May 3: Poet Clark W. Bryan & Good Housekeeping Magazine ~ Julie Lence

Clark W. Bryan
Wikipedia

    Poet Clark W. Bryan is someone many of us aren’t familiar with. Born August 12, 1824 in Harpersfield, New York, Bryan began his publishing career alongside his brother, beginning with The Catskill Messenger. In 1852, he signed on with Samuel Bowles and Co., working as editorial and business partner to Samuel Bowles for the Springfield Republican upon the death of Bowles’ father. Bowles went on to dissolve the company with his shareholders, paving the way for Bryan to purchase it and rename it Clark W. Bryan and Co. In 1872, Bryan’s company purchased the Springfield Union and later sold it in 1872 to Joseph Shipley, editor-in-chief. On January 1, 1880, he established The Paper World in Holyoke, Massachusetts. In 1889, he went to work for Amateur Gardening as publisher, and between those 2 endeavors, he founded Good Housekeeping 

Magazine, with the mission “to produce and perpetuate perfection — or as near unto perfection as may be attained in the household.”   

1st Edition Worthpoint.com

   The 1^st issue of Good Housekeeping was published on May 2, 1885. A go-to magazine for women, Good Housekeeping was an early groundbreaker with articles relating to food safety. In 1887, topics ranged from watered-down milk to candy contaminated with asbestos, which lead to a national campaign for the need for a federal consumer protection law. The result of which was the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

Around 1900, Good Housekeeping Experiment Station was founded. It was later renamed the Good Housekeeping Research Institute, with scientists and other experts developing recipes and cook time and temperature charts for different foods. The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval was established in 1909.

Pocketmags.com

   Good Housekeeping Magazine was bought by the Hearst Corporation in 1911.  At that time, the magazine had a circulation of 300,000, and was Hearst’s most successful magazine during the Great Depression. Today, the magazine is available in print and digital forms and has a readership of 17 million. (It’s website has 12 million readers.) Over the years, most of the articles have been written about women, including Betty Friedan’s 1960 article, “Women Are People Too”.  As for  Clark W. Bryan, he took his own life in 1899 while mourning the loss of his wife and son. He was also in financial ruin. He had moved The Paper World to the Pulitzer Building in New York City in 1898, retained little more than creative input, and tried to sell to another company, but the sale was a failure. After his death, all of his other publications were discontinued, with the exception of Good Housekeeping Magazine.