Library & Cultural Services: History: Magazines

Magazines

Popular magazines (news, fashion, sports, etc.) can provide a useful insight into the time period that they were published in. As well as articles, they often contain illustrations and advertisements, which can also be useful primary sources - especially for the study of consumerism, gender roles, material culture, history of technology, and popular culture. You can use the links below to search and browse the digitised magazine archives to which the library subscribes.

British periodicals
British Periodicals provides access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth, comprising millions of high-resolution facsimile page images. The Library has access to Parts I, II, III and IV.
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Ebony magazine archive
Ebony has been a leading African-American magazine since publication commenced in 1945. It focuses on news and stories important to the Black community in the US. The fully searchable full-text archive spans 1945-2014, and covers African-American business, history and politics (including civil rights), education, entertainment, fashion and culture.
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GQ Archive
The backfile of GQ magazine, from its launch in 1931 (as Apparel Arts) to the present. A long-running, influential men's magazine, GQ expanded its initial focus on fashion to cover general men’s-interest subjects. The archive makes available a wealth of editorial content and photography.
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LGBT magazine archive
Archival runs of 27 of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. In addition to LGBT/gender/sexuality studies, this material serves disciplines such as sociology, political science, psychology, health, and the arts. Publications may contain explicit content.
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Rolling Stone archive
American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known for its coverage of rock music and political reporting by Hunter S. Thompson.

Vogue archive
A searchable archive of American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution colour page images. Pages, advertisements, covers and fold-outs are included, with rich indexing enabling researchers to find images by garment type, designer and brand names.
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Women's magazine archive
An archive of the backfiles of leading women's interest consumer magazines, from the late-19th century through to 2005. Issues are scanned in high-resolution colour, with non-article items such as advertisements included, and feature detailed article-level indexing.
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