A century ago, we were more culturally and artistically advanced. Magazines in the 1920s shined a very bright light on art and culture. One such magazine, albeit short lived, Art Lovers’ Magazine, is but one example of a cultural and artistic publication from 100 years ago when magazines ruled the media world. Here is its story:
Chapter 2, Part 2
Art Lovers’ Volume 1, Number 3
The Hubbard Connection
A lot has been written about Elbert Hubbard the founder of the Roycroft handicraft community of the late 19th century and early 20th century. The same can be said about Freeman H. Hubbard who was appointed editor of Art Lovers’ magazine commencing with the second issue of the magazine. However, all the current references about Freeman Hubbard are in his association as an author and editor of Railroad magazine from 1930 until its demise in 1979.
Although Art Lovers’ magazine was published by Art Publications, Inc. in New York City, its covers touted that it is a Hubbard Publication starting with issue 4. The president of the company was Walter W. Hubbard and the associate editor of the magazine was the “Rev. Walter Warren Hubbard, the son of one the founders of Hubbard Publishing Company” that was founded in Philadelphia, PA in 1868 by Alfred H. Hubbard and Frank W. Judd as the Hubbard Brothers and was renamed the Hubbard Publishing Company in 1893 according to the 19th Century Juvenile Series last revision on Feb. 24, 2025.
The original Hubbard Publishing Company was, “a subscription publishing house” and “a well-known Bible publisher,” according to the source.
One early indication of the relationship between Art Lovers’ magazine and Hubbard Publications is the reference to Art Lovers’ in a Feb. 1925 article about the photographer James Wallace Pondelicek in Hubbard’s The American Art Student and Commercial Artist magazine. “Without a doubt, James Wallace Pondelicek, photographer and artist, ranks among the few pictorial photographers of America whose work merits the highest honors. As a figure photographer he is a master,” the editors wrote.
They continued, “Of late Mr. Pondelicek, whose work has appeared in the columns of this, and of Art Lovers’ Magazine, has been going in for advertisement illustration. We hope to persuade him, at some time in the near future, to contribute an article, helpful and technical, based on his experiences along that line.”
With the second issue of the magazine, the Hubbard connection became more obvious. In addition to Walter W. Hubbard and Freeman H Hubbard, the magazine announced the appointment of “the Rev. Walter W. Hubbard, of the Philadelphia Law and Order Society and of the Pennsylvania Anti-Saloon League as associate editor with this issue.”
Between the credentials of Freeman H Hubbard and the Rev. Walter W. Hubbard, you will think Art Lovers’ is more of moral, religious magazine. Read how Freeman was introduced when they announced him as editor of the magazine, “The publishers of ART LOVERS’ MAGAZINE announce the appointment of Freeman H. Hubbard, A.B., as editor, effective with this issue.”
“Mr. Hubbard was a scholarship winner at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts…In addition, he is well known as a writer of short stories…Mr. Hubbard is recognized as an authority on ethics, having recently received the award of the Philadelphia Ethical Culture Society for the best statement of the meaning of the ethical movement.”
The editorial added, “His connection with ART LOVERS’ Magazine, therefore, is assurance that it will be kept to a high moral standard without losing any of its attractiveness.”
As for the Rev. Water W. Hubbard, the associate editor of the magazine is introduced in issue 3 as, “The son of one of the founders of the Hubbard Publishing Company—the Rev. Walter Warren Hubbard, of the Philadelphia Law and Order Society, widely known preacher and lecturer for the Pennsylvania Anti-Saloon League…”
In fact the Reverand Water Warren Hubbard had a story in issue 3 of the magazine titled, “Three Red Sweaters and a Canary Bird.” Another Hubbard also wrote for the magazine; Henry D. Hubbard, the assistant director of Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C.: He wrote about “Ther Motion Pictures of Tomorrow.”
Yet, one more Hubbard is also included in the third issue of Art Lovers’ magazine. Hesketh Hubbard, “eminent British artist, has assembled a collection of two hundred and thirty-two prints by ninety-seven contemporary British artists, which arrived in this country recently for exhibition, during March, at the Brooklyn Museum, and later in other museums and galleries in this country.”
