you can explore and read a lot of Golden Age up through the 50's stuff here

Stuff I would recommend checking out- Jack Cole's Plastic Man found in Police Comics, the post war Spirit sections, the Fletcher Hanks strips Stardust and Fantomah (not good necessarily, but very interesting), The Captain Marvel material from Fawcett- including the epic Monster Society Of Evil serial (although the scans for many installments are rough). Doll Man (Quality) also contains some fine work by Reed Crandell, as does Blackhawk.

Some of the best stuff, and the most culturally/sociologically interesting is found in the St. John romance books- but now you are in the 40s/50s. They may look like traditional romance books at first glance- but the values being essayed in the stories were often very progressive. Quite amazing if you understand the era within which these were written and read.