Magazine Covers over the years

[Dale]

[George Thomas Wilson]

Dale,

The evolution of the cover was even more fluid than you have compiled.  The "Oak and Olive" border went through a second change.  I documented that change in a discussion of the changes to the map of Antarctica on the bottom border.

Tom

[George Thomas Wilson]

Besides subtle differences to the artwork, the second change to the border had one noticeable difference: the border was made narrower

[Scott T. Shier]

Howard Paine, the Art Director for NGM + N.G.S. stated in more than one interview that he tweaked and modified and pruned the oak & laurel & acorns perimeter many times --and gradually-- across 20 years to finally arrive at what would become September 1979's "final" cover style/aesthetic revamp  *(until Sept. 2000}.

They were receiving much (and consistent) feedback from members to neither remove nor touch the Oak Border. It's in one of the books that one member wrote something like "God put those leaves + acorns on the cover of NGM so they cannot be touched!").

Howard Paine also made mention that he was removing the leaves one at a time ever so delicately, ha-ha!

When Melvin Payne became president in 1967, he tasked Mr. Paine with the assignment of coming up with a permanent, Society-wide "logo" to represent the Society and impose a uniform emblem on all publications (ie, spines of their books, promotional ads, etc.). 

Howard P. came up with the most obvious thing staring them in the face: The "Yellow Border" itself. President Payne heartily agreed and this is why we see some transitional printings of book titles such as "This England" and the Special Publication series with both an earth globe, and the Rectangle Border on their spines. It's a before-and-after scenario of which printing do you have, even if the copyright year is the same. 

________________________________________________

* there is one other anomaly, that I think may have been a preliminary "test" of member's feedback upon its issuance ----> July 1972's cover has neither the Laurel atop the name, no inner thin white border, and no oak & leaves!

(so I guess we could say this was the spectre of the September 2000 make-over) ---->

[Scott T. Shier]

The Oak, Leaves & Acorns border was thinned down to accommodate the ever-increasing use of illustrations on the cover, which were g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y becoming more dominant, and bigger. Along with the text, they were going to run into too much "clutter". 

I think the decade 1960's covers look very nice. However (and this has been my feeling since childhood) -- the 1970's covers overall were awkward, conflicting, too mish-mashed, etc. I think once the decision was made to do full-on 100% illustration within the Yellow Border, the Oak & Leaves, Acorns should have been terminated almost immmediatley.

They overstayed their visually coherent "welcome" by the 1970's -- as with so much else 1970's, it was an awkward decade, does not age well, and looks like awkward adolescence in hindsight . . . e.g., not "timeless". 

As much as I LOVE the oak, leaves, acorns, and laurel, the 1970's thing they had going was just "not it". 

I think the cover aesthetic from September 1970-August 2000 was superb. 

-- Scott 

[Dale]

Hi Tom,

You are the consumate detective. Few would have noticed these changes or 'tweaks'. I am just not sure that they are significant enough to warrant inclusion as a cover format change. What do you think?

[George Thomas Wilson]

Dale,

Those tiny changes to Antarctica were just a reflection of my love of maps, but they do highlight the two major changes to the O&O border.  Scott mentioned gradual, minor tweaks through the years.  They are so minor that I haven't noticed them.  As you are aware by now:

The first major change shifted the acorns from the sides of the border to clusters in the middle and the polar regions at the top and bottom were changed from just maps of those regions to full north and south hemispheres.

The second major change narrowed the O&O border.  This shrunk the size of the four hemispheres which required them to be redrawn.  (I increased the size of my third Antarctic map to be the same size as the others.)

[Scott T. Shier]

Hey! I noticed the same things Mr. Tom did -- just did not mention them, LOL.

[Dale]

Hi Tom and Scott. Thank you both for your insights on the covers. I knew Howard Paine quite well and stayed at his home in Virginia a couple of times and went to his funeral in 2014. Updated covers list below.

[Scott T. Shier]

Uh-oh, Dale and Tom -- we are now running into "scope creep" Ha-ha   : - ) 

Yes, some of these changes were more 'nuanced detail' Vs. "structural" visual changes . . . 

Thanks Dale for adding things Tom and I are talking about, fun is it not?   : - ) 

[Dale]

Just to prove that I am  total pedant, I've updated my cover changes again after I noticed much earlier covers with partial images in 1942 and 1943. I feel that these are worth noting even if that style didn't become regular until July 1959. Also updated the Mar 2024 to the actual cover sent to subscribers (as was noted by Tom).

[George Thomas Wilson]

It's an awesome compilation, Dale.  Might I suggest a 5 by 4 grid, since you have 20.

[Scott T. Shier]

Oh cool, ha-ha. Might I suggest too that on the 3rd-to-last cover, modify the word "emblem" instead to: "laurel" ?