Harper’s Magazine, monthly magazine published in New York City, one of the oldest literary and opinion journals in the United States. It was founded in 1850 as Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, a literary journal, by the printing and publishing firm of the Harper brothers. Noted in its early years for its serialization of great English novels and for the fine quality of its own essays and other literature of the period, Harper’s was the first American magazine to introduce the extensive use of woodcut illustrations. It was a leader in publishing the writings of the most illustrious British and American authors, and by 1865 it had become the most successful periodical in the United States.