Yankee Magazine Covers | 1930s

“It began in a hexagon shack with one man, one typewriter, a Franklin Stove, and a dream. In later years Robb Sagendorph would shrug and say, “The publisher still doesn’t know of any particular reason why Yankee was begun or is still around. To get any sort of editorial policy out of him would be as difficult as it would have been to persuade Calvin Coolidge to sing tenor to ‘Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes.'” Mel Allen, All Memories Invited, September 1985

Despite serving as editor of both the Harvard Lampoon and the Harvard Business Review until his 1922 graduation, Sagendorph seemed hard out of luck when it came to the working world. He was hired and subsequently fired three times from his father’s steel company, Penn Metal Inc., tried his hand at farming on his wife’s family’s farm, and made several attempts to write for national magazines. It wasn’t until 1935 that Sagendorph formulated the idea for a New England magazine that he found employment he could stick with. The publication and its content upheld the traditional New England values of “independence, integrity, ingenuity, perseverance, self-sufficiency, and community.”

Yankee Fun Fact: Many issues from the 1930’s were lettered using a shaky and unstable printing press that Sagendorph rescued from the banks of the Connecticut River, which fell through the floor of the office some time later. Here are 5 Yankee Magazine covers from the 1930’s. There is one for each year.