Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Cornell Widow

The Cornell Widow was a humorous student-ran magazine at Cornell University. It was first published on October 4, 1894 and continued until financial problems shut it down in 1962. The magazine's name comes from the term "college widow" who was "the girl who bowled over class after class of freshmen without really landing one." Although much of the humor is dated (and sometimes offensive), it offers a very interesting view into the times and events during which it was published. The Widow's artwork was very often remarkable, but unfortunately many of the best designed issues are still very difficult to find.
I dug several of these covers from various places online [see below] and the rest are scans from the misleadingly titled book The Cornell Widow Hundredth Anniversary Anthology: 1894-1994 (as said above The Widow ended in 1962 and this anthology was actually published in 1981 - the title was a humorous response to the 100 year anthology of The Widow's rival The Cornell Daily Sun).


April 1916


November 6, 1922


January 22, 1923


February 1923


Easter - March 31, 1923


December 1923


November 1925 by Waleter S Beecher


February 1926


March 26, 1926


Christmas 1927


May 24, 1928


May 1942 by Walter McQuade


March 1952 by Walt Kelly


March 1949 by Richard Koppe


by Charles C. Porter


1906-1908


1927-1928

& a few from the inside:








-
several covers (though surprisingly not more) can be viewed online at Cornell University's Rare Book and Manuscript Collections [link]
the anthology and several issues at amazon [link]
a bound collection of 1922-1923 issues (with pictures) on ebay [link]
several issues for sale (with pictures) at Ruby Lane [link]

1 comment:

joel. said...

forgot to mention that a few more comics from the Widow can be seen at my flickr [link]

 
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