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Back in August 2024, just before the renovation led to the closing of the 4th floor, I took some hours to search through the rare book stack, collecting material for potential projects. One title that jumped out was Godey’s Lady’s Book, several volumes of which I’ve passed innumerable times in the rare stacks but hadn’t yet had a chance to look through. I knew it was a popular 19th-century ladies' magazine, but my knowledge ended there. I relocated three volumes to my current workspace, and there they sat until February, when I decided I wanted to celebrate Women’s History Month Special Collections-style this year. Imagine my surprise when research led me to discover that this women’s magazine, selected at random, was in fact a periodical that significantly influenced and shaped American culture.
Godey’s Lady’s Book was not only a popular magazine, it was the ladies' magazine of the century. It achieved the largest subscription base (150,000) of any magazine circulating in America during the period before the Civil War. And its success is due to its editor, Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879), who wielded an iron pen to assert her influence over the periodical and the American public.
The first successful American venture in the women's magazine world was The American Ladies’ Magazine (1828-1836), published in Boston, founded by Reverend John Lauris Blake, and edited by none other than Sarah Jospeha Hale. Blake sought out Hale, a home-school educated widow who had made a name for herself in the literary world while supporting her 5 children. Louis A. Godey bought The American Ladies’ Magazine in 1836 and merged it with his own women's magazine, best known by its later name Godey’s Lady’s Book. Begun in Philadelphia in 1830, Godey’s fledgling magazine had around 10,000 subscribers its first year. His periodical followed the common practice of reprinting articles and illustrations from popular British magazines, creating a product rather unexceptional for the time. After purchasing the Boston magazine, Godey kept Hale as the editor, and the two created history.
Godey’s is arguably best known for its fashion and culture portions, promoting content relevant to the lives of its middle- and upper-class subscriber base. Every issue began with a hand-tinted fashion plate for women to observe the latest fashion trends. There were also illustrations and patterns with measurements for women's and children's garments to be sewn at home, along with descriptions about the appropriate uses for each garment. Many issues included sheet music for the piano and embroidery patterns, among other content deemed relevant to homemakers and their family circles. However, Godey’s came to exert significant influence over American culture not only because of its fashion plates, but also because of the content found after the trappings of needlework and homemaking.
Godey and Hale both viewed a woman as the center of the home, and both believed that a home benefitted from an intelligent, educated leader. In that vein, Godey insisted the magazine emphasize fashion, household management, and the education of children. As literary editor, Hale sought to further the education of women. In doing so, she turned Godey’s unremarkable magazine into a bestseller. A staunch nationalist, Hale ended Godey’s practice of reprinting British magazine articles and implemented a policy of publishing only American authors. Under Hale’s tenure, subscribers were introduced to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Washington Irving, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others during an era where most other magazines continued to reprint articles from British periodicals. (Fun fact: Godey’s was the first to publish several of Poe’s iconic stories: “The Oblong Box” (Sept.1844), “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” (Feb. 1845), and “The Cask of Amontillado” (Nov. 1846).)
Apart from these fresh stories and poetry from American authors, Hale also included articles and editorials covering a wide range of topics to educate women. For example, the first article to appear after the fashion plates, etc. in the March 1861 issue is “The Steam-Engine Familiarly Explained” along with accompanying diagrams. Subscribers also were served numerous editorials on health and diet, and Hale even included curricula for home study for women unable to obtain formal education.
Hale used her position as editor to consistently champion the education of women. Throughout her 40 years as editor, she wrote seventeen articles and editorials about women’s education. She believed that women were the moral leaders of the household, and as such should be educated in order to “aid the intellectual and moral character of those within her sphere” (Rose, 24). Over time, Hale came to support, and write about, the necessity for women instructors, for women doctors in the area of women’s and children’s health, for women's colleges like Vassar (which she personally helped to fund), and the importance of equal pay for women teachers. Through Godey’s Lady’s Book, Hale was able to acclimatize the American public to these initiatives for women.
