FreightWaves Classics is sponsored by Old Dominion Freight Line — Helping the World Keep Promises. Learn more here.

The global shipping publication American Shipper launched in 1974 with the goal to serve the needs of all players involved in international shipping, providing important information to shippers, carriers and third parties. 

Founded by late maritime journalist David A. Howard, the magazine began as the Florida Journal of Commerce, until Howard saw a need for a national publication focused on shipping. He relaunched the publication as American Shipper in May 1974. This was decades before the internet would take the publishing world by storm and so American Shipper was a monthly printed magazine for all things international shipping. 

FreightWaves acquired American Shipper in 2019 and it still serves the global shipping industry to this day. However, now it operates in a digital capacity. 

There is something to be said about the efficiency and convenience of online journalism today, but what is lost are the creative and enticing cover images that beckon readers to open print publications’ pages. FreightWaves manages the archives of American Shipper and each week posts an article from the early days of the magazine as a flashback in time. In these archives, beautiful, funny and sometimes just plain weird cover images start off each issue. 

We’ve compiled some of our favorites from the 1970s, the first decade of the publication in its American Shipper form.

Check back on FreightWaves Classics for other cover stories from the following decades. 

FreightWaves Classics articles look at various aspects of the transportation industry’s history. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter!

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