Godey's Lady's Book

The magazine is best known for the hand-tinted fashion plate that appeared at the start of each issue, which provide a record of the progression of women's dress.

[18] Fashion plates found in Godey's, accompanied by descriptions about what kind of garment and for what it was to be used, caused everyday feminine activities to be depicted in a consumer light.

“[Godey's] promoted a new clothing calendar, one not divided by seasons or unique events like weddings, but that elevated and transformed quotidian occasions like walking and taking tea into significant opportunities for self-fashioning and performance.”[19] Edgar Allan Poe had one of his earliest short stories "The Visionary" (later renamed "The Assignation") printed in Godey's in 1834.

He also published several other works in the magazine: "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" (April 1844), "The Oblong Box" (September 1844), "Thou Art the Man" (November 1844),[20] and "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846).

She wrote about schools that accepted women as students and praised Vassar College, which opened in 1865, and personally assisted in funding it.

[22] Hale presented a series of appealing articles in her magazine, featuring descriptions of food and recipes now considered 'typical' of Thanksgiving, such as roasted turkeys, savory stuffing, and pumpkin pies.

[23] She held up Queen Victoria as a role model of feminity, morality and intellect, and Godey's hired Lydia Sigourney to report on the royal activities in London.

It is an emblem of the purity and innocence of girlhood, and the unsullied heart she now yields to the chosen one.”[27][28] However, custom previous to Victoria's wedding ceremony had been to wear colorful gowns.

[30] The engraving was based on an earlier image of Queen Victoria and her decorated Christmas tree previously published in The Illustrated London News in December 1848.

[31] The Godey's version removed Victoria's tiara and Prince Albert's mustache altering their faces to remake the engraving into an American scene.

[32] Folk-culture historian Alfred Shoemaker summed up that "in all of America there was no more important medium in spreading the Christmas tree in the decade 1850–60 than Godey's Lady's Book".