Overview

A summary of the history of the Calton Wesleyan-Methodist Congregational Young Men’s Society is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

There are fifteen issues of this monthly magazine bound into one hard-cover volume. This includes the Supplement to the Magazine for December 1839 (Vol. I, No. XI), and contains an Index (pp. 282-4) to all the previous issues, including the supplement. The volume is paginated from pages 1 to 329, but is unnumbered in the March through May 1840 issues. Each issue is between 25 and 30 pages.

The March through December 1839 issues are all edited by Gilbert Currie. Interestingly, all these pieces appear to be in his own handwriting. The remaining issues — perhaps under a different editor — also appear to be written by one or two different hands. This was an uncommon practice in mutual improvement and literary groups. It was usually done to try to maintain the anonymity of the authors as their respective handwriting was presumably recognisable by other group members. This practice also helped to give a uniformity to the magazine, which, for some societies was of some import. In this case, it appears to have been to preserve anonymity and uniformity, as the authors of some of the original articles and poems used pen-names, and the handwriting gives the issues a consistency in appearance.

Like other mutual improvement (including church) societies’ magazines, this is also a miscellany. However, while other society periodicals generally include contributions written on a wide range of topics, many of the pieces in this magazine are on religious issues and doctrine, and there are a number of reports on missionary activities abroad. Similarly, most of the essays and poems are moralistic in flavour. It appears that this magazine acts more as an extension and means of broadcasting the church’s work rather than being an object for facilitating ‘improvement’ and providing amusement, which was more the norm.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Calton Wesleyan-Methodist Congregational Young Men’s Society (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1839?-1840?

Date of Magazine

Mar. 1839-Jan. 1840, with Supplement to Dec. 1839; (no February 1840 issue; not extant?), Mar. 1840-May 1840

Number of Issues

15 (includes supplement)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Address; Articles (non-fiction); Correspondence column; Didactic works (reproduced); Essays; Hymns; Letters; Letters to Editor; Poems (original); Poems (republished material); Preface; Reports; Table of Contents

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference

NFF124/6/81, 5585510-585510a

Additional Notes

See also entry for Calton Wesleyan-Methodist Congregational Young Men’s Society on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

Overview

A summary of the history of the Albion Mutual Improvement Union is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

There are three extant issues of this quarterly manuscript magazine which are bound individually. This is a relatively slim periodical: the second issue has 111 pages with 18 contributions; the third  has 104 pages with 14 contributions; and the fourth has only 80 pages with 8 contributions. Of note is that there is no artwork in any of these issues.

The first page of the April 1862 issue has an ‘Order of Readers’, which lists 21 names (the July issue only lists 17), presumably all men (some are listed with their first initial only). We know, however, that non-members also read the magazine: a letter to the Editor from a lady named Lizzie can be found in this issue, in which she reviews the previous number. It was not unusual for these magazines to be passed among family and friends outwith the ‘official’ list of readers.

Underneath this list, readers are told that they are allowed only two nights for perusing the magazine, and that they were to keep it ‘as clean as possible‘. In addition, ‘No writing or scribbling [was] allowed within its pages on any consideration’. This suggests that readers of the previous issue engaged in this practice. Nonetheless, a child’s (?) scribblings can indeed be found on pages 90 and 91, and a few corrections to the text in pencil are sparsely distributed throughout the issue.

According to the ‘Prefatory’, the members were not previously acquainted with the idea of a society magazine, but after reading the first issue, the project caught on. Indeed, the Editor ventured to say that he hoped it might be possible to have the magazine in print one day.

The contributors use pen-names to sign their pieces, but we are told that the Editors have taken the trouble to re-write them (there were reportedly at least two Editors). This was an uncommon practice in mutual improvement and literary groups. It was usually done to try to maintain the anonymity of the authors as their respective handwriting was presumably recognisable by other group members. This practice also helped to give a uniformity to the magazine, which, for some societies was of some import. In this case, the Editors might have taken it in turns to rewrite it, perhaps even changing Editors within one piece. For example, the handwriting at the start of several contributions begins in neat script, and when one turns the page, the characters are much larger and looser, and appear to be a different handwriting altogether.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Albion Mutual Improvement Union (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

13 September 1860-1863?

Date of Magazine

No. 2 (April 1862); No. 3 (July 1862); No. 4 (June 1863)

Number of Issues

3 (extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Address; Annotations; Articles (non-fiction); Circulation Lists; Correspondence columns; Debates; Essays; Game (acrostic); Letters to Editor; Poems (original); Prefaces; Serial articles/stories; Tables of Contents

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference

Mitchell (AL) 891260

Additional Notes

See also entry for Albion Mutual Improvement Union on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

This magazine was founded by Frances Martin, an influential foundress of the College for Working Women (Queen Square, Bloomsbury) which was to take Martin’s name following her death. (For more information about the College for Working Women — later the Frances Martin College for Women — see the article, ‘College for Working Women‘, on the UCL Bloomsbury Project website.) Twelve years after the founding of the college, Martin decided that there was a need for a magazine for the benefit of its students and teachers. It was also to be open to external contributors who supported the college.

