Yankee Magazine Covers | 1940s
As America changed for World War II, so did Yankee Magazine. Rations and patriotism made paper hard to come by, so Yankee downsized from a 9×12 inch digest size (which fit the old presses well) to a new and iconic 6×9 size. Yankee stopped its monthly issues but published two annual four-page flyers to keep […]
By Taylor Thomas & Bethany Bourgault
Jul 26 2015
October 1949 | A farm stand illustration by Beatrix Sagendorph
As America changed for World War II, so did Yankee Magazine. Rations and patriotism made paper hard to come by, so Yankee downsized from a 9×12 inch digest size (which fit the old presses well) to a new and iconic 6×9 size. Yankee stopped its monthly issues but published two annual four-page flyers to keep the company’s copyright. Readers were more than willing to wait for the publication to resume printing after the war as opposed to refunding their subscriptions.
“In July 1945 he published a slim, 10-page issue of Yankee with these opening words: “With this issue Yankee returns to the old stand. We are back because our faith in the simple, everyday, honest things of life is as strong as ever.” Mel Allen, All Memories Invited, September 1985
Yankee Fun Fact: The early 1940’s brought a new member to the Yankee family. Yankee Publishing bought the then 147-year-old, Old Farmer’s Almanac from Little, Brown Publishing in Boston, and Robb Sagendorph became the almanac’s 11th editor.
Here is a selection of 9 covers Yankee Magazine ran in the 1940s, all of which were on sale for 25 cents at time time.
