The Steven Lomazow Collection of American Periodicals
One of the largest periodical collection of all time. The Steven Lomazow Collection consists of almost 30 thousand issues dating back to the early 1700's. A finer collection of periodical artwork you can't find any where else.
Local ID: 681
Estimated Value: $600
| Title: | Busy Brownies |
| Category: | Juvenile |
| Volume: | 1 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Date: | January 1897 |
| Published in: | Philadelphia, PA |
| A rare weekly children’s magazine featuring Palmer Cox’s famous Brownies. According to Cox authority, Wayne Morgan, Busy Brownies was issued first in a series of 12, which came in 32, 16 & 12 page variations. The 32 page version came with ads or merchant stamps. The 16 page version came with or without ads and was offered as a premium and as a supplement to the Philadelphia Inquirer. A 12 page version was both a premium and a give-away as a “set of Palmer Cox Primer.” A much rarer series called The Picture World Series was known to be included in Sunday editions for newspapers such as the Albany Times Union. In 1890 Palmer Cox found that the Hubbard Brothers owed him money for the sales of “The Queer People” series. This was a rather handsomely produced series of books (small quarto like the Brownie books) of Cox’s funny animal material. The Hubbards sought to profit from the new popularity of the Brownies with this series. In an effort to settle with the Hubbards, Cox signed a promissory note allowing the Hubbards to break up the material and make up the money he was owed. What resulted was a series of books which went through a series of publishers and became cheap and ugly until long after the turn of the century. The Hubbards kept some of the work for purposes of advertising. This material is much more interesting for the 19th century researcher than the above mentioned books (by reprinters such as Hearst, Conkey, Donohue and others). This is one of many forms this material took. It seems to have had a retail presence while also being included in newspaper Sunday supplements. The material is not as rare as eBay sellers suggest. However, full sets in public collections are rare. | |