This is the first of a batch I acquired ranging from 1838 into about 1840 (I'll have to sort through them to be exact.)  At this point the Companion was only 12 yrs old, and its roots in religion are still quite evident.

The magazine's original intent, that of a religious periodical are very clear.  You'll notice that few of the articles have any author attributions, and many seem to be letters, or excerpts from other religious periodicals and newspapers around Boston.  Most of the articles seem to be "instructional" in nature, vs. the later issues which are chock full of information, non-fiction, and fiction.

You'll also notice quite a few references to the "Sabbath School", admittedly I don't know what this is.  I will have to do some research and find out.

The only images you'll find in these issues is a small block print on the front page, and there is no advertising whatsoever.  Hopefully I can get some issues in between these and the 1890's I have (patience! they'll make it!) to see how things evolved.

Keep a historical perspective in mind here.  This was only a short 60-odd years after the American Revolution.  The Civil War hadn't happened yet, and most of the US still hadn't been explored, let alone settled.  A lot of what we take for granted simply didn't exist.  For example, the reference to the "Sandwich Islands" in this issue, which we now know as the state of Hawaii.

I suspect that the primary readers of these early issues were likely school teachers and/or church leaders, who would then read them to their students, since literacy was still not all that prevalent.

These issues are for the most part in surprisingly good condition, but some of them are missing chunks from the edges here and there.

The paper looks to be broken down into sections based on subject matter or content categories, which seems to carry through more or less to each issue.

• I've Lost My Way (from the French)
• Narrative: Partiality (Concluded from our last)
• Descriptive: Letters From Sandwich Islands, No. 5, Wailuku, Maui, November 8, 1837 [Ed.-- modern day Hawaii]
• Parental: Conversion of Children
• Morality: The Two Houses
• Sabbath School: Letters From a Teacher, to the Children who Attend the Sabbath School at S.  Boston, April 25, 1838
• Editorial: "Pleased, and yet Sad." (from our Correspondent)
• Independence, Mr. Willis, South Reading, July 4th, 1838
• Variety: Usefulness of a Library Book, The Emigrant Child, Beauty and Goodness, Fourth of July Accident
• Poetry: The Captive Bird, Home

Link: The Youth's Companion Magazine, July 20th, 1838

• New England Edition Jacket - The Christmas Trumpeters, "A Noontime Carol on the Balcony of the Old State House, Boston"
• New England and Other Matters, The Dogs of Belgium
• Lotta Embury's Career, by Elia W. Peattie, in Ten Chapters, Ch 4, drawn by Florence E. Storer
• A Tale of the Poplar, by Charles Boardman Hawes, drawn by Chase Emerson
• The Dreadnoughts, by Henry Reuterdahl, photos by Enrique Muller
• "Old Ma'am" Simpsky's Hen, by Sarah McBride, drawn by Franklin T. Wood
• McLain's Best Shot, by Franklin Welles Calkins, drawn by Gilbert Gaul
• Fact and Comment, 1914, Taking it Back, Dress and Age, A Great Naval Strategist, An International Police
• Current Events, The European War, "Autographic Kodak" Ad
• The New Mother, by Abbie Craig
• Convalescence, by Arthur Powell
• Being Sure, Their Unclouded Judgment, A Long Time Without Honor, Old Friends, Collies at Work, The Heart of Poland, Calling on an Alligator, Too Much for a Philadelphia Lawyer, The "Jim" Poem, A Joke on Bismarck, A Question of Roads
• On Skip's Birthday, by Clayton H. Ernst
• The Fairy's Name Was Whisper, by Miriam Clark Potter
• Puzzles
• In The Alps, by John Clair Minot, drawing Mountain Boys, by Gertrude A. Kay
• From Constantinople to Nicaea, by John Heard Jr.
• Nature and Science
• Aneurysm, Shopping and -- Shopping, At the Shrine of the Shepherdess, Young America to the Rescue, Out of His Proper Place
• Offshore Chance, by Theodore Goodridge Roberts, drawn by W.F. Stecher
• The General to the Rescue, Better Than Canvas
• Daniel Webster Flour Ad "The Time has Come"

Link: The Youth's Companion - December 31st, 1914, New England Edition, Vol. 88, No. 53

• "The Week Before Thanksgiving" Photo Cover
• New England and Other Matters, Why Salute?, A Man-Made River
• The "Torpedo" Girl, Ch. 3, by Gardner Hunting, drawn by Chase Emerson
• The Wild Dog of Caucomgomoc, by Charles Boardman Hawes, drawn by Charles Livingston Bull
• Lights on Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, by Wayne Whipple, drawings by Franklin T. Wood
• Isabel's Sane Christmas, by Mary M. Parks, drawings by W.F. Stecher
• White Tiger, Ch.9, by Henry Milner Rideout, drawn by George Varian
• Fact and Comment, The German Ideal, Investors, Managers, and Employees, The War Children's Christmas, Private Property at Sea, The Question of Farming VIII. People's Banks
• Current Events, The European War
• A Prayer, by Marion Francis Brown
• 'Neath Cottage Thatch, by Martha Haskell Clark
• Meeting the Battle, The Blue Gingham Apron, Boy Scouts in France, The Nantucket Quakers, The Oldest American Flag, Making Christmas-Tree Ornaments, A Maddened Jaguar, The Queen's Voice, As Others See Us, Perpetual Motion
• Christmas Gifts, and How to Make Them
• Favors and Sweetmeats That a Little Girl Can Make For Her Party
• Multiple Sclerosis, The Brook Lot, Professor Henry and the Airship, The Land of Honest Men, The Way to Boston
• Finding a Shelter, by Frank K. Rich
• Nature & Science, "Will there be a Victrola in your home this Christmas?"
• A Green Mountain Amazon, by M.E. Baker

Link: The Youth's Companion, November 19th, 1914, New England Edition, Vol. 88 No. 47

Well, this concludes the issues I have for 1920. I've got some much older one's in store!

