page_title: Curtis Publishing Company
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Curtis Publishing Company / History
caption_attribution_description: The Curtis Publishing Company Building, now known as the Curtis Center, at 699 Walnut Street between Sansom Street, S. 6th and S. 7th Street in the Washington Square West neighborhood of Philadelphia was built in 1910 and was designed by Edgar Seeler in the Beaux Arts style as the headquarters for the company that published the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and many other magazines. The interior of the building features a terraced waterfall and fountain, an atrium with faux-Egyptian palm trees, and the 15'x29' glass-mosaic The Dream Garden (1916) designed by Maxwell Parrish and made by Louis Tiffany and Tiffany Studios, which is owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The building was renovated in 1990 by Oldham and Seltz and John Milner Associates. (Sources: Philadelphia Architecture: A Guide to the City and "The Curtis Center" and "Dream Garden" on USHistory.org)
context_page_description: The Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became one of the largest and most influential publishers in the United States during the early 20th century. The company's publications included the Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post, The American Home, Holiday, Jack & Jill, and Country Gentleman. In the 1940s, Curtis also had a comic book imprint, Novelty Press.
context_section_description: The Curtis Publishing Company was founded in 1891 by publisher Cyrus H. K. Curtis, who published the People's Ledger, a news magazine he had begun in Boston in 1872 and moved to Philadelphia in 1876.  The city was already a major publishing center. Curtis also established the Tribune and Farmer in 1879. From a brief women's supplement, his wife Louisa Knapp Curtis developed a women's section and the Ladies' Home Journal, which she edited from 1883 to 1889. 
  Curtis made these publications part of his new company. Curtis bought the Saturday Evening Post for $1000 in 1897 and developed it as one of the nation's most popular periodicals. The magazine had its roots in Ben Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette and went as far back as 1728. When Curtis took over the Post it had a subscription base of 2,000. The base was over 1 million by 1906 and by 1960 was over six million. Editor George Lorimer brought in top writers and illustrators and helped usher in "American's Golden Age of Illustration." Artists such as Norman Rockwell were featured as well as J. C. Leyendecker, John Clymer, Stevan Dohanos, Sarah Stilwell-Weber, and John La Gatta. 
  Curtis Publishing created a market research division in 1911 under Charles Coolidge Parlin. The goal of the division was to understand their customers and was one of the first market research firms. 
  Curtis reported record earnings of $21 million on $84 million in revenue in 1929.
  Curtis spun off their market research division, National Analysts, as an independent organization to provide market research services to business and government.
  In 1946, Curtis Publishing bought and launched Holiday magazine, focusing on travel and photo essays.
caption: The Curtis Center, located at the Northwest corner of 6th and Walnut Streets in Philadelphia, was built in 1910 and designed by Edgar Seeler in the Beaux Arts style
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