The American Home

{{Short description|US magazine from 1928 to 1977}} {{for|the Russo-American center of intercultural exchange|American Home}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox magazine | title = | image_file = The-American-Home-June-1930-1.jpg | image_size =  | image_alt = | image_caption = June 1930 issue of ''The American Home'' | editor = | editor_title = | previous_editor = | staff_writer = | frequency = Monthly | circulation = | category = | company = | publisher = | founded = 1928 | firstdate = October 1928 | finaldate = 1977 | country = USA | based = New York City | language = | website =  | issn = }}

'''''The American Home''''' was a monthly magazine published in the United States from 1928 to 1977. Its subjects included domestic architecture, interior design, landscape design and gardening.<ref name="ReferenceA">"American Home", Library of Congress Catalog.</ref>

==History and profile== ''The American Home'' was a continuation of the magazine ''Garden & Home Builder''.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> It was published by Nelson Doubleday of Doubleday, Doran & Company.<ref>"The American Home" (advertisement), ''The New York Times'', Oct. 14, 1928, Sunday Magazine, p. 15.</ref> Ellen Diffin Wangner edited the first issues, October 1928 to March 1929.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> ''The American Home'' lost money its first four years, and occasionally entire issues were omitted.<ref name="Flooded Home">"[https://web.archive.org/web/20081215074204/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,848441,00.html Flooded Home]", ''Time'', April 6, 1936.</ref> William Herbert Eaton, its circulation manager, became publisher in 1932. He bought the magazine in 1935,<ref name="Flooded Home"/> forming American Home Publishing Company, which continued to publish it in New York City until he sold the magazine in 1958 to Curtis Publishing Company, its single-copy distributor.<ref>"Curtis Publishing Co. Buys American Home Magazine Voting Stock", ''The Wall Street Journal'', April 22, 1958, p. 12. "William Herbert Eaton, 81, Dies: Ex-Publisher of American Home", ''The New York Times'', April 22, 1963, p. 27.</ref> Under Eaton, the magazine was refocused toward the upper middle class reader, leaving the higher end of the home market to fellow Doubleday magazine ''Country Life'', which Eaton also bought.

By 1953, ''The American Home'' had a paid circulation of over 3 million,<ref>"Advertising and Marketing News", ''The New York Times'', August 5, 1953, p. 33.</ref> and reached a peak circulation of 3.7 million in 1962.<ref name="The New York Times 1977">"Charter to Merge Two Publications", ''The New York Times'', Dec. 2, 1977, p. D9.</ref> As part of its desire to move out of mass circulation publications, Curtis sold the magazine in 1968 to Downe Communications.<ref>"Downe Bid Accepted For American Home, Ladies' Home Journal", ''The Wall Street Journal'', August 15, 1968, p. 3.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Frank N. Magill|title=Chron 20c Hist Bus Comer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ySJpAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA964|accessdate=November 14, 2015|date=April 23, 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-26462-9|page=964}}</ref> John Mack Carter purchased it in 1973, and it was acquired in late 1975 by the Charter Company.<ref>Philip H. Dougherty, "Advertising", ''The New York Times'', Jan. 2, 1976, p. 44.</ref>

In 1975 Charter Company president and chairman Raymond K. Mason installed Leda Sanford as president, publisher and editor-in-chief with a mandate to reposition the magazine and stem losses by attracting new readership.<ref>Philip H. Dougherty, “New Owner for American Home,” ''The New York Times,'' June 23, 1975 [https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/21/archives/advertising-a-patron-for-a-new-magazine-the-name-will-change-but.html?sq=Leda+sanford&scp=1&st=p]</ref> Sanford was the first female publisher of a national American magazine. Her goal was to maintain a circulation of 2.5 million and appeal to newly liberated women. She said she wanted the magazine to “speak intelligently to the college-educated and informed woman,” telling the targeted reader how to “run her home with flair, beauty and pizzazz.” <ref>John Getze, “Publisher Cleans House to Improve American Home,” ''Los Angeles Times,'' Sept. 12, 1975 [https://web.archive.org/web/20110604041440/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/679372202.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Sep+12,+1975&author=JOHN+GETZE&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(1886-Current+File)&edition=&startpage=D16&desc=Publisher+Cleans+House+to+Improve+American+Home]</ref> The publication saw slight gains,<ref>Philip H. Dougherty, “Advertising; American Home Foresees Gains,” ''The New York Times,'' June 15, 1976 [https://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/15/archives/advertising-american-home-foresees-gains.html?sq=leda+sanford&scp=7&st=p]</ref> but not enough to save what the ''New York Times'' referred to as a “fixture on the American publishing scene.” <ref>“Charter to Merge Two Publications,” ''The New York Times,'' Dec. 2, 1977 [https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/02/archives/charter-to-merge-two-publications.html?sq=leda+sanford&scp=9&st=p]</ref>

After several years of losses,<ref name="The New York Times 1977"/> and in an era that saw the closure of the mass circulation magazines ''Life'', ''Look'', and ''The Saturday Evening Post'', the last issue of ''American Home'', with a cover date of February 1978, was published in late 1977. It was then merged with the Charter magazine ''Redbook''.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

== See also == * Leda Sanford

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:American Home, The}} Category:Monthly magazines published in the United States Category:Defunct women's magazines published in the United States Category:Magazines established in 1928 Category:Magazines disestablished in 1977 Category:Magazines published in New York City Category:Interior design magazines Category:Architecture magazines