Dictionary.net

A publication issued at stated, more or less regular, intervals.

The first American literary periodical was the "General Magazine and Historical Chronicle," issued by Franklin at Philadelphia in 1741. In the same year and place appeared the "American Magazine," but neither lived a year. In 1743 an "American Magazine and Historical Chronicle" began to be published in Boston. The first which appeared in New York was the "Independent Reflector," weekly, 1752. Other important magazines of the eighteenth century were the "Pennsylvania Magazine" of 1775, the "American Museum," 1787-1797; the "Massachusetts Magazine," 1789-1796, and the "New York Magazine," 1790-1797. Of much more value were the "Portfolio," Philadelphia, 1801-1825, and the "Monthly Anthology," Boston, 1803-1811. The first important review was the "North American Review," founded in 1815 at Boston. The chief predecessor of the modern literary and miscellaneous magazines of America was the "Knickerbocker," 1832-1860. Of the leading magazines of the present time, Harper's was founded in 1850, Scribner's (later the "Century Magazine") in 1870, the "Atlantic Monthly" in 1857.