We Bet You Didn't Know That Indiana Is Home To One Of The Oldest Publications In America
By Tori Jane|Published January 10, 2023
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Tori Jane
Author
Tori Jane is a storm chaser, writer, photographer, and the village idiot - in that order. When she's not out and about dancing with the meanest storms on planet Earth for funsies she can be found wandering, shooting landscapes, writing, editing photos, and otherwise up to no good. Legend has it that she can also be occasionally spotted typing up short bios in the third person, but those rumors are unsubstantiated.
Indiana is one of those places that’s terribly misunderstood. Seriously, think about it: the vast majority of people in the United States almost totally ignore it, with the general exception of major cultural events like, say, the Indy 500. But Indiana is home to numerous iconic places, people, and events – so much more than only NASCAR. For example, did you know that Michael Jackson himself was born here (in Gary, of all places)? It’s true. Indiana is also home to another iconic cultural beacon, one started by Benjamin Franklin (of all people): the Saturday Evening Post has been around for more than two centuries now, and best of all, it’s our own.
The Saturday Evening Post was published for the first time in 1821.
Okay, okay, it was originally printed in Philly, but once the paper was moved to Indianapolis, that's where it stayed - and we're pretty proud of this. It was this move from Philly to Indy that essentially saved the publication, as it struggled with dwindling readership in the '60s.
Prior to this, however, the paper was a distinguished powerhouse, with more than two million subscribers at its heyday.
The Post is famous for all kinds of iconic things, such as being the "discoverer" of internationally-beloved artist Norman Rockwell, whose portraits of idealized American culture in the 1950s became a household staple (and, to this day, are easily identifiable as distinctly "his").
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The publication was a Jack of All Trades of sorts; one could flip through it and find fiction, non-fiction, news, and all the latest tech and homewares, of course.
There's something wonderful and ridiculously fascinating about reading through the older issues, particularly ones published at the peak of the Post's popularity; it's like stepping back in time to an era where things were very, very different - for better or worse.
It was as if it were a living, breathing creature sometimes, taking on a life of its own depending on the interests and culture of the times. This ability to evolve is likely to thank for its 200+ years of existence.
It never stayed "stuck" in one era or another; it effectively changed with American life instead of against it, and as a result, its longevity is something to be appreciated.
Of course, this is not to say that television is bad (or that technology evolving is a negative thing); the publishers simply found themselves with new challenges, as folks no longer relied on print for news - this became a TV thing, ensuring that the Post needed to shift focus.
Today, the Saturday Evening Post has about 200,000 subscribers, and it’s still going strong. If you’d like to check it out for yourself, visit the official Saturday Evening Post website – you’ll love it, we promise.
For even more delightful Hoosier State nostalgia, you might want to check out the seven best drive-in restaurants in Indiana as soon as you get a minute.
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