The Home

The Home: An Australian Quarterly was first published in February 1920. Published by Art in Australia Ltd, The Home’s target market was Australian middle-class women readers. It was established in an effort to help underwrite the publication of Art in Australia and other publishing projects. Initially produced by a team of editors, including Sydney Ure Smith (art editor), Bertram Stevens (literary editor) and Julia Lister (fashion editor), The Home suffered early losses, but finally provided the financial stability needed by Art in Australia Ltd.

The Home is known for its promotion of graphic art and advertising in Australian magazines, particularly the influence of its magazine covers. It proclaimed to be ‘modern’, which it was to an extent, but ignored movements such as cubism, futurism and surrealism. It did promote women in a more modern context. The magazine continued into the 1940s, but found strong competition from new magazines like Vogue and Fashion and Society. It finally ceased publication  in 1942.

Although it was not a literary magazine, The Home published the work of many of Australia’s leading writers. Contributors included Dorothea Mackellar, Furnley Maurice, Nettie Palmer, Norman Lindsay, Lionel Lindsay, Joan Lindsay, Kenneth Slessor, Mary Gilmore, Arthur Adams and David Unaipon. Katharine Susannah Prichard’s novel The Wild Oats of Han was serialised in The Home during 1926 and 1927.

The cover image of this issue, vol. 2, no. 4, December 1, 1921, is by Bertha Sloane, an artist and cartoonist. She trained in commercial art in Sydney with Albert Collins and worked under him at Smith and Julius art studio, part of the Ure Smith companies.