As we move closer the The New Yorker‘s 100th birthday in February of 2025, I find myself revisiting the magazine’s earliest issues, and earliest cartoon collections, and thinking about “firsts.” The first seventeen cartoon collections were called “Albums. ” The very first Album was published in 1928 (The New Yorker Album) — the last Album (The New Yorker Cartoon Album 1975-1985) in 1985. Following the 1975-1985 Album, the designation varied.
The cover choice for that 1928 Album, as you see below right, used the same art (minus clouds), by Rea Irvin, found on The New Yorker‘s debut issue, below left.
Here’s an ad for the first Album in that appeared in The New Yorker issue of December 15, 1928:
The first Album‘s first drawing belongs to Peter Arno:
Here’s what the first Album cover looks like sans dust jacket:
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