Film Fun magazine covers

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In the early half of the 20th century there were two Film Fun magazines, one British and one American. These are from the American Film Fun magazine. It was mainly a comic book with the strips featuring movie stars and other celebrities. From the pulp cheesecake covers, all of them done by the artist Enoch Bolles, it appears it was aimed at men. 

Edited to add: after posting I realized that one of the covers, the one of Charlie Chaplin, is actually from the British Film Fun.

Old Motor magazine covers

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Motor is a technical journal that caters to gas station owners, automobile repair shops, parts suppliers, and dealers. It was first published in 1903 and is still active, although it has moved from print to digital media. 

These covers are from 1904 through the 1940s. When the magazine started the covers featured a lot of women. However, they moved on to having humorous covers featuring visual jokes. Of course, during WWII they switched to patriotism and War Bond drives.

These examples are from MagazineArt, there are more at that link.  

Helen Dryden magazine covers

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Helen Dryden was an early 20th century illustrator who is best known for her covers for the fashion magazines Vogue and the Delineator. She was self-taught and heavily influenced by French and Russian ballet and theater costume and set design. She was an early practitioner of Art Deco, and with her work brought vibrant colors to the covers of magazines.    

Later in her life she was also to work in the area of industrial design, bringing modern sensibilities to the 'form' portion of the 'form follows function' axiom. 

Helen Dryden

Old house and garden magazine covers

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House and garden magazines are one of the staples of the publishing industry. Covering home and yard design and décor, they are aimed at upper middle class suburban women. The houses and gardens they show tend to be a little bit, but not too much, above the economic station of their readers. Like Martha Stewart, the magazines give tips to their readers about how to live a gracious and stylish life on their budgets.

These covers, dating from the early to mid 20th century, are from the Magazine Art post House and Garden Magazines. Their style varies, but they always try to evoke a serene home life. There are more images after the jump, and of course even more at the link. 

Walter Molino's art of disaster

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Walter Molino was a 20th century illustrator and caricaturist. He did the cover art for Italian magazines that featured lurid tales of disaster. His over the top illustrations teasing the stories, most of which actually had happy endings, are quite striking and entertaining. 

(HT Flashbak and encyclopedia.design)

Walter Molino by Joe Zattere

Romance magazine covers

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These are romance magazine covers from the early and mid 20th century. It is striking that so few of them feature couples or men, mainly they are just portraits of stylish looking women. These examples, and those after the jump, are from Magazine Art's Romance and Confession Magazine collection. There are more at the link.

Physical Culture

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Physical Culture was a magazine about physical fitness and health that was first published in 1899 and continued until the 1950s. Its covers, which featured attractive and athletic models, were considered indecent by many. In 1909 an obscenity conviction it received was overturned by the Supreme Court.

Of course  by today's standards there is nothing scandalous to be seen. What is interesting are the articles teased on the covers. Some of the topics are antiquated, but many are the same type still pushed by health and beauty magazines.

These pictures, and those after the jump are from Magazine Art. There are more at that link. Also, Ball State University has a number of their issues archived. Their archive includes not only the covers, but the inside pages as well if you're interested in reading some old-timey health advice.

Vintage color Scientific American magazine covers

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These covers, and those after the jump, are from the Internet Archive's collection: Scientific American (1845-1909). As well as the covers, the collection allows you to browse the internal pages of the magazines.

Aviation Week magazine covers

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Here, and after the jump are a number of covers of Aviation Week which, depending on the date, is  also known as Aviation and Aviation Weekly and Space Technology. They are from the Internet Archives Aviation Week section where you can view more covers as well as browse the magazines interiors as well.

Old Japanese magazine covers

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50watts has a post featuring vintage Japanese magazine covers. It is interesting to see the familiar early and mid 20th century graphics style as translated by Japanese graphic artists of the day, although one wonders who was influencing who back in the day.

There are more samples after the jump, and even more at the 50watts link above.