Curtis Publishing Company

American publisher of periodicals

The Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became one of the largest and most influential publishers in the United States during the early 20th century. The company's publications included the Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post, The American Home, Holiday, Jack & Jill, and Country Gentleman. In the 1940s, Curtis also had a comic book imprint, Novelty Press. The company declined in the later 20th century, and its publications were sold or discontinued. It now exists as Curtis Licensing, which licenses images of and from Curtis magazine covers and artwork.

The Curtis Publishing Company was founded in 1891 by publisher Cyrus H. K. Curtis, who published the People's Ledger, a news magazine he launched in Boston in 1872, and then moved to Philadelphia, which was a major publishing center in the nation, four years later, in 1876. Curtis established the Tribune and Farmer in 1879. Curtis' wife, Louisa Knapp Curtis, developed a women's section to the magazine and the Ladies' Home Journal, which she edited from 1883 to 1889, all of which became part of Curtis Publishing Company. In 1897, Curtis bought The Saturday Evening Post for $1000, and developed it into one of the nation's most popular periodicals. The magazine had its roots in Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette, which went back to 1728. The goal of the division was to understand their customers and was one of the first market research firms. Curtis reported record earnings of $21 million on $84 million in revenue in 1929. Curtis spun off their market research division, National Analysts, as an independent organization to provide market research services to business and government. In 1946, Curtis Publishing launched Holiday magazine, focusing on travel and photo essays. The emergence of television in the late 1940s and early 1950s competed for people's attention and eroded the popularity of general interest periodicals such as the Post and the Journal. The company's financials showed a loss of $4,194,000 on $178.4 million in revenue that year. Curtis received another loan of $5.5 million in 1964 to be used to make investments in new editorial properties. Perfect Film loaned the company $5 million in 1968 at the request of Curtis's primary loan holder, First National Bank of Boston, to extend its loans. Curtis sold its Philadelphia headquarters to real estate developer John W. Merriam for $7.3 million to pay off most of the First National loan; it leased half of the building back for its operations. In 1968, Curtis Publishing sold the Ladies' Home Journal and The American Home to Downe Communications for $5.4 million in stock; it sold the stock for operating revenue. The list of six million Post subscribers was sold to Life for cash, a $2.5 million loan, and a contract with Curtis' circulation and printing services subsidiaries. Despite these attempts to revive the Saturday Evening Post, and failing to find a purchaser for the magazine, Curtis Publishing shut it down in 1969. In March 1969, the Federal Trade Commission directed Curtis to offer cash refunds for unfulfilled portions of Post subscriptions. Perfect Film purchased Curtis Circulation Company that same year.

In the 21st century, Curtis Publishing licenses magazine covers and artwork from their archive of 4,000 images from over 500 artists. As Curtis Licensing, they provide images for advertising and to companies creating and selling memorabilia. The company's Norman Rockwell cover paintings and other images have been used for fine art and prints, greeting cards, figurines, and other collectibles.

In 1910, the company built its headquarters building at the intersection of South Sixth and Walnut Streets about southwest of Independence Hall. The offices and press building and the company's warehouse) was designed by Edgar Viguers Seeler (1867–1929) in the Beaux Arts style. The square block building stretches from South Sixth to South Seventh Street east to west, and from Sansom Street to Walnut Street north to south. The building was renovated in 1990 by Oldham and Seltz and John Milner Associates. The interior of the building features a terraced waterfall and fountain, an atrium with faux Egyptian palm trees, and the glass mosaic Dream Garden, designed by Maxfield Parrish and made by Louis Tiffany and Tiffany Studios in 1916. In 1998, the mosaic was sold to casino owner Steve Wynn, who intended to move it to one of his casinos in Las Vegas. This was blocked by local historians and art lovers, who raised $3.5 million to purchase the work and prevent its being moved from the city. The money was provided by the Pew Charitable Trusts to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, which now owns the work.