Researching Magazines at The New York Public Library: Research Strategies

An index is an organized listing of articles, features, and other content published in a collection of periodicals. It helps readers locate specific articles or information within a large volume of periodical literature and includes details such as the article's title, author's name, publication date, and often a brief abstract or summary of the article's content.

If you need help figuring out if a particular magazine is indexed, email the General Research Division for assistance.

Databases

Printed Indexes

To view more indexes, search on the Research Catalog.

• Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802 - 1906)
• Readers' Guides to Periodical Literature (2004 -2008)
• Index to Women's Magazines and Presses (1977)
• Index to the Science-Fiction Magazines (1926 - 1950)
• Cumulated Magazine Subject Index (1907 - 1949)
• In Black and White: a Guide to Magazine Articles, Newspaper Articles, and Books Concerning More Than 15,000 Black Individuals and Groups (1980)
• Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Magazines (1983)

Here is a compilation of resources and suggested printed materials for researching data circulation and statistical information.

Databases

Historical Data in Print

• Consumer Magazine and Agri-media Rates and Data (1983 -1993)
• Consumer Magazine & Agri-media Source (1993 - 1995)
• A.B.C. Blue Book  (1924 - 1929; 1934)

​​​​​ISSN Portal

• The ISSN Portal allows you to search through the worldwide database of ISSN bibliographic records, identifying and describing more than 2.3 million newspapers, magazines, journals, monographic series and continuing resources of all kinds, both print and online, in 234 countries.

The Picture Collection (located on the first floor of the 42nd Street Library) has been an unmatched visual resource for researchers since its founding in 1915, with its vast circulating collection of over a million subjects. Finding Pictures in the Picture Collection is a research guide that helps users navigate the collection.

Subject Headings

The collection is categorized into subject headings and includes over a million original prints, photos, postcards, posters, and illustrations from books, magazines, and newspapers. Several magazine-related subject headings include visual images of covers that can help research or discover new magazines.

• Magazine covers
• Magazine covers — 1899 & earlier
• Magazine covers — 1901s
• Magazine covers — 1910s
• Magazine covers — 1920s
• Magazine covers — 1930s
• Magazine covers — 1940s
• Magazine covers — 1950s
• Magazine covers — 1960s
• Magazine covers — 1970s
• Magazine covers — 1980s
• Magazine covers — 1990s
• Magazine covers — 2001s
• Magazine covers — A–L (Subdivided by title)
• Magazine covers — April
• Magazine covers — August
• Magazine covers — Collier's
• Magazine covers — December
• Magazine covers — Esquire
• Magazine covers — February
• Magazine covers — Fortune
• Magazine covers — Harper's Bazaar
• Magazine covers — House & Garden
• Magazine covers — January
• Magazine covers — July
• Magazine covers — June
• Magazine covers — Life
• Magazine covers — March
• Magazine covers — May
• Magazine covers — New York
• Magazine covers — New Yorker 
• Magazine covers — November
• Magazine covers — October
• Magazine covers — Saturday Evening Post
• Magazine covers — September
• Magazine covers — Time
• Magazine covers — Vanity Fair
• Magazine covers — Vogue

The New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Collections platform is the primary portal for engaging with our digitized collections and their descriptions, over 922,495 items and counting. While that is a small fraction of the Library's overall holdings, it is representative of the diversity of our vast collections—from books to videos, maps to manuscripts, illustrations to photos, and more.