The Delineator was an American women's magazine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founded by the Butterick Publishing Company

Butterick Publishing Company

The Butterick Publishing Company was founded by Ebenezer Butterick to distribute the first graded sewing patterns. By 1867, it had released its first magazine, Ladies Quarterly of Broadway Fashions, followed by The Metropolitan in 1868. These magazines contained patterns and fashion news.In 1873,...

 in 1869 under the name The Metropolitan Monthly. Its name was changed in 1875. In November 1926, under the editorship of Mrs. William Brown Meloney

Marie Mattingly Meloney

Marie Mattingly Meloney , who used Mrs. William B. Meloney as her professional and social name, was "one of the leading woman journalists of the United States," a magazine editor and a socialite who in the 1920s organized a fund drive to buy radium for Marie Curie and began a movement for better...

, it absorbed The Designer, founded in 1887 and published by the Standard Fashion Company, a Butterick subsidiary.

One of The Delineator's managing editors was writer Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...

, who worked with other members of the
staff such as Sarah Field Splint (later known for writing cookbooks ) and Arthur Sullivant Hoffman

Arthur Sullivant Hoffman

Arthur Sullivant Hoffman was an American magazine editor. Hoffman isbest known for editing the acclaimed pulp magazine Adventurefrom 1912-1927,as well as playing a role in the creation of the American Legion .-Early Life:...

.
The Delineator featured the Butterick sewing patterns

Pattern (sewing)

In sewing and fashion design, a pattern is an original garment from which other garments of a similar style are copied, or the paper or cardboard templates from which the parts of a garment are traced onto fabric before cutting out and assembling .Patternmaking, pattern making or pattern cutting is...

 and provided an in-depth look at the fashion of the day. Butterick also produced quarterly catalogs of fashion patterns in the 1920s and early 1930s.

In addition to clothing patterns, the magazine published photos and drawings of embroidery and needlework that could be used to adorn both clothing and items for the home. It also included articles on all forms of home decor. It also published fiction, including many short stories

Short Stories

Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...

 by L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...

.

Further reading

Endres, Kathleen L. and Therese L. Lueck, eds. Women's Periodicals in the United States: Consumer Magazines. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995: 60.

External links

• Online archive of cover images