MGHL’s exhibit Thrill Seekers: The Rise of Men’s Magazines opens today at Washington University’s Olin Library. The exhibit charts the growth of men’s magazines from the 1940s to the 1960s, and highlights original artwork, tear sheets, and whole issues of Esquire, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune, as well as pulp fiction and girlie magazines. Artists featured include Al Parker, Robert Weaver, Ernest Trova, and Robert Andrew Parker, among others. The exhibit will be on display in the Ginkgo Reading Room and Grand Staircase Lobby until January 4, 2013. A digital version of the exhibit is forthcoming, but in the meantime, you can check out a few highlights below.
This Stetson hat advertisement, illustrated by Edwin Georgi, appeared in the June 1939 issue of Esquire
1950 issue of the pulp magazine Adventure
1966 issue of Debonair
August 1957 cover of Fortune by Robert Andrew Parker
This article, illustrated by Robert Weaver, appeared in the April 1959 issue of Esquire
The December 1979 issue of Playboy featured this three-panel “Do It Yourself” insert by Ernest Trova
