Extraordinary Stories From An Ordinary Guy: The "A Magazine Is Born: The Saturday Evening Post

It was an ordinary day. Opened my sidewalk mailbox and found my latest copy of The Saturday Evening Post. The January/February issue had a banner across the front which read "Celebrating 200 Years." Page 31 had the story about how The Saturday Evening Post was born back on August 4, 1821. What I found most interesting was that the magazine was printed in the same print shop in Philadelphia where Ben Franklin once published the "Pennsylvania Gazette."

Latest edition of the Saturday Evening Post

Shop owner in 1821 was a man named Samuel Atkinson. His initial idea was to print a poem about a blind girl in the city who set type by hand. They gathered a list of subscribers to the poem and started weekly editions. They called their new publication The Saturday Evening Post since it would be printed in time to be delivered to the Philadelphia addresses in the second mailing on Saturdays. At the time the mail was delivered in the United States twice a day.

1873 edition of the Saturday Evening Post

It wasn't until 1950 that mail delivery went to once a day. When the first issue was delivered on August 4, 1821, the publication was more of a broadsheet newspaper than any other type or style of publication. A broadsheet newspaper published more serious news stories in an in-depth manner and has a larger format than a tabloid newspaper. At the time the broadsheet's readers were more apt to be educated readers unlike the tabloid whose readers were mainly ordinary and less educated readers. The broadsheet was a bit larger in size than the tabloid and more than likely would have stories that told the truth while tabloids might have been filled with more "entertaining" stories.

1889 edition of the Saturday Evening Post

The content in the new The Saturday Evening Post consisted of business, law, exploration, fashion, etiquette, agriculture and science. During the 1800s the broadsheet wrote about changing fortunes of our country, the building of the transcontinental railroad, the gold rush and the settling of the western territories. News from the United States such as the Mexican American War, the Civil War and the American Indian Wars was also part of the publication. The publication began to establish a national reputation for high quality content and circulation grew to about 90,000 in the 1850s to 1860s. To have a story published in The Saturday Evening Post was a big deal and writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, James Fenimore Cooper, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Washington Irving and Mark Twain all found their way to the Saturday Evening Post. My 96-page magazine that arrived today is the result of years and years of stories. Tomorrow's story will tell you some of the most important stories from the past 200 years of publication. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - the following are a few covers from the past. Click on images to enlarge them.