Curtis Books
Saturday Evening Post, published by the Curtis Publishing Company, 1897-1969
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| Industry | publishing |
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| Founded | 1891 |
| Founder | Cyrus H. K. Curtis |
| Products | magazine |
| Services | advertising |
| Curtis Publishing Company | |
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Dream Garden glass-mosaic mural by Maxfield Parrish and made by Louis Comfort Tiffany
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| Location | Immediately SW of Independence Hall |
| Coordinates | 39°56′54″N 75°09′06″W / 39.9482°N 75.1518°W |
| Designated | November 30, 1998 |
The Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became one of the largest and most influential publishers in the United States during the early 20th century. The company's publications included the Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post, The American Home, Holiday, Jack & Jill, and Country Gentleman. In the 1940s, Curtis also had a comic book imprint, Novelty Press.
The Curtis Publishing Company was founded in 1891 by publisher Cyrus H. K. Curtis, who published the People's Ledger, a news magazine he had begun in Boston in 1872 and moved to Philadelphia in 1876. The city was already a major publishing center. Curtis also established the Tribune and Farmer in 1879. From a brief women's supplement, his wife Louisa Knapp Curtis developed a women's section and the Ladies' Home Journal, which she edited from 1883 to 1889. Curtis made these publications part of his new company. In 1897, Curtis bought the Saturday Evening Post for $1000, and developed it as one of the nation's most popular periodicals. It was known for its timely articles and stories, and frequent cover illustrations by artist Norman Rockwell, beginning in the 1940s.
The advent of television in the late 1940s and early 1950s competed for people's attention and eroded the popularity of general-interest periodicals such as the Post and the Journal. In March 1962, Curtis Publishing's president Robert A. MacNeal announced that the company had lost money for the first time in the more than seven decades since its incorporation.Perfect Film loaned the company $5 million in 1968 at the request of Curtis's primary loan holder, First National Bank of Boston, to extend its loans. Curtis sold its Philadelphia headquarters to real estate developer John W. Merriam for $7.3 million to pay off most of the First National loan; it leased half of the building back for its operations.
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