Good Housekeeping

{{Short description|American women's magazine}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox magazine
| title = Good Housekeeping
| image_file = Good Housekeeping January 2015 issue.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| image_caption = January 2015 cover featuring [[Julie Walters]]
| editor = Jane Francisco
| editor_title = Editor-in-chief
| staff_writer =
| frequency = Bi-monthly
|total_circulation = 4,014,028<ref>{{cite web|url=http://abcas3.accessabc.com/ecirc/magtitlesearch.asp|title=eCirc for Consumer Magazines|date=June 30, 2020|work=[[Audit Bureau of Circulations (North America)|Audit Bureau of Circulations]]|access-date=October 7, 2020}}</ref>
|circulation_year = 2020
| category = Lifestyle and Product Reviews
| company =
| publisher = [[Hearst Communications|Hearst Magazines]]
| firstdate = {{start date and age|1885|5|2}}
| country = United States
| based = [[New York City]]
| language = [[English language|English]]
| website = {{URL|http://www.goodhousekeeping.com}}
| issn = 0017-209X 
}}
'''''Good Housekeeping''''' is an American and British lifestyle media brand that covers a wide range of topics from home decor and renovation, health, beauty and food, to entertainment, pets and gifts. The Good Housekeeping Institute which opened its "Experiment Station" in 1900, specializes in product reviews by a staff of scientific experts. The GH Institute is known, in part, for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," a limited warranty program that evaluates products to ensure they perform as intended.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.startribune.com/will-anyone-unfamiliar-with-the-good-housekeeping-seal-of-approval-get-moa-s-new-store/495021171/ | title = Will anyone unfamiliar with the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval 'get' MOA's new store? | first = John | last = Ewoldt | date = October 4, 2018 | work = [[Star Tribune]] | access-date = August 2, 2020}}</ref>

''Good Housekeeping'' was founded in 1885 by American publisher and poet [[Clark W. Bryan]]. By the time of its acquisition by the [[Hearst Communications|Hearst Corporation]] in 1911, the magazine had grown to a circulation of 300,000 subscribers. By the early 1960s, it had over five million subscribers and was one of the world's most popular lifestyle magazines.

==History and profile==
[[File:Good Housekeeping masthead Vol I No 1 (1885).png|right|thumb|Masthead for the first issue of ''Good Housekeeping'', May 2, 1885]]
On May 2, 1885, [[Clark W. Bryan]] founded ''Good Housekeeping'' in [[Holyoke, Massachusetts]] as a fortnightly magazine.<ref name="founding">{{cite news|url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=sWoaAAAAIBAJ&pg=5113,4715939|title=Good Housekeeping's Seal Stamps Its Approval | last = Belkin | first = Lisa |work=[[Milwaukee Journal]] |date= June 15, 1985 |access-date=June 18, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Top 100 U.S. Magazines by Circulation | date = n.d. |url=http://www.psaresearch.com/images/TOPMAGAZINES.pdf |work=PSA Research Center |access-date=February 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180128021733/http://www.psaresearch.com/images/TOPMAGAZINES.pdf|archive-date=January 28, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>  The magazine became a monthly publication in 1891.<ref name="Encyclopedia.com">{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/good-housekeeping|title=Good Housekeeping | encyclopedia = Encyclopedia.com | date = July 23, 2020 |access-date= August 2, 2020}}</ref>

The magazine achieved a circulation of 300,000 by 1911, at which time it was bought by the [[Hearst Corporation]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Magda | last = Ibrahim |title=Magazines ABCs: Women's monthlies led by Good Housekeeping |url=http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/article/1333610/magazines-abcs-womens-monthlies-led-good-housekeeping |access-date=April 24, 2016 |work=MediaWeek |date=February 12, 2015}}</ref> It topped one million in the mid-1920s, and continued to rise, even during the [[Great Depression]] and its aftermath.  In 1938, a year in which the magazine advertising dropped 22 percent, ''Good Housekeeping'' showed an operating profit of $2,583,202, more than three times the profit of Hearst's other eight magazines combined,<ref>''Printers' Ink'', Vol. 186, March 16, 1939, pg. 16.</ref> and probably the most profitable monthly of its time.  Circulation topped 2,500,000 in 1943, 3,500,000 in the mid-1950s, 5,000,000 in 1962, and 5,500,000 per month in 1966.  1959 profits were more than $11 million.<ref>{{cite book | last = Mott | first = Frank Luther | title = A History of American Magazines | year = 1968 | publisher = Harvard University Press | pages = 140–143}}</ref>