The publishers of Art Lovers’ magazine were also proud of their relationship with the late “Elbert Hubbard and his son, Elbert Hubbard II, and we lose no opportunity to speak well of the Roycroft publications of East Aurora, N.Y.”
It takes a bold person, bold in vision, bold in mission, and bold in goal to create a BOLDER magazine. That bold person is Bronwyn Weaver Archibald, editor in chief of BOLDER magazine, the new monthly magazine for “Kids 8-80″. I had an opportunity to chat with Bronwyn and we talked about BOLDER, the magazine, the role of print in this digital age, the birth of the idea to create a magazine about “Where Things Come From & Why We Care.”
With a degree in Geology and English and armed with a very positive view of our world and how it turns, Bronwyn decided to swim against the current and about two years ago, she “started hatching an idea, a pretty big idea. A BOLDacious idea. Why not start an earth science magazine for kids from 8 to 80? A magazine so cool that everyone will be more curious about where things come from and why we care so much.” And, if I may add, she is swimming very well, thank you very much.
So, without any further ado, please enjoy my interview with Bronwyn Weaver Archibald, editor in chief of BOLDER magazine:
But first the soundbites:
On the Bolder idea: “It was our big idea about two years ago to create a magazine that would engage not only the kids but the whole family about where things come from and why we should care about it. So, BOLDER was born.”
On why print in this digital age: “Print is so important for, especially for engaging anybody under the age of 18. I think that the way that studies have shown that the way that a young brain works, it is a much healthier environment for them to read information and to be able to enjoy it, to be able to engage with the information when it’s in print.”
On a magazine for 8-80: “We’ve found since we introduced our magazine is that we’re writing about things that are enjoyable to discover and to learn about from truly the whole spectrum in a family.”
On the idea behind the magazine: “Well, my background is in geology. And on our team of people, we’ve got subject matter experts that understand the discoveries in earth science, whether it’s discovering a resource and then figuring out how that powers the power station or goes into road building or how those resources are used.”
On using BOLDER in schools: “Some public schools are using the magazine to encourage reading to learn. We’ve got some schools that are using us for enrichment programs. And we’ve got some schools that are just incorporating it into any of the earth science classes that they have.”
On her biggest obstacle: “We underestimated the impact of the digital creep on printed materials. We didn’t appreciate that it had been a long time since people got excited about a magazine that would come to their home that they could enjoy every month.”
On being timely yet timeless: “In fact, our first issue had a date on it. And after that, we decided that we would just put Roman numerals on them. And in our disposable world, we were encouraging anybody that would subscribe to the magazine to keep it. To maybe go ahead and try to get all of the volumes so they wouldn’t miss out on any of the fun information.”
On the magazine’s audience: “I’m able to reach who knows who, inspiring them in the same way that maybe something that they’ll learn in the magazine might lead to a curiosity, to spark an interest that’ll become a lifelong hobby, a lifelong interest, maybe their career.”
On the decision to be ad-free: “We as a team thought that it would be better not to have advertising so that it’s part of our mission with the magazine to just be telling stories and engaging on this wonderful content. We wanted to have a safe space where somebody isn’t being sold something.”
On what keeps her up at night: “Getting to kids that are fixed to their devices and interrupting that by getting them outside or giving them something in print to read. “
And now for the lightly edited interview with Bronwyn Weaver Archibald, editor in chief, BOLDER magazine:
Samir Husni: Please tell me about BOLDER.
Bronwyn Weaver Archibald: So, It was our big idea about two years ago to create a magazine that would engage not only the kids but the whole family about where things come from and why we should care about it. So, BOLDER was born.
SH: Why a print magazine in this digital age?
BWA: Print is so important for, especially for engaging anybody under the age of 18. I think that the way that studies have shown that the way that a young brain works, it is a much healthier environment for them to read information and to be able to enjoy it, to be able to engage with the information when it’s in print.
