[1][2] Also called the Monthly Museum of Knowledge and Rational Entertainment, it specialized in "poetry, music, biography, history, physics, geography, morality, criticism, philosophy, mathematics, agriculture, architecture, chemistry, novels, tales, romances, translations, news, marriages, deaths, meteorological observations, etc.
It was intended as "a kind of thermometer, by which the genius, taste, literature, history, politics, arts, manners, amusements and improvements of the age and nation, may be ascertained.
"[3] Founded by Isaiah Thomas, the magazine was also published by Ebenezer T. Andrews (1789-1793), Ezra W. Weld (1794), Samuel Hill (1794), William Greenough (1794-1795), Alexander Martin (1795-1796), Benjamin Sweetser (1796), and James Cutler (1796).
[4] Contributors included Joseph Dennie (as Socialis), William Dunlap, Benjamin Franklin, Sarah Wentworth Morton (as Philenia), Judith Sargent Murray[5] (as Constantia), and Christian Gullager.
VIII, No.1, the theme was celebrating the centennial year (post the closing of the War of 1812) starting with an essay by John Davis Long (32nd Governor of Massachusetts) and others.
[11] In the first five volumes, additional material related to participation by Massachusetts appeared in a series, Department of the American Revolution.
[12] Other advisory editors included Thomas Wentworth Higginson, John M. McClintock (publisher of The New England Magazine),[13][14] and George Sheldon (preservationist).