There are two issues of The College News, A Quarterly Magazine. There are three (extant) copies of the first issue, one of which is in Martin’s own handwriting (she acted as the magazine’s Editor for the first two issues). This is only seven pages, six of which comprise Martin’s ‘Address to the Readers’. Essentially, it is a prospectus for a new journal and lays out the need for a magazine that would act as a means of communication between students and teachers, and to share news about the college and its activities. In addition, she makes suggestions for other features for future issues: a section on the current business climate; the ‘News of the Quarter’ on college classes, meetings and socials; a ‘Personal News’ column on marriages, births, deaths, emigrations and promotions; and ‘Illustrations and Original Contributions’, that would include poetry, prose and artwork. The remaining page announces a forthcoming reading by the actress, Mrs Bernard Beere, that was to be held at the college, and a list of the type of ‘Contributions Requested’.

The second issue was produced eight months later and has twenty-one contributions, which include a variety of materials: there are non-fiction articles, essays, various club and society reports, a travel piece accompanied by by original pen-and-ink illustrations, two acrostic puzzles, along with various cuttings from presumably other College printed publications, and a newspaper cutting of an obituary reporting on the death of a senior administrator. There was also a writing contest with prizes of books offered for the best essays. It appears that these were the only two issues produced under by the College for Working Women.

Another college magazine appeared in print in December 1911 entitled, A Reminiscence of the College for Working Women. The ‘Introduction’ makes clear that it was the first issue and was instigated by the College Chairman so as to compare favourably with other institutions who produced their own journals. While this magazine was getting under way, the two earlier issues were discovered, and a decision was made to reproduce them in print as one (truncated and re-organised) issue. The earlier manuscript magazines were presented as a ‘prelude to the new journal.

The first official issue of this new magazine was called Our Magazine and appeared in print in January 1913 costing one penny. This issue contains a combination of reports notices of college events and activites, anecdotes and accounts of past events, and only one original story. It is predominantly devoted to correspondence, with 21 extracts from students’ letters.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Working Women’s College (later became the Frances Martin College for Women) (London)

Date of Existence

1874-1957 (in 1957, lease expired at 7 Fitzroy Street; moved to working men’s college building in Crowndale Road, NW1)

Date of Magazine

The College News, A Quarterly Magazine: Mar. 1886; Nov. 1886; A Reminiscence of the College for Working Women: Dec. 1911; Our Magazine: Jan. 1913

(Note: another magazine was produced in 1927-28, Chronicle of the Frances Martin College)

Number of Issues

4 (total number produced by the college under different titles during the period under study)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript, later issues in print

Contents and Contributions

Address; Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Class reports; Clippings (printed material); Correspondence column; Editorials;  Essays; Extracts of students’ letters; Lists of forthcoming events; Lists of Prizes and Certificates; Newspaper clippings; Notices; Notices (printed); Poem (republished material); Preface; Puzzles; Reports; Report (Debating Society); Tables of Class Attendance; Tables of Contents; Tables of Students’ Occupations; Title pages

Repository

London Metropolitan Archives

Reference

A/FMC/CM/001; A/FMC/CM/004;
A/FMC/CM/005; A/FMC/CM/006a;
(1927-28 issue: A/FMC/CM/007a)

Overview

A summary of the history of the Glasgow Foundry Boys’ Religious Society, Wellington Palace Branch is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

This magazine is printed in double columns and laid out in newspaper format. It is written in the same hand throughout. It was produced by a large Christian workers’ association and articles have a strong focus on Christian self-improvement, education, temperance and morality for the young (see below). The magazine is anomalous as although it is a society magazine, it was part of a much larger enterprise and is not clearly part of a collective or shared initiative. A cost of one half-penny is listed and the magazine includes paid advertisements, suggesting that it was in part a commercial enterprise.

There were only twelve (lithographed?) issues of this monthly magazine ever produced, and these are bound together in one hardcover volume. The, apparently, enthusiastic members of the Wellington Branch of the Foundry Boys’ Religious Society started the periodical as they felt ‘the want of some proper medium for the expression by the Workers of the numberless suggestions and hints that spring up within them and clamour for utterance’, suggestions which were not being brought properly to attention at the Council meetings held by the larger parent organisation (‘Introductory’, The Foundry Boy, No. 1, January 1886, p. 1).

The magazine was non-sectarian, being aimed more broadly at Christian readers, and it reported on the various aspects of the branch’s work, along with the meetings, activities and events held in local branches across Glasgow, which, presumably, did not have their own magazines. Each issue is eight pages and cost one halfpenny, but by July 1886, this was increased to one penny. Contributions are almost entirely anonymous but a few are signed with the author’s name (usually a minister) or a pen-name.

Copies were available either by post or at the Christian Institute and at various local booksellers. (For more information about the Christian Institute, see ‘Christian Institute‘ on The Glasgow Story website.) In addition, issues could be had at selected booksellers in Paisley, Greenock, Kilmarnock, Rothesay, Coatbridge, Edinburgh and Dundee (‘The Foundry Boy’, ‘To Subscribers’, The Foundry Boy, No. 7, July 1886, p. 3). Presumably, the subscriptions did not cover the costs of production, as advertisements can be found amongst the articles and particularly on the last two pages of each issue.

The final issue of the magazine appeared in December 1886, when the Editor/s announced its discