Liberty Magazine Historical Archive Provides a Unique Perspective on American History

Farmington Hills, MI, May 17, 2012 – The historical archive of Liberty Magazine, long considered one of the greatest magazines in America, is now available in a digital format from Gale, a leading publisher of research and reference resources for libraries, schools and businesses and part of Cengage Learning. The Liberty Magazine Historical Archive, 1924-1950 is a complete digitization of the entire run of Liberty Magazine, nearly 1,400 issues, and contains over 17,000 fiction and non-fiction articles and thousands of advertisements all in a searchable, full-color format.

“This archive offers a rich perspective of the everyday lives of working and middle-class America, from the Roaring Twenties through the Great Depression and World War II,” said Jim Draper, vice president and publisher, Gale. “It will serve as an important resource for research on the 20th century, as primary sources for this time period are in high demand.”

Liberty Magazine, subtitled “A Weekly for Everybody,” was a general interest magazine founded in 1924 by Joseph Patterson, publisher of the New York Daily News, and Robert McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune and often regarded as the world’s greatest publisher. The magazine’s high-quality and originality of art, stories and features led to an ongoing circulation of 3 million weekly. The magazine’s prominence attracted original contributions from the greatest artists, writers, celebrities and statesmen of the age, including Walt Disney, F. Scott Fitzgerald, H.G. Wells, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mahatma Ghandi, Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, Babe Ruth and many more.

Gale licensed the magazine’s content from the Liberty Library Corporation, owned by Robert Whiteman, who has collected and organized the content over many years.

“I’m excited to see this great piece of Americana find new life among Gale’s distinguished digital newspaper collections,” said Robert Whiteman. “With articles like Joe DiMaggio’s ‘How much is a Ballplayer Worth?,’ Liberty Magazine content is just as relevant today as it was 60 years ago.”

The Liberty Magazine archive includes content from almost all genres – human interest stories, mysteries, westerns, love stories, humor stories, biographies and autobiographies of the rich and powerful - both famous and infamous, and some of the greatest World I & II stories. Liberty Magazine charted the moods, attitudes, lifestyles, fads, and fortunes of America through its three most significant decades. With approximately 100,000 pages, this easy-to-access collection offers primary source material for American studies, political studies, social and cultural studies, business history, global studies and international relations.

The Liberty Magazine Historical Archive, 1924-1950 will join the family of illustrated weeklies that Gale has made available digitally, including The Picture Post Historical Archive, 1938-1957 and The Listener Historical Archive, 1929-1991. It will be cross-searchable on the Gale NewsVault platform.

For more information on The Liberty Magazine Historical Archive, 1924-1950, please visit http://gdc.gale.com/products/liberty-magazine-historical-archive-1924-1950/. For any questions or to set up a free trial, please contact Kristina Massari at kristina.massari@cengage.com.

About Cengage Learning and Gale
Cengage Learning is a leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for the academic, professional and library markets worldwide. Gale, part of Cengage Learning, serves the world's information and education needs through its vast and dynamic content pools, which are used by students and consumers in their libraries, schools and on the Internet. It is best known for the accuracy, breadth and convenience of its data, addressing all types of information needs – from homework help to health questions to business profiles – in a variety of formats. For more information, visit www.cengage.com or www.gale.cengage.com.

###