We have seen several postcards containing magazine solicitations.
Each if these offered a colorful lithograph or calendar s as gift to the subscriber.
“Claim Your Calendar”, “Women’s World for Goldie”, “Loving Greetings from the Publisher”
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Miss Valeria Zimmerman lived in Mosgrove, an unincorporated community along the Allegheny River in Armstrong County of west-central Pennsylvania.
The Post Office in Mosgrove was closed in 1938.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosgrove,_Armstrong_County,_Pennsylvania
In November of 1908, Valeria received a postcard from the publishers of the periodical, “Home Friend”.
The Home Friend Publishing Company was located in Kansas City, Missouri.
Kansas City, the busy port city on the Missouri River, was also a center of publishing.
“Home Friend” appears to have been very successful as numerous issues (circa 1910-1935) are offered for sale on internet auction sites.
As our small sample of postcard stories suggests, magazine publishing grew enormously in the early 20th century.
Higher rates of literacy, small increases in leisure time, and rising prosperity, contributed to the flourishing magazine market.
Before the wide-spread availability of radios and of motion-pictures, there were few diversions for the vast majority of the growing population.
Here is a Data Summary from Google:
+ The Postal Act of 1879 lowered postage rates for magazines, which led to a surge in readership
+ Publishers began to offer magazines at lower prices to a larger audience.
+ After 1900, mass-circulation magazines became more common, with some reaching hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
+ In the 1920s, some magazines reached over one million subscribers.
+ The popularity of mass circulation magazines peaked in the mid-century
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The face of the postcard is an original painting of a band of Native American horsemen following a trail through the mesas of the American West.
The artist is identified as Arthur Reddington.
By renewing her subscription to “Home Friend” for six months (at a cost of fifteen cents), Ms. Zimmerman could obtain a large print of this painting.
We do not know if Valeria accepted the offer for the magazine renewal and the colorful print.
One hopes that she continued to be supplied with enjoyable literature and that she remained an avid reader throughout her life.
