Who designed the first cover of Time magazine?

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The first issue of the iconic Time Magazine- March 3rd, 1923

During my research of Walter D. Teague, I have read that he designed the first cover of Time magazine (1923) with the decorative border.  The border does look like Teague's work, although it is not as elaborate. See example of Teague's work below for the Japan Paper Company in 1913:
Advertisement for Japan Paper Company 1913 by Walter Dorwin Teague
 However, I was doubtful, and was looking for more evidence than just a rumor.

My doubt was confirmed when I met Aric Mayer who formerly worked at Time who connected with someone who contacted Bill Hooper of the Time Archives.  And here's what he found:

"The art director, who came up with the design/format of TIME’s first cover, actually worked for J. Walter Thompson.  Here’s an excerpt from an article that ran in the December 1971 issue of TIME/PIECES (“An Occasional Journal About TIME and Its Staff”):

          "TIME’s first cover format seems to have been a last minute endeavor.  Luce and Hadden, involved in a multitude of problems in getting out their creation, took their art work to one-time Yale Professor Stewart Mims, then with the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency.  In on the conference was Thompson Art Director Gordon Aymar…Aymar volunteered to do a cover design and in a few days produced a format complete with what he described as a “diddling kind of scroll.”  This was approved by Luce and Hadden.  Aymar then suggested that a commercial artist named William Oberhardt had done a portrait that might fit in with the news of the week.  The drawing was of former Speaker of the House Joe Cannon.  This, too, was accepted by the two editors, who paid Oberhardt $50 for his work."


Going through the thumbnails of the early TIME covers, the last issue to feature Aymar’s scrollwork on the cover was the September 26, 1938 issue (with Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart as the cover subjects)  Oberhardt’s portrait of Warren G. Harding ran on the second cover of TIME (March 10, 1923 issue)."


Thank you to Bill Hooper for clarifying this, and let's give credit where credit is due, to  Gordon Aymar and William Oberhardt.

For more frequent updates on the Teague Documentary and new images, see the Facebook page.

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