In celebration of their 154th anniversary, our friends at The Atlantic shared a photo of their first cover, from November 1857. The difference between that image and the very different design the magazine is rocking these days sparked our curiosity about what some of today’s best-loved and most widely read publications looked like in their infancy. After the jump, we’ve rounded up debut covers of everything from The New Yorker to Vogue to Spin. We have to admit, some of them really surprised us: Who knew People started off so classy? Or that Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s baby was TV Guide‘s first cover model? Journey with us through media and design history after the jump.
The Atlantic, 1857 [via]
Harper’s Bazaar, 1867
National Geographic, 1888
Vogue, 1892 [via]
Time, 1923
The New Yorker, 1925
Esquire, 1933
Newsweek, 1933
Seventeen, 1944
Ebony, 1945
TV Guide, 1953
Sports Illustrated, 1954
GQ (then Apparel Arts Gentlemen’s Quarterly), 1957
Rolling Stone, 1967
New York, 1968
Ms., 1972
People, 1974
Vanity Fair, 1983
Spin, 1985
Entertainment Weekly, 1990
Wired, 1993
