The journal was founded as a monthly magazine in November 1877[2] by Horace B. Miller and Jackson Bailey at 96 Fulton Street in New York City.

[2] Fred H. Colvin explained:[3] The aim of its founders was to establish a trade publication that would reflect the changing conditions in the machine-building industry, and, as specialization and coordination of techniques progressed, to concentrate its efforts on the problems that belonged to the shops.

This time period spans a very important interval, at the beginning of which new machinery began to appear in response to arms needs arising from the war, and the concept of mass production was invented.

Interchangeable parts for military equipment followed immediately, and gave a new sense of what machines could do, in fact what they were going to have to do, as a matter of course in the future.

In 1969 the American Machinist magazine, under editor-in-chief Anderson Ashburn, was awarded the National Magazine Award, for its special issue, “Will John Garth Make It?” The study of U.S. industry's role in combating unemployment, especially among those that companies might consider unemployable, included Mr. Garth, a 26-year-old high school dropout and parolee.