Being on devices is something parents, grandparents, schools, I think everybody is thinking second thoughts about having children only consume information that they see on devices. And so, we think the experience of holding something in your hands, of being able to read it kind of back and forth, to be able to pick out a pencil or a pen. We’ve got art exercises in the magazine to be able to engage with it, put it down, be able to pick it up and go back to it later. Those are, we think it’s not just old school or nostalgic, but it is something that is joyful that we want kids to experience.
SH: Your tagline, “A monthly Magazine For Kids 8-80”: care to explain?
BWA: Yeah, exactly. And that’s what we’ve found since we introduced our magazine is that we’re writing about things that are enjoyable to discover and to learn about from truly the whole spectrum in a family.
For the kids to share it with parents or grandparents, for parents to engage the kids with and not have it be boring, so many, from my perspective, a lot of the things that are written for children are so not engaging. I don’t know how to describe it better than that. They are maybe simplistic.
They all look the same sort of caricature. They don’t allow a child to use their imagination through the discovery. If you’ve ever seen the original Toy Story movie, it had sort of the subject matter and the content that was written to engage the children, but there was also a subtext that engaged the parents or an adult watching the movie so that we all enjoyed it together.
And that’s what we try to do in the magazine is to make it so that no matter what age you are, you can learn something and you can discover something that maybe you never appreciated before.
SH: What gave you the idea for BOLDER?
BWA: Well, my background is in geology. And on our team of people, we’ve got subject matter experts that understand the discoveries in earth science, whether it’s discovering a resource and then figuring out how that powers the power station or goes into road building or how those resources are used.
We’ve got people on our team that understand that. And we also have people on our team that our managing editor was a teacher for 15 years. So we delight in making it interesting for kids.
And we’re very passionate about our mission to connect the dots about where things come from. So we didn’t begin this exercise, begin BOLDER Magazine to be a profitable enterprise.
I guess it’s hard to admit. We started this magazine because we thought it was an important thing to do. And we’re hoping that it becomes more sustainable as more people find out about us.
We’re pretty passionate about our mission.
SH: I see you are, so to speak, spreading your wings to reach the schools now.
BWA: Yes. We’ve been very well received in the schools, whether it is a private or public schools. For example, we’re in quite a few Catholic elementary schools and we are in public schools.
Some public schools are using the magazine to encourage reading to learn. We’ve got some schools that are using us for enrichment programs. And we’ve got some schools that are just incorporating it into any of the earth science classes that they have.
Our magazine is designed to be supplemental. So we’re not trying to replace any curriculum. We don’t really have an agenda other than the fact that we want kids to be curious about getting outside and exploring nature and exploring earth science.
SH: You’ve done a wonderful job with the issues that I’ve seen. So tell me, has it been a walk in the Rose Garden?
BWA: It’s not been a walk in the Rose Garden. It has been, in some ways, it’s been a walk in the briar patch.
We underestimated the impact of the digital creep on printed materials. We didn’t appreciate that it had been a long time since people got excited about a magazine that would come to their home that they could enjoy every month. So, not only are we having to show people what we’ve got in the magazine, but we’re having to reintroduce them to what it is like to get something delivered in the mail that the whole family can enjoy reading.
I grew up with the old National Geographic magazines that whether you looked at the pictures or you were interested enough to read the articles, it was something that the whole family enjoyed. And then it got put on a shelf so that you could go back to it when you were curious again about it. And our magazine has a project in it every month for the whole family.
It has themes that are different from month to month. So one of the goals that we had was that we were going to create a magazine that had the longevity that it could be passed around in the family, could go from child to child and not fall apart. That’s why we’ve taken the, we made the investment to have the magazine printed from a really wonderful printer.
It’s almost like getting a book every month. And with the theme, each issue has a different theme.
SH: So it’s indeed timely but timeless.
BWA: Exactly. In fact, our first issue had a date on it. And after that, we decided that we would just put Roman numerals on them.
And in our disposable world, we were encouraging anybody that would subscribe to the magazine to keep it. To maybe go ahead and try to get all of the volumes so they wouldn’t miss out on any of the fun information.
