Cheerful Moments was an American monthly mail-order magazine from 1892 until 1908, primarily a vehicle for advertising and light stories of the day, and one of a number of similar publications.
The magazine was founded in Boston in 1892. It was later acquired by George W. Willis of New York,[1] who worked in the field of mail order publications for over 25 years.[2][3][4] It claimed an average monthly circulation that reached up to claims of 500,000 copies by 1903.[5][6][7]
In December 1901, Advertising Experience described the most recent issue as "pretty much all advertising" where the "reading matter is simply an incidental but what there is of it is good."[8]
A contemporary textbook on advertising listed Cheerful Moments in a list of typical mail-order magazine of the day:
The American Farm World, Cheerful Moments, Woman's World, Homefolks, Comfort, The Gentlewoman, Good Stories, the Metropolitan and Rural Home, Spare Moments, the American Nation, and the Fireside Visitor are a few of the long list of low-priced monthly publications of large circulation that are filled with stories and reading matter of general character and that reach the great rural and semiurban field.[9]
It appears that Gaylord Wilshire took over the magazine by mid-1906, and it ceased publishing after its subscription list was absorbed into his Wilshire's magazine in March 1908.[10][11][12]
