Periodical Ramblings (9)

Arizona Highways

   I post occasionally about magazines and journals and the last one was about a genre of periodicals devoted to individuals (see Single Author Journals). That I would now choose to write about what would seem to be such a pedestrian publication may seem odd, but I am sure you are familiar with Arizona Highways. Although I grew up on the East Coast, I recall seeing a copy in the last century, probably in the office of my dentist or some other waiting room. It circulated widely and still does in this century. 

   There is no need for me to write much about it since so many others have. Plus, the publication is perhaps best known for the paintings, photographs and other illustrations contained within it and it will be more useful to simply direct you to them. The one above is of Monument Valley, which you probably remember well from the many Westerns filmed there. Who knew that it snowed there? When John Wayne first visited he supposedly said, "So this is where God put the West!"

(Although John Wayne is now persona non grata, I chose not to erase his quote).

   To see more photographs go to the Arizona Highways website. You will find a blog there as well and you can do some shopping. The Grand Canyon calendars look beautiful and you can get some postcards and pretend you have been there. 

 The Bonus Information:

   Although it is not obvious from the Arizona Highways website, you can access most of the beautiful issues through the Arizona Memory Project which contains  the Collections pictured above. Among them you will find digitized issues of Arizona Highways. I will give no further directions since you really should subscribe to the magazine.

   The Arizona Memory Project (AMP)

provides access to the wealth of primary sources in Arizona archives, museums, libraries, and other cultural institutions. Visitors to the site will find some of the best examples of government documents, photographs, maps, and multimedia that chronicle Arizona's past and present.

   I wish Ontario had such an archival project in place.

Sources:

  There have been anniversary issues in the publication which provide the information you need. I picked up the "Special 90th Anniversary Issue: A Look Back at Our First Nine Decades" while in Arizona.  It is the April 2015 issue and you can find the digitized version on the AMP. 

For the 95th anniversary see this ADOT article: "Arizona Highways Magazine Celebrates 95 Years With Special Issue" which looks at the landscape photography over the years. 

There is even an article in the Globe and Mail. See: "Arizona Magazine Published 60 Years," Edwin McDowell, Sept. 28, 1985. 

A more recent piece is found here: "Praising Arizona," by Kyle Paoletta, Columbia Journalism Review, June 20, 2020.

Today, Highways is the most beloved publication in Arizona. It has become an institution in a state too young to have many, as likely to be cited by historians and policymakers as any newspaper. For residents, the magazine is a talisman of their state’s particular allure. I’ve seen bundles of meticulously maintained back issues at a library sale in Flagstaff and vintage covers framed on the walls of an Airbnb in Phoenix. The reverence Arizonans have for the magazine is rooted in its upward trajectory over the course of the twentieth century, one that matches the rise in stature of the state itself from an obscure wasteland to a place of universally acknowledged natural splendor and cultural vibrancy. Robert Stieve, the current editor of Highways, calls it an “anomaly.” No other state-operated tourism magazine has reached the same heights of national influence, nor spawned as many imitators.