Historical information

Modern Wonder was a largely factual magazine aimed at boys and young men. It had many articles and pictures on science, engineering and warfare etc. In some of the magazines, the Flash Gordon comic strip is printed in colour on the back cover. Issues were usually around 20 pages in length, with the covers and inside two pages printed in colour. The magazine was printed in Great Britain by Oldhams (Watford) Limited, St. Albans Rd., Watford. The magazine was in "tabloid" format, approximate dimensions 36 cm x 27 cm. The magazine (cost two pence, every Wednesday) began publication in May 1937 under the title Modern Wonder, and went through a few name changes, becoming Modern Wonders in December 1939 and Modern World from March 1940 until the magazine stopped in March 1941, possibly due to wartime paper shortages in England.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Significance

This work forms part of the collection assembled by the historian Dorothy Rogers, that was donated to the Kew Historical Society by her son John Rogers in 2015. The manuscripts, photographs, maps, and documents were sourced by her from both family and local collections or produced as references for her print publications. Many were directly used by Rogers in writing ‘Lovely Old Homes of Kew’ (1961) and 'A History of Kew' (1973), or the numerous articles on local history that she produced for suburban newspapers. Most of the photographs in the collection include detailed annotations in her hand. The Rogers Collection provides a comprehensive insight into the working habits of a historian in the 1960s and 1970s. Together it forms the largest privately-donated collection within the archives of the Kew Historical Society.

Physical description

A magazine in tabloid format published in June 1940. The magazine includes a number of articles about the Second World War.