Farm Collector reader Joseph Buccellato from New Jersey sent images of pages from an 1894 edition of Hoard’s Dairyman. “I bought it to frame individual pages, but I had a change of heart,” he says. “I couldn’t destroy it. It rests on a waist-high churn in my hallway, and I turn the pages every few days.”
Hoard’s Dairyman was founded in 1885. It first appeared in the pages of the Jefferson County Daily Union, a newspaper founded by William Dempster Hoard, the first editor of Hoard’s Dairyman. In the first issue, Hoard said the journal would strive to “give the choicest original and selected dairy literature to be obtained.”
In today’s world of instantaneously available information, it is no easy thing for a printed publication to remain relevant and timely. Hoard’s does so by continuing to provide dairy farmers worldwide with practical, factual information. Hoard’s also operates a dairy farm, and staffers write from hands-on experience. The farm is home to the largest and longest continually registered Guernsey herd in the U.S.
Going strong in its 135th year, Hoard’s Dairyman survives as one of the elder statesmen in American journalism. The Hartford Courant, published since 1756, is America’s oldest continually operating newspaper. In the magazine category, Scientific American appears to be the oldest, established in 1845, 40 years before Hoard’s. National Geographic dates to 1888. FC
To submit a vintage advertisement for publication, send it to: Iron Age Ads, Farm Collector, 1503 SW 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609; or submit high-quality digital images by email: editor@farmcollector.com.