The "American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge" Emulates "The Penny Magazine"

Also inspired by the success of The Penny Magazine, but published monthly rather than weekly, the American Magazine, was established by a group of engravers in Boston to "give to the public a work descriptive, not merely of subjects, scenes, places, and persons existing in distant climes, but also of those which are to be found in our own fine and native country."^[1]  According to the Wikipedia article on the magazine, the company that published the magazine, The Boston Bewick Co., named after the famous woodengraver Thomas Bewick, was  "affiliated with Abel Bowen; George W. Boynton; Lewis H. Bridgham; Daniel H. Craig; William Croome; John C. Crossman; George A. Curtis; Nicholas B. Devereux, Jr.; John Downes; John H. Hall; Alonzo Hartwell; Freeman Hunt, and Richard P. Mallory." In spite of the association with woodengravers, I find the images in the first volume of the journal inferior to the quality of images in The Penny Magazine.

The American Magazine featured articles extensively illustrated with woodengravings on many topics such as American animals, plants, natural scenery, colleges, banks, hospitals, churches, cities, technology, and so on; as well as biographical articles on leaders of the the revolutionary and federal eras. It was published for three years between 1834 and 1837. During its third year, from 1836 to 1837 Nathaniel Hawthorne served as editor.

In its first year of publication the American Magazine reprinted in its September issue, without crediting its author or publisher, Dionysius Lardner's article on "Babbage's Calculating Engine." As far as I have been able to determine, this was the first publication in America on the operation of Babbage's Difference Engine No. 1.