''Good Housekeeping'' was one of the "[[Seven Sisters (magazines)|Seven Sisters]]", a group of women's service magazines,<ref name="Encyclopedia.com" /> and is one of the three of them still published in print.{{cn|date=January 2024}}

In 1922, the Hearst Corporation created a British edition along the same lines, named ''British Good Housekeeping''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://thewebbizzare.com/best-ugly-christmas-holiday-sweaters-for-both-men-women/ |title=Good Housekeeping Institute: meet the team testing every item in your home |last=Hart |first=Carolyn |journal=Daily Telegraph |date=October 24, 2014 |access-date= December 4, 2019 |language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}</ref>

Famous writers who have contributed to the magazine include [[A. J. Cronin]],<ref>{{Cite news|last=Nugent|first=Frank S.|date=9 March 1940|title=THE SCREEN; 'Vigil in the Night,' a Sobersided Drama of Nursing, Opens at the Roxy--'Three Cheers for the Irish'|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1940/03/09/archives/the-screen-vigil-in-the-night-a-sobersided-drama-of-nursing-opens-a.html|access-date=2 December 2021|quote=VIGIL IN THE NIGHT, from the novel by A. J. Cronin published serially in Good Housekeeping Magazine...}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Davies|first=Alan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NoJjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA150|title=A.J. Cronin|date=2018-01-01|publisher=Alma Books|isbn=978-0-7145-4541-7|pages=150|language=en}}</ref> [[Betty Friedan]],<ref name=PostalMuseum /> [[Frances Parkinson Keyes]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url =  https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Keyes_Frances_Parkinson_1885-1970#start_entry | title = Frances Parkinson Keyes (1885–1970) | first = Jane Greenway | last = Carr | date = April 7, 2016 | encyclopedia = Encyclopedia Virginia | publisher = Virginia Humanities | access-date = August 2, 2020}}</ref> [[Clara Littledale|Clara Savage Littledale]],<ref>{{cite news | url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19370907&id=_c0gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jmoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2431,5103014 | title = Mother of Two Children, She Helped Raise A Million More: Former Newspaper Woman Directs Staff of Experts Who Write Magazine on Child Rearing Read by Five Hundred Thousand Parents | date = September 7, 1937 | page = 15A | work = [[Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine)|Lewiston Sun-Journal]] | access-date = August 2, 2020}}</ref> [[Edwin Markham]],{{citation needed|date=August 2017}} [[Somerset Maugham]],<ref name=ModJourn>{{cite web | url = https://modjourn.org/journal/good-housekeeping/ | title = Good Housekeeping, 1910 | date = n.d. | work = Modernist Journals Project | publisher = [[Brown University]] and [[University of Tulsa]] | access-date = August 2, 2020}}</ref><ref name=PostalMuseum>{{Cite web|url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/americasmailingindustry/Good-Housekeeping.html |title=Good Housekeeping |work =America's Mailing Industry | publisher = [[National Postal Museum]], [[Smithsonian Institution]] | access-date = August 2, 2020}}</ref> [[Edna St. Vincent Millay]],<ref name=ModJourn /><ref name=PostalMuseum /> [[J. D. Salinger]],<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Salinger |first=J. D. |date=February 1948 |title=A Girl I Knew |magazine=Good Housekeeping |publisher=Hearst Communications, Inc. }}</ref> [[Evelyn Waugh]],<ref name=ModJourn /> and [[Virginia Woolf]].<ref name=ModJourn /> Other contributors include [[advice column]]ists, [[chefs]], and [[politicians]].<ref name=PostalMuseum />

