It was founded in 1857 in Boston as The Atlantic Monthly, a literary and cultural magazine that published leading writers' commentary on education, the abolition of slavery, and other major political issues of that time.

The Atlantic is an American magazine, founded in 1857 as The Atlantic Monthly in Boston, Massachusetts. Since 2006, the magazine is based in Washington, D.C. Created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine, it has grown to achieve a national reputation as a high-quality review organ with a moderate worldview.

The Atlantic Monthly that we’re more familiar with was founded in 1857 at a pretty famous meeting of the minds between Francis H. Underwood, who had the idea for the magazine as early as 1853, and literary giants such as James Russell Lowell (The Atlantic Monthly’s first editor), Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, along with a few other less notables.

The Atlantic Monthly was founded in Boston in 1857. Among its founders were such noted writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., James Russell Lowell (its first editor), John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - and Francis H. Underwood, who started it all.