The impact of Godey’s Lady’s Book on American culture was vast. Outside of Hale’s massively important work to enrich the education of women, the magazine also influenced other sectors of American life. Godey’s is credited with cementing the choice of a white wedding dress after (incorrectly) reporting on the history behind Queen Victoria’s choice of a white dress for her nuptials. In 1850, Godey’s circulated a woodcut illustration of the British royal family with their Christmas tree, but edited their faces and dress to create a more American scene. Thanks to the large subscription base, this was the first image of a decorated Christmas tree to widely circulate, and erecting household Christmas trees became common by the 1870s.
Hale also wielded Godey’s to promote the national Thanksgiving holiday in the 1850s and 1860s. Previously celebrated mostly in New England, Hale saw the potential of a national holiday of thanks-giving to unite Northern and Southern factions. In the 1850s, afraid of secession and an impending Civil War, Hale used her position as editor to promote unity in any “quiet” way possible. Louis Godey forbade any mention of politics in his magazine (an attempt to retain subscribers in both the North and South), so Hale became rather inventive in her attempts to influence subscribers towards a stronger domestic national union (Sommers, 48). One of her largest efforts was the push to create the national Thanksgiving holiday. Hale wrote articles about the importance of thanks-giving and New England traditions, and published tantalizing recipes for traditional dishes like roast turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. She petitioned President Buchanan to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1858. Unsuccessful, she continued her editorial campaign, and in 1863 President Lincoln began proclaiming a national Thanksgiving Day. Presidents continued to issue annual Thanksgiving proclamations up through 1870, then several acts and resolutions would pass into law before Thanksgiving Day as we now celebrate it was set in 1941.
Hale served as editor of Godey’s until 1877, retiring at the age of 89. While her legacy from Godey’s is vast, it is not limited to her work as editor. During her 40-year tenure, she managed to write in her free time, publishing over 50 books ranging from cookbooks to poetry and novels. One of her major books was Woman’s Record: or, Sketches of Distinguished Women, from “the Beginning” till A.D. 1850, a series of profiles on women, tracing their influence on society and literature throughout history. Hale passed away in Philadelphia in 1879.
Louis Godey sold the magazine in 1877, and passed away in 1878. The magazine carried on through several changes in ownership (and name), until publication ceased in 1896.
Our Special Collections hold 20 volumes of Godey’s Lady’s Book, an incomplete collection, ranging in years from 1839 to 1896, with the largest concentration of issues covering the years 1839-1842 and 1859-1862. Issues are also accessible via HathiTrust and the Internet Archive.
Please visit our Special Collections page to learn more about rare materials held in the Library. You can also contact the Special Collections Librarian at [email protected].
Bibliography
Hoffman, Nicole Tonkovich. “Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1874).” Legacy, vol. 7, no. 2, 1990, pp. 47–55. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25684398. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.
McCall, Laura. “‘The Reign of Brute Force Is Now Over’: A Content Analysis of ‘Godey’s Lady’s Book’, 1830-1860.” Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 9, no. 2, 1989, pp. 217–36. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3123204. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
Rose, Anne C. Transcendentalism as a Social Movement, 1830-1850. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, 1981. Internet Archive. Accessed 17 Mar. 2025.
Sommers, Joseph Michael. “Godey’s Lady’s Book: Sarah Hale and the Construction of Sentimental Nationalism.” College Literature, vol. 37, no. 3, 2010, pp. 43–61. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20749602. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
Urakova, Alexandra. “Poe, Fashion, and Godey’s Lady’s Book.” The Edgar Allan Poe Review, vol. 15, no. 1, 2014, pp. 37–46. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5325/edgallpoerev.15.1.0037. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.
Vassar Encyclopedia. “Vassar Female College and Sarah Jospeha Hale.” 1996. https://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/interviews-and-reflections/vassar-female-college-sarah-josepha-hale/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2025.
