HONOLULU Magazine: The Covers

It began with a search in the basement of the Hawaii State Public Library. That is where we began the hunt for the 300+ covers featured in our book, HONOLULU Magazine and Paradise of the Pacific: 100 Years of Covers.

Paradise of the Pacific was born in January 1888, with the blessing of King Kalakaua. Though it changed its name in 1966 to HONOLULU Magazine, the magazine has been in continuous publication for 125 years.

That’s quite an accomplishment. HONOLULU is one of the oldest magazines in the United States, rivaling such titles as Scientific American (1845), The Atlantic (1857), Cosmopolitan (1886) and National Geographic (1888).

We’ve been celebrating this milestone in print and online all through 2013. The capstone of that quasquicentennial celebration is this coffee table book, featuring covers from nearly every one of those 125 years.

Some of the issues we found in the Hawaii State Public Library archives, which holds hundreds of original copies of Paradise and HONOLULU dating back into the 1800s. Some, we found in the collections of former HONOLULU employees. No matter where these pieces of history were discovered, our new book not only gives us an opportunity to share the art and creations of artists over the last century, but by scanning in the images, it allows us to preserve the works in digital form as the print magazines are slowly showing their age.

Along with the striking cover art, our book includes summaries of the stories told through 125 years of Hawaii history.

Buy online: honolulumagazine.com/125