SH: So you underestimated the digital creep?What other obstacles or challenges you faced and you were able to overcome in the last year or so?
BWA: Well, one big part of our mission is to combat what we see as a pretty horrible condition in that children and adults alike face climate anxiety. And there is so much chatter about running out of resources and the state of our climate and it is creating a lot of fear. And so, part of our mission is to talk about how we’re not running out of resources.
That we’re solving problems every day and industry is doing a pretty good job in being problem solvers. And perhaps some of our young readers will be curious enough that it might lead them on a career path because there’s so many opportunities. We don’t talk about anything controversial in our pages, but we’re trying to communicate that there is an abundance that we should be grateful for.
And that kids all need to be outside as much as possible and not to be fearful of being outside. So our message is really starting to resonate. We feel that every month we get more people that find out about our magazine and agree with our mission to get kids interested in reading.
They’re discovering things like we have in every issue, we have two audio stories so that you can listen to the story as you read along. So our magazine is actually like an audio book and we’re not anti-technology, we just think there’s value in getting something in print. So every month that we print another magazine and we’re out there doing our job, more people find out about us.
So we’re having to hold on a little bit longer than we thought. We thought people would be signing up like crazy. We realize now we have to do a better job convincing them why it’s worth giving us a shot to try out a subscription.
SH: You’re a positive voice in the midst of a sea of negative voice and information.
BWA: Thank you for saying that.
SH: Like any positive voice, it’s hard in this, what I call the jungle of negativity that we live in. It’s so hard to break through. So I congratulate you on the magazine and wish you all the best.
So tell me, which one do you like more, being a geologist or being an editor-in-chief?
BWA: You know, I just had an experience just in the past week. I reached out to my mentor that I had when I was beginning to study geology in college. I had a professor.
His name is Dr. James Aronson. He’s almost 90 years old. He got me so excited about learning geology and discovering earth science.
He was such an inspiration. I told him the reason why I reached out to him was that through the magazine, I’m able to reach who knows who, inspiring them in the same way that maybe something that they’ll learn in the magazine might lead to a curiosity, to spark an interest that’ll become a lifelong hobby, a lifelong interest, maybe their career. And so just as I was inspired, I love the thought that our magazine can inspire the next generation.
SH: So tell me, what type of question that so far I failed to ask you that I should ask you?
BWA: I’m glad you did because I was wondering when you were going to ask me, why do we not have any advertising? And I wonder that often because we do need subscribers. I would love to be able to get another four or 5,000 subscribers would make a huge difference to the economics of what we’re trying to do. But we as a team thought that it would be better not to have advertising so that it’s part of our mission with the magazine to just be telling stories and engaging on this wonderful content.
We wanted to have a safe space where somebody isn’t being sold something. But I don’t know whether we are a real outlier.
SH: Before I ask you my typical last questions, anything you would like to add or anything you would like to about BOLDER?
WBA: We formulated our magazine based on our mission of what we wanted to accomplish. We wanted it to be perfect bound, but we didn’t want it to be ridiculous, so we made it 80 pages. We could have probably made it eight or 16 pages shorter, but then the spine is silly.
We feel that the content is enough so that something in our magazine will engage somebody in the family. And again, if we were making it thinner or less frequent, we think that would be a disservice. Because we are a startup and we haven’t gotten to the point where we’re sustainable yet.
SH: My typical last questions, if I come uninvited one evening to your house, what do I catch you doing, reading a book, watching TV, cooking, having a glass of wine?
BWA: Well, at our house, I would say that it would be more like, we would describe it as you would come unannounced to our farm. And this is the farm.
I’m sitting in a barn. That’s where my office is that was built in 1870. It is the farm that I grew up on.
And my husband, who is a third-generation mining engineer, and our daughters work in this business, too. So, we this is part of our passion is that you might see any or all of us here and we might be feeding baby dairy goats. We would be working in our garden.
We’d be feeding chickens or feeding our horses. So we live mostly outside. We love being outside in the middle of things.
I guess that’s part of the reason why we feel called to get kids excited about being outside and exploring nature, too.
