continued , after the magazine broke with Charles Scribner's publishing house in 1881. Under the editorship of Josiah Gilbert Holland, had established itself as one of America's premier illustrated magazines, reaching a circulation of well over 100,000 and publishing important fiction, essays, and poetry. As and , the magazine prided itself on its non-regional, broadly American outlook, on the quality of its artwork and typography, and on its ability to attract the best-known authors of the day. Richard Watson Gilder led through its period of greatest success, from 1881 until Gilder's death in 1909. The magazine eventually folded in 1930 after more than a decade of steady decline.

Gilder had worked on from its beginnings in 1870, and had assumed editorial duties even before he became editor-in-chief of the new in 1881. published some of the best work of the Gilded Age, including fiction by Howells, Twain, James, Jack London, Stephen Crane, Bret Harte, Kate Chopin, and Joel Chandler Harris, and poetry by Walt Whitman, Longfellow, Lowell, and others. Always its illustrations were of the highest quality as well, surpassing even and . Lavishly illustrated serial essays such as Edward King's and the collection of reminiscences by Civil War generals such as Grant, McClellan, Hill, and Longstreet, entitled contributed much to the development of national understanding and reconcilliation.

By 1890, the magazine's circulation had passed the 200,000 mark, although its decline began soon thereafter. Improved printing technologies allowed cheaper magazines to fulfill the public's desire for illustrations, and Gilder responded by placing greater emphasis on nonfiction in . This trend continued after Gilder's death in 1909, and by the end of the Great War the magazine had become primarily a news journal. It merged with the in 1930, drawing to a close its influential history.