"Puck" and "Judge" Magazines — 1881 - 1905 — Fourteen issues in an archival box

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Fourteen issues of rival magazines Puck and Judge from 1881 to 1905 in archival sleeves and housed in an acid-free, metal edge clamshell (16" x 20" x 1.75"), archival box by Lineco.

The issues cover the Garfield and Arthur administrations, a young TR, and all of the other people and issues of the day with the sharp wit these magazines were known for.

The beautiful covers alone are worth it, though to us today, they're a bit of a puzzle because of all of the references to events of the day, but it will be your puzzle to unravel as you read each issue.

The December 22, 1886 issue of Puck features a woman ("Charity") tending someone ailing and apparently down and out in an appeal for "Hospital Sunday." Around the pillars holding collection boxes are wrapped banners with this text:

Here Christian, Jew, and Pagan meet
All meaner thought above
To loyal charity's dear feet
The offerings of love

Issues include:
  • Puck
    • March 30, 1881
    • August 4, 1886
    • December 22, 1886
    • September 28, 1887
    • November 10, 1887
    • March 5, 1890
    • September 14, 1890
    • February 18, 1891
    • August 3, 1892
  • Judge
    • April 21, 1883
    • February 21, 1885
    • April 11, 1885
    • July 30, 1904
    • April 15, 1905

More about the magazines from Wikipedia:

Puck was the first successful humor magazine in the United States of colorful cartoons, caricatures and political satire of the issues of the day. It was founded in 1876 as a German-language publication by Joseph Keppler, an Austrian immigrant cartoonist. Puck's first English-language edition was published in 1877, covering issues like New York City's Tammany Hall, presidential politics, and social issues of the late 19th century to the early 20th century.

"Puckish" means "childishly mischievous". This led Shakespeare's Puck character (from A Midsummer Night's Dream) to be recast as a charming near-naked boy and used as the title of the magazine. Puck was the first magazine to carry illustrated advertising and the first to successfully adopt full-color lithography printing for a weekly publication.

Puck was published from 1876 until 1918.

Judge was a weekly satirical magazine published in the United States from 1881 to 1947. It was launched by artists who had left the rival Puck Magazine. The founders included cartoonist James Albert Wales, dime novels publisher Frank Tousey and author George H. Jessop.

The first printing of Judge was on October 29, 1881, during the Long Depression. While it did well initially, it soon had trouble competing with Puck. William J. Arkell purchased the magazine in the middle 1880s. Arkell used his considerable wealth to persuade the cartoonists Eugene Zimmerman ("Zim") and Bernhard Gillam to leave Puck. A supporter of the Republican Party, Arkell persuaded his cartoonists to attack the Democratic administration of Grover Cleveland. With GOP aid, Judge boomed during the 1880s and 1890s, surpassing its rival publication in content and circulation. By the early 1890s, the circulation of the magazine reached 50,000.

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