the times, but ceased publication in November 1941.
This digital collection is part of the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature and its Digital Collections in the Department of Special & Area Studies Collections at the