==Good Housekeeping Institute== <!-- [[Harvey W. Wiley]] links to this section; please change that article if you change this section heading -->
[[Image:Good housekeeping 1908 08 a.jpg|thumb|upright|Cover from August 1908 made by [[John Cecil Clay]]]]
In 1900, the "Experiment Station," the predecessor to the Good Housekeeping Research Institute (GHRI), now known as the Good Housekeeping Institute, was founded. In 1902, the magazine was calling this "An Inflexible Contract Between the Publisher and Each Subscriber."  The formal opening of the headquarters of the GH Institute – the "Model Kitchen," "Testing Station for Household Devices," and "Domestic Science Laboratory" – occurred in January 1910.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/products/100-anniversary-GHRI-1001 |title=The 100th Anniversary of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080104213915/http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/products/100-anniversary-GHRI-1001 |archive-date=January 4, 2008 |work =Good Housekeeping | publisher = Hearst Communications, Inc. |access-date=January 12, 2008}}</ref>

In 1909, the magazine established the Good Housekeeping Seal. Products advertised in the magazine that bear the GH Seal are tested by GH Institute experts and are backed by a two-year limited warranty. About 5,000 products have been given the seal.<ref name="WP2008">{{cite news | first = Walter | last = Nicholls | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/01/AR2008010100642_pf.html | title = Surviving the Test of Time: At Good Housekeeping, A Modern Makeover And Old-Fashioned Appeal | date = January 2, 2008 | newspaper = Washington Post}}</ref>

In April 1912, a year after Hearst bought the magazine, [[Harvey W. Wiley]], the first commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (1907–1912), became head of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute and a contributing editor whose "Question Box" feature ran for decades.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F06EEDA1F31E233A25755C2A9629C946396D6CF | title = Dr. Wiley's Debut as Editor; He Says He Will Be a Watchdog for the Nation's Housekeepers | work = The New York Times | date = April 26, 1912 | page = 9}}</ref> Beginning with a "Beauty Clinic" in 1932, departments were added to the Institute, including a "Baby's Center," "Foods and Cookery," and a "Needlework Room."  Some functioned as testing laboratories, while others were designed to produce editorial copy.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}

In 1924, the British Good Housekeeping magazine set up its own Good Housekeeping Institute at 49 Wellington Street in Covent Garden, London. Its first director was [[Dorothy Cottington Taylor]] who ran the "a highly organised laboratory for testing and investigating every kind of household appliance, method, and recipe" for sixteen years.<ref>{{Cite web |last=B |first=Lizzie |date=2022-05-22 |title=Dorothy Cottington Taylor (1891-1944) |url=https://womenwhomeantbusiness.com/2022/05/22/dorothy-cottington-taylor-1891-1944/ |access-date=2023-11-06 |website=Women Who Meant Business |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dorothy Daisy Cottington-Taylor (née Gale) - National Portrait Gallery |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw176055/Dorothy-Daisy-Cottington-Taylor-ne-Gale |access-date=2023-11-06 |website=www.npg.org.uk |language=en}}</ref>

After the passage of the [[Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act]] in 1938, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Rexford Tugwell sought to promote a government grading system. The Hearst Corporation opposed the policy in spirit, and began publishing a monthly tabloid attacking federal oversight.  In 1939, the [[Federal Trade Commission]] filed a complaint against ''Good Housekeeping'' for "misleading and deceptive" guarantees including the Seal, and "exaggerated and false" claims in its advertisements.  The publisher fought the proceedings for two years, during which time competing editors from the ''[[Ladies Home Journal]]'' and ''[[McCall's]]'' testified against ''Good Housekeeping''.  The FTC's ultimate ruling was against the magazine, forcing it to remove some claims and phraseology from its ad pages.  The words "Tested and Approved" were dropped from the Seal.  But the magazine's popularity was unaffected, steadily rising in circulation and profitability. In 1962, the wording of the Seal was changed to a guarantee of "Product or Performance", while dropping its endorsement of rhetorical promises made by the advertisers. In its varying forms, the Seal became inextricably associated with the magazine, and many others (e.g., ''McCall's'', ''[[Parents Magazine]]'', and ''[[Better Homes and Gardens (magazine)|Better Homes and Gardens]]'') mimicked the practice.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}