SH: So you are as BOLDacious as the magazine itself?
BWA: Yes. In fact, it was when we came up with the name of the magazine, we thought maybe at first it would be B-O-U-L-D-E-R.
And then we decided, no, we do love rocks and geology and earth science, but we want kids to be confident that we have got plenty of earth resources. We just need to all be stewards of them.
SH: My last typical question is, what keeps you up at night these days?
BWA: Getting to kids that are fixed to their devices and interrupting that by getting them outside or giving them something in print to read.
A century ago, we were more culturally and artistically advanced. Magazines in the 1920s shined a very bright light on art and culture. One such magazine, albeit short lived, Art Lovers’ Magazine, is but one example of a cultural and artistic publication from 100 years ago when magazines ruled the media world. Here is its story:
Chapter 2, Part 1
A Bible Publisher Turns to Art
The beginning: A magazine for everyone
The first issue of Art Lovers’ Magazine Jan. 1925
There was no indication in the first issue of Art Lovers’ magazine that the magazine was a Hubbard Publication. The editorial page carried no masthead, and no table of contents. It served as a page, “In which we become acquainted with you, the reading public.”
The magazine was introduced as such: “ART LOVERS’ MAGAZINE will be published monthly, each month of the year, from their offices at 15 Park Row, New York, N.Y. It is owned and published by Art Publications, Inc., and is not connected, in any way, with any other publication at present.”
The only Hubbard name appearing in this issue was that of Freeman H Hubbard who wrote the short story “Yvonne” on pages 4 and 5. Later, in issue 2 of Art Lovers’, a masthead appears announcing that the magazine is published monthly by Art Publications, Inc., 15 Park Row, New York City, (other Hubbard Publications were published at 21 Park Row) with Walter W. Hubbard name as president and an announcement of appointing Freeman H Hubbard as editor of the magazine. It was not until issue 4 that the cover of the magazine carried the line, “A Hubbard Publication,” while the masthead continued to say it is an Art Publications, Inc. magazine.
The second issue of Art Lovers’ magazine Feb. 1925
The cover of the first issue of the magazine featured two women, one half naked, in a room setting chatting with each other. Nudity was present in abundance in the inside pages of the magazine that touted “Beauty, Fiction, Art and Life.” With issues 2 and 3, the word Truth was added to the tag line reading, “A Magazine of Truth, Beauty, Fiction, Art, and Life.” However, the word Truth did not last but for those two issues. With issue 4, the word Truth disappeared from the tag line.
Unlike other art magazines of that period, Art Lovers’, in the words of its editors, “will, to the best of our ability, be ‘an all-around meal’ for every one in the family, especially to lovers of beauty, art, fiction, and the theatres. It will contain, each month, excellent stories; — mystery, love, adventure, and true-to -life tales; fully illustrated.”
The editors continue, “We have purposely avoided making this a ‘one-track’ magazine. It is something you can spend hours with; buy it before you go on a railroad journey this winter, for example, and see just how quickly time flies.”
No advertising in the first issue
Another point of differentiation from the rest of the magazines of that era, is that the editors decided not to accept any ads in the first issue. They wrote, “Before the magazine went to press at our rotogravure plant we were obliged to turn down slightly over two pages of advertising. The editorial board decided that there must positively be no advertising in the initial number, and the business office has reluctantly yielded.”
However, the magazine’s editorial board was not completely against accepting ads in the magazine, for they were quick to add, “Future advertising will be scrupulously analyzed before it is accepted for these pages and every effort will be made to keep the highest standards possible. This means protection for us as well as for the readers.”
Another promise: Picture and fiction magazine
The editors added one more promise to the readers of the magazine, “Within the next few months the number of pages will be materially increased, and color covers will be added later. Every improvement possible will be carefully considered and acted upon, — in and endeavor to fill the need of a combined picture and fiction magazine. And in the meantime, –‘On with the dance,– let joy be unconfined.”
Next: The Hubbard Connection
And in case you missed the four parts of chapter one here are the links
Mr. Magazine 