Magazine Covers over the years

[Dale]

[Dale]

These are the different significant NGM cover changes that I have found over the years. The Feb 1910 change to the yellow border was significant , but those magazines in that year or two have a distinctly yellow hue over the whole cover, whereas in later years the central region was definitely more white. Just not sure whether this was due to my aged magazines or an actual change to the cover colour. Would appreciate your thoughts.

[George Thomas Wilson]

Dale,

The early "Oak and Olive" border issues had a peach-colored cover.

They switched to white by 1913, but the yellow border was still pale.

By the early 1920s the border became the more familiar yellow.

But in the late 1920s the "Oak and Olive" pattern was changed.  (Notice the acorns.)

[Dale]

Fantastic!! Many thanks George.

[George Thomas Wilson]

Dale,

Those images I posted were from the late Philip Riviere who posted all the covers here at the 'Corner.  I just did a quick perusal; you can look and find exact dates for the changes.  I think he got them from the Nat Geo CD.  He also posted a related discussion on more recent changes HERE.

The change of the "Oak and Olive" border occurred in May 1928, mid-production.

Yours in collecting,

Tom Wilson

[Dale]

Hi Tom (sorry for calling you George - I know how middle-name changes occur)

I could not definitively confirm the ~1913 or 1920s changes you cited, not from my own collection, or the NGS archives or https://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/national-geographic/5. This is probably due to ageing and poor color production of the magazine over that time. The 1912-1913 magazines almost all have spine binding and print issues. I did confirm the May 1928 Oak and Olive border pattern changes, and note that both variants are still available on eBay.

Cheers

Dale

[Dale]

Hi Tom

If I ignore the 1913-1920 ccolor changes, which are more of a productiion issue than a design issue, then I am left with the following cover changes. Again, happy to be corrected.

[George Thomas Wilson]

That's a beautiful image of the evolution of our beloved magazine, Dale.  Mind if I use it sometime?  I will give you full credit.

Tom

[Dale]

Use this one, no credit necessary. I corrected a couple of typos. You contributed significantly to this.

[Scott T. Shier]

Dale,

Nice collage. It would "mess up" the symmetry to add it, but I must point out the re-design and cover style changes stemming from September 2000 (though I wouldn't use September's as the image example, its too ugly). 

That is when they removed the beloved and dignified Oak & Laurel from atop the title (for shame!), and removed the last vestige of the inner white bordering between the yellow, and the images of the covers within.

- Scott

P.S. 

2018 was also the font change of the title on the cover; as well as the paper change that they made a press release for: "more luxuriant" paper for covers and feature articles, and "more readable" text fonts within "preserving our heritage while looking to the future". 

* yawn *