Jazz Age magazine ’The Chicagoan’ reborn online

The Chicagoan —a Jazz Age magazine fashioned after The New Yorker —entered a new era this week, after the University of Chicago Library launched a website that makes digitized copies of nearly every issue available online for the first time. First published in 1926, the Chicagoan came on the scene just 16 months after the initial appearance of the New Yorker and was inspired by its editorial content and design. Fighting stereotypes of Chicago as a city dominated by crime, the Chicagoan promoted its home as a vibrant and sophisticated center of culture. It sported modern cover art, literary and performance reviews, and other features that "translat[e] into prose and picture the gusto and glamor of this good town"—as its own advertising proclaimed. The Library's new Chicagoan website, which reproduces the magazine's complete run from 1926 to 1935, minus a few missing issues, provides an opportunity to delve into this wealth of material on the literary, cultural, artistic, athletic and social milieu of Jazz Age Chicago. Thanks to an agreement with Quigley Publishing , the magazine can be used freely by individuals for research and educational purposes. Visitors to the site can browse digitized images of the magazine's vibrant covers and lively interior pages, can read full issues, or use the site's search feature.