Collier's

Collier's magazine started as a bold experiment in American publishing. Founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier, an Irish immigrant who had already built a successful book-publishing business, it first appeared as Collier's Once a Week, a story-paper. By 1895 it had evolved into Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal, and by 1905 it was rebranded as Collier's: The National Weekly. The magazine ran for nearly seven decades, ceasing publication with its January 4, 1957 issue. A short-lived digital revival attempt in 2012 failed to re-establish the brand.

Peter Collier built the magazine into a powerhouse of investigative journalism. Collier's became known for exposing corporate malfeasance and political corruption, pioneering what President Theodore Roosevelt famously called "muckraking." The magazine's willingness to take on powerful interests led to lawsuits, but Collier's legal victories encouraged other publications to follow suit. Its 1905 series on patent medicine fraud, "The Great American Fraud" by Samuel Hopkins Adams, directly contributed to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

At its peak in the 1930s, Collier's circulation exceeded 2.5 million subscribers, making it one of the most widely read magazines in the United States. The magazine featured fiction by Willa Cather, Jack London, and H.G. Wells alongside hard-hitting journalism. After World War II, rising postal costs and competition from television eroded its readership. The final issue appeared on January 4, 1957. In 2019, Nathan S. Collier, a descendant of the founder, established the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability, an annual $25,000 award recognizing outstanding investigative reporting on state government issues.[edit]