The other day, while browsing in an antiques store, I came across a magazine that I have only heard about, until now. The journal, Peterson’s Ladies National Magazine, is a slick mixture of delightful short stories, poems, fashions, patterns for embroidery, and instructions for needlework. This particular copy is from October 1876, created just one hundred years after the founding of this country.
The magazine is…artistic! Instead of photographs, the illustrations are “engraved.” The main fashion color plate shows the current style of dress in Paris, presented in much the same way as collections of dresses were published in Godey’s Lady’s Book, with a number of women, in view.
I was enchanted by one story. A young lady so loved the magazine, she went out into a rainstorm to collect the latest copy at the post office. She accidentally ran into a young man, as both were carrying an umbrella and didn’t know the other was there. She was indignant, and they had words. When she arrived home, she realized that she had inadvertently dropped her copy of the magazine.
However, her address was on the mail, and the gentleman personally delivered it to her home. Soon after, she met him again at a party, only to learn that he was the nephew of the woman hosting the party.
At a time when each dance was promised on a Victorian “dance card,” she allowed him one dance. At the end of the story, they have become a couple and she admits that spending an evening with him really is more fun than spending time with “Peterson.”
Thinking back to a time when love was more chivalrous and poetry was more commonly published, I am convinced that I should had lived in Victorian times. Everyone seems to have been more innocent.
I love the magazine! Even the cover is artistically made, with etched trailing vines and flowers, and the image of a man with a guitar, an open book, etc. Originally, the magazine cost $2.00.
Even though the paper is flaking and disintegrating, when handled at all, I’d say that for $8.00, I had fun reading the journal. I liked its focus on the literary, the poetic, and the world of beauty.
Pat
