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Harriet Beecher Stowe's initial publications had been in the Western Monthly Magazine. Between 1833 and 1834, she published five stories and sketches in James Hall's magazine. While becoming a westerner was an important step on her way to reaching a national audience, Stowe's literary power intensified when she began writing for Sarah Josepha Hale's Godey's Lady's Book, self-described as “a proud monument reared by the Ladies of America as a testimony of their own worth.” Beginning in 1839 with “Trials of a Housekeeper,” Stowe published at least eight stories in Godey's Lady's Book during the three following years. The Lady's Book introduced Stowe to an audience she would have particular sympathies with: the women of America. In 1836 Hale merged her magazine with a new venture of Louis Godey. This merger resulted in a phenomenally successful national magazine and now that there was a distinct possibility that she might become a literary woman, Harriet expressed some ambivalence.

Chapter 1 explores the relationship between home and a new middle-class moral order emerging in the early decades of the nineteenth century. As men’s labor increasingly moved outside the home, domestic spaces came to be associated with women who were expected to maintain them as bulwarks against the morally suspect, public world of business competition. Within this ideal of separate spheres, women’s domestic labor was recast—less and less depicted as productive labor with economic value and instead described as an extension of inherent femininity. Sources in this chapter include prescriptive literature from Godey’s Lady’s Book and documents by Catharine Beecher, Lydia Maria Child, and Susan Warner considering the relationship between home and femininity. John Angell James and Herman Melville consider the implications of middle-class domesticity for men and their place in the home, and Andrew Jackson Downing describes the relationship between architecture and morality.

This chapter explores the proliferation of American art through the distribution of magazines with engraved pictures during the mid-1800s. It explains that several magazines such as Saturday Evening Post, Godey’s Lady’s Book, and Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine published various engraved American artworks and these were circulated for thousands of readers to see. It points out that the wide circulation of the magazines was an important factor in the democratization of American art, as it gave an opportunity for the middle and lower classes to appreciate and enjoy art.

This chapter explores promotional strategies and editorial matter used in Godey’s Lady’s Book, Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine, Peterson’s Magazine, and Sartain’s Union Magazine. These show differences on how these publications addressed their respective audiences. Godey’s artworks consisted mainly of images of women and children, to target its audience which consisted mainly of mothers. Both Graham’s and Peterson’s used numerous images of idealized beauty, as they both assumed that the majority of their readers were unmarried males. Sartain’s used titillating images of Indian maidens aimed to arouse a majority male readership.

This chapter examines competition between the magazines Godey’s Lady’s Book, Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine, Peterson’s Magazine, and Sartain’s Union Magazine, in securing engravers. Both magazines Godey’s and Graham’s vied for the services of a well-known line engraver William E. Tucker. This ended with victory for Godey’s magazine. Peterson’s stayed away from conflict and relied heavily in its resident engraver, Jacob D. Gross, a pupil of the mezzotint engraving pioneer John Sartain. The chapter notes that Sartain’s competed heavily against Godey’s in securing engravers, with the former using John Sartain’s connections with his fellow engravers and the latter using its vast funds to attract talent.

This chapter discusses the rise of lithographic art print companies such as Goupil, Vibert and Co. and Currier and Ives in the 1850s, which eclipsed the prominence of illustrated magazines in Philadelphia. Lithographic prints were cheaper and easier to produce, and with the artists working for both Goupil, Vibert and Co. and Currier and Ives, the American public started to shift their focus toward art prints. Both Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine and Sartain’s Union Magazine ended in the 1850s. Godey’s Lady’s Book and Peterson’s Magazine continued to thrive, as they continued to publish high quality literature and they kept a loyal readership.