Publication Identification

Field	Information
Country	United States
Publisher	R&A Publishing
Publisher address	RD 3, Box 3709, Pottsville, Pennsylvania 17901
Magazine title	Reptile & Amphibian Magazine
Publication status	Discontinued as a separate title following acquisition by T.F.H. Publications and the May 1999 merger into Reptile & Amphibian Hobbyist.
Publication run	Began in 1989; independent magazine continued through the 1999 merger.  Exact first and final issue designations: Pending research update.
Editor	Norman Frank, DVM
Printer	Pending research update
ISSN	1059-0668
Language	English
Publication type	Specialist reptile and amphibian husbandry, breeding, veterinary, natural history and field herpetology magazine
Publication frequency	Initially six issues per year on a primarily bimonthly schedule.  Later in the run, some issues used single month dates and contemporary references describe an expanded annual schedule.

Preservation Significance

Reptile & Amphibian Magazine has substantial preservation significance because the collection documents a long pre merger run of an American herpetological hobby publication from the early 1990s through the period immediately before its acquisition by T.F.H. Publications.  The represented issues preserve the magazine’s independent identity, editorial approach and visual development before it became part of Reptile & Amphibian Hobbyist.

The magazine is especially useful as a record of the period before internet based husbandry information became widely available.  Its covers document captive care, breeding, veterinary topics, field herpetology, biographies, conservation, taxonomy and historical herpetology.  Snake coverage is extensive and includes green tree pythons, breeding pythons and boas, egg eating snakes, Australian pythons, corn snakes, salt marsh snakes, ball pythons, Gaboon vipers, rubber boas, cottonmouths and other taxa.

The collection also preserves the title at a historically important transition point.  A contemporary subscriber letter dated March 15, 1999 records that T.F.H. Publications had acquired Reptile & Amphibian Magazine and would merge it with Reptile Hobbyist.  Because the collection contains issues from both predecessor publications and the successor title, it documents the merger as a physical publication lineage rather than merely as a bibliographic note.