Lifelong Learning

Start a New Hobby with the Help From NYPL's Periodical Collections!

Would you like to learn how to knit or improve your bird watching skills? The DeWitt Wallace Periodicals Division currently holds over 100 hobbies and leisure activities magazines for hobbyists, amateurs and enthusiasts alike.  

We have periodicals ranging from antique trading to doll collectingrunning, bikingamateur wrestling, chess playing, cooking, traveling, horse riding, photographingfly fishingwriting, interior designing, yachtingjewelry makinggolfing, gaminggardening, archery, and swimming.

We also subscribe to magazines that focus on collecting stamps, coins, beer cans, clocksfirearmsmarbles, pens, post cards, seashells, souvenir buildings, teddy bears, and toys; just to name a few!

Personally, I like reading about book collecting more than doing the “collecting" aspect itself.  Books are interesting objects; they are full of tiny details that are often overlooked by people.  The activity of book collecting can be lucrative, fun and overwhelming. Competition is fierce but only the true bibliophiles can master the art of book collecting by reading these periodicals!

Trout fishing on the Dart., Digital ID 410991, New York Public LibraryTrout fishing on the Dart

So how can you find such periodicals?  There are numerous ways to search for these magazines from our library catalog; the quickest way is to switch keyword to subject and then type in your hobby of interest and " -- periodicals ." Example: " fly fishing -- periodicals "

This search method will filter your results for the "hobby interests" to "periodicals."  If there are "no matches found," you can refine your search by retyping another subject or simply look at the results below to see if there are other nearby subjects close to your interests.  

If you already know the title of the magazine, you can switch "keyword" to "journal title" and type the name of the magazine and submit the search.  You can also search for other similar titles based on the same "subject headings" in the catalog record of a magazine.        

Demonstration Postage Stamp strip of four, Digital ID 2005_6603_8_948_1, New York Public Library