==International editions==
''Good Housekeeping'' began to be published in the United Kingdom in 1922.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Ping Shaw|title=Internationalization of the women's magazine industry in Taiwan context, process and influence|journal=Asian Journal of Communication |date=1999 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=17–38 |doi=10.1080/01292989909359623}}</ref> [[William Randolph Hearst]] appointed [[Alice Maud Head]] initially as assistant editor. Head rose to be the managing director, as well as purportedly being the highest paid woman in Europe. As Hearst's deputy, Head would make decisions on his behalf about not just editing, but also buying for him [[St Donat's Castle]], expensive art objects, and three [[giraffe]]s for his zoo. Head remained head until 1939.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | author-link = Martin Pugh (author) | first = Martin | last = Pugh | title = Head, Alice Maud (1886–1981) | encyclopedia = [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]] | publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 2004 | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/50062 | url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/50062 | access-date = April 20, 2017}}</ref>

In [[Latin America]], a Spanish version of the magazine, titled ''Buenhogar'', was published in the United States and Latin America by the [[Televisa]] corporation in Mexico from 1965, under license from the Hearst Corporation.<ref>{{cite web | title=Editorial Television, S.A. de C.V. | website=Encyclopedia.com | date=3 March 1997 | url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/editorial-television-sa-de-cv | access-date=8 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title= Televisa launching four new magazines for U.S. Hispanics| website=The Business Journals| first=Felicia |last=Levine | date=16 December 1996 | url=https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/1996/12/16/story5.html | access-date=8 January 2024}}</ref>

{{anchor|russia}}In Russia, the magazine was published first as ''Domashny Ochag'' ("Good Home, or Hearth"), before changing its name to ''Novy Ochag'' ("New Home, or Hearth") sometime in July 2022.<ref>{{cite web | title=Independent Media, медиахолдинг. Территория контента, креатива и технологий | website=Independent Media | date=25 December 2023 | url=https://english.imedia.ru/news/novochag/?page=2 | language=ru | access-date=8 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Domashny Ochag in June 2014 | website=Independent Media|date= May 2014 | url=https://www.imedia.ru/news/126621/ | language=ru | access-date=6 January 2024}}</ref> Published by Independent Media, and described as "a resource for women who take care of their homes, raise children, have successful careers and help others", ''Novy Ochag'' recorded a digital readership of 13 million in October 2023.<ref>{{cite web | title=Novy Ochag Sets Another Record | website=Independent Media |date= November 2023| url=https://english.imedia.ru/news/209925/ | language=ru | access-date=8 January 2024}}</ref>

==American editors==
{{Refimprove|section|date=January 2024}}
*[[Clark W. Bryan]] (1885–1898)
*James Eaton Tower (1899–1913)
*William Frederick Bigelow (1913–1942)
*[[Herbert Mayes|Herbert Raymond Mayes]] (1942–1958)
*Wade Hampton Nichols Jr. (1959–1975)
*[[John Mack Carter]] (1975–1994)
*[[Ellen Levine]] (1994–2006)
*Rosemary Ellis (2006–2013)<ref name="Good Housekeeping Names Jane Francisco" />
*Jane Francisco (2013–present)<ref name="Good Housekeeping Names Jane Francisco">{{cite web | url=http://www.wwd.com/media-news/fashion-memopad/cleaning-house-7272836?src=nl/mornReport/20131112 | title=Good Housekeeping Names Jane Francisco; Longtime editor in chief Rosemary Ellis is leaving the publication to "pursue new opportunities" | work= [[Women's Wear Daily]] | last=Steigrad | first = Alexandra | date=12 November 2013 | access-date=August 2, 2020}}</ref>

==See also==
*''[[Consumer Reports]]''
*[[Nat Mags]] (UK publisher)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/ U.S. edition], including the 
* [https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/ U.K. edition]
* [https://www.novochag.ru/ Russian edition]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140104212812/http://www.magazineart.org/main.php/v/womens/goodhousekeeping/ Archive] of the covers of many early issues
* [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cool:@field(NUMBER+@band(gh1))::bibLink=r?ammem/coolbib%3A@field(TITLE+@od1(Good+housekeeping+%3A+)) February 1926 issue] (262 pages)
* [https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/may-02/ Today in History: May 2], featuring ''Good Housekeeping''
*''[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000496265 Good Housekeeping]'' at the [[HathiTrust]]

{{Hearst}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1885 establishments in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Consumer magazines]]
[[Category:Hearst Communications publications]]
[[Category:Good Housekeeping| ]]
[[Category:Magazines established in 1885]]
[[Category:Magazines published in New York City]]
[[Category:Magazines published in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Monthly magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Women's magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Mass media in Springfield, Massachusetts]]