Mulcahy's Miscellany: Periodical Ramblings (10)

The Steven Lamazow Collection of American Periodicals

Dr. Steven Lomazow is a neurologist in New Jersey. He has been collecting magazines for almost fifty years and has over 80,000 of them, many of which are very rare. One can only imagine what his waiting room is like.

It is fitting that the tenth post in the series, "Periodical Ramblings" is turned over to someone who is really interested in magazines. Many of those he has collected are now being exhibited in The Grolier Club in New York city. You can visit virtually here: Magazines and The American Experience: Highlights From the Collection of Steven Lomazow, M.D. You can spend the rest of the day rambling among periodicals that range in subject from the avant garde and archery, to wars and wrestling.

If you want to spend more time browsing, then visit his major website: The Great American Magazine: The Periodical Collection of Steven Lamazow, M.D. There you can search thousands of periodicals and view images, and find links to other periodical-related resources. It is also worth looking at his older blog site: Magazine History: A Collector's Blog Documenting and Illustrating the History, Importance and the Joy of Collecting Magazines, 2008-2013.

The Bonus:
If you are interested in books and libraries, you should visit The Grolier Club and do some browsing. There are many interesting books and resources to be found and among the other exhibitions, there is this one about medical history books related to plastic surgery: The History of Plastic Surgery: "Much More Than Skin Deep" from the Collection of Douglas M. Monasebian, M.D.
Speaking of medical history, Dr. Lomazov has yet another blog relating to the health of FDR: see FDR's Deadly Secret.

Sources:

"How Magazines Helped Shape American History: Explore 300 Years of the Periodicals in an Encyclopedic Exhibition Opening at the Grolier Club in New York City,” Nora McGreevy, Smithsonian Magazine, Feb. 23, 2021.

"For national audiences, Lomazow and librarian Julie Carlsen have curated an extensive online exhibition, chronicling the magazine experience against the backdrop of American history on subjects ranging from the birth of democracy, to emancipation and the Civil War, the mid-century information age and the battle for civil rights, as well as a host of niche publications on celebrity, humor, art and baseball."

"What Are Magazines Good For," Nathan Heller, New Yorker, Feb. 16, 2021.

"The Grolier is a club for bibliophiles, but magazine nuts are admitted if their obsession reaches sufficiently crazed levels. (The home Lomazow shares with his wife and collaborator in collection, Suze Bienaimee, teems intimidatingly, some might say alarmingly, with bound volumes.) Lomazow strode over to one of eleven glass cases displaying his magazines, moving like a man whose number has been called at a busy deli counter. In winnowing down his collection to about two hundred issues for display—the show, in the exhibition gallery of the Grolier’s clubhouse, is open to the public by appointment—he focussed on those of acute historical importance."

The Series: