The magazine was founded by Reverend John Lauris Blake, Congregational minister and headmaster of the Cornhill School for Young Ladies, who desired to set a model for American womanhood.
[3] It is thought to have been the first magazine to be edited by a woman; from 1828 until 1836, its editor was Sarah Josepha Hale.
[4] As editor, Hale hoped she could aid in the education of women, as she wrote, "not that they may usurp the situation, or encroach on the prerogatives of man; but that each individual may lend her aid to the intellectual and moral character of those within her sphere".
[5] Ladies' Magazine was acquired by Louis Antoine Godey in 1836.
Hale moved from Boston to Philadelphia to edit the new, combined magazine.