• When Old Peg Led the Flock, by C.A. Stephens, drawings by W.F. Stecher
• Lucy Barnhill's Garden, by J. Grace Walker, drawn by Harold Anderson
• A Walk in the Woods in Winter, Part Two, by Wardon A. Curtis, drawings by Arthur Bartlett
• Suzanne, Ch. 3, Dick comes to see the hen, by Edith Barnard Delano, drawn by F.R. Gruger
• Fighting Ice With Ice, by Gorton Veeder Carruth, drawings by Wendell P. Dodge
• Fact and comment, California and Japan, National Defense, Mystery, Forest Cultivation, The Wave of Crime, 1920
• My Host, by Arthur Guiterman
• The Mother, Thelma and Duke Street, When Whistler Painted Carlyle, The Shepherd Sculptor of France, Winnowing in India, Overdoing Neighborliness, Across the Valley on a Wire, The Grand Old Disturber, A Man of His Word by Arthur Watts via London Opinion
• Books, by Annette Wynne
• The Most Secret House, Ch. 1, by Mary Norwood, drawn by Elisabeth B. Warren
• A Year, by Frances C. Hamlet
• Old Tales Retold by Uncle Ned, IX. The Deceitful Lion, by E.W. Kemble, drawn by same
• Combination Aluminum Cooking Set, full page ad
• Asthma, A Scientific Experiment, "Not Ice", When Buffalo Bill Planned to Kill His Wife, Two Points of View, On the Wrong Tack, Commodore Preble's Temper, The Soil Was Pretty Rough
• "Old Santa knows what's good to eat, he always chooses Cream of Wheat" full page ad

Link: The Youth's Companion - December 30th, 1920 - Vol. 94 - No. 53

• Two of a Kind, by Roe L. Hendrick, drawings by O.F. Howard
• Chief Longfeather's Christmas Tree, by Anne McQueen, drawings by Rodney Thomson
• A Walk in the Woods in Winter, Part One, by Wardon A. Curtis, drawings by Arthur Bartlett
• Suzanne, Ch. 2, Angele meets a good friend, by Edith Barnard, Delano, drawn by F.R. Gruger
• Failing to Spike the Lever, by Harold T. Chesbrough, drawn by W.F. Stecher
• Fact and Comment, Importing Foreign Quarrels, The Tariff, The Unknown God, Prices, Supporting Prices Artificially
• The Companion in the New Year, Current Events
• Home-Products Day, by Grace Atherton Dennon
• Untempted Righteousness, Sophie, Roman Antiquities in Tunisia, The Mountains of the Sea, A Scissor, The Wild Ride of an Eagle, An Old-Time Blast Furnace, A Scotch Egg's Worth, The Hypnotic Bugler
• Fiddlesticks, by Louise Ayres Garnett, drawn by Bertha Stone
• The Curious Christmas Tree, by Margaret Ely Webb
• The Little Sheep of Bethlehem, by Elizabeth Thornton Turner
• The Stranger, by Harrison Long, drawn by Marguerite Kaeselau
• Christmas Shopping, by Virginia Stanard
• The December Stars, A Girl's Quick Wit, Sauce for the "Grouch"
• Blue Babies, Lilybel's Reason, A Ride in a Pampas Coach, A Newspaper Dog, A True Philospher, "Me and the Prince", An Indiscreet Admission
• "Clock or Hour Glass?", P and G - The White Naphtha Soap, full page ad

Link: The Youth's Companion - December 23rd, 1920 - Vol. 94 - No. 52

• Historic Milestones Cover: Daniel Boone
• Wilson Ham Full Page Ad
• Suzanne, Ch. 1, The Germans come, by Edith Barnard Delano, drawn by F.R. Gruger
• The Day of Days, by Charles Reynolds Brown
• The Emmonses' Christmas, by Rebecca T. Hodges, drawn by Dudley Gloyne Summers
• In the Days of Old Mehitable, by C.A. Stephens, drawn by W.F. Stecher
• Torpedoed Without Warning, Ch. 5, Garfield startles his companions, by Paul Telford Platt, drawn by George Varian
• Fact and Comment, The League Meets, The Useful Yeast, The Children of Europe, The Fall of Venizelos, Lessons of the Shipping Board, The Civil Service
• Current Events
• Ploughed Under, An "Eyot", How They Saved the Ainsdale, Hunting With a Crazy Quilt, Mr. Peaslee on Back Roads, Japanese House Inscriptions, The Whistling Intruder, Four Years of Dirt
• The Star, by Katharine Lee Bates, decoration by W.A. Dwiggins
• A Christmas Baby, by Isabel Fiske Conant, drawn by Gertrude Kay
• Tuck's Adventure, by Agnes M. Bass
• The Prideful Tree, by Mary Carolyn Davies
• The Surprise Box, by Edith Ludwell Laurence, drawn by Bertha Stone
• Stamps to Stick, "Structo Toys" ad
• The Hats of Long Ago, Glass in a Fir Tree, An Example in Kindness
• The Plague, The Sign in the Window, His Scottish Blessing, Artillery Sniping, The Baby Hippo by Stella V. Kellerman, Strawberries and Cream and a Moral, He Seemed Very Old to Her
• Jell-O full page ad
• Waterman's Ideal Fountain Pen full page ad

Link: The Youth's Companion - December 16th, 1920 - Vol. 94 - No. 51