Life - Volume XXI, Number 547 - June 22, 1893

Life - Volume XXI, Number 547, New York, June 22, 1893 is a typical early issue of the magazine, as published by Mitchell & Miller. It measures 8 ½ x 10 ½ inches and its 16 pages are comprised of nine numbered pages (pp 394 – 403) plus eight additional non-numbered pages containing advertisements, title page, etc. The pages were string bound, but the string is ineffective and pages are detached. Text, illustrations and other material are all in good, easily read condition.

The cover illustration is by Charles Dana Gibson.

The illustrations accompanying this description show the cover sheet, title page, two typical pages of text and illustrations, and a typical page of advertisements.

Life was founded on January 4, 1883, in a New York City artist's studio at 1155 Broadway, as a partnership between John Ames Mitchell and Andrew Miller. Miller served as secretary-treasurer of the magazine and managed the business side of the operation. Mitchell, a 37-year-old illustrator who used a $10,000 inheritance to invest in the weekly magazine, served as its publisher. He also created the first Life name-plate with cupids as mascots and later on, drew its masthead of a knight leveling his lance at the posterior of a fleeing devil. The new magazine set forth its principles and policies to its readers: We wish to have some fun in this paper...We shall try to domesticate as much as possible of the casual cheerfulness that is drifting about in an unfriendly world...We shall have something to say about religion, about politics, fashion, society, literature, the stage, the stock exchange, and the police station, and we will speak out what is in our mind as fairly, as truthfully, and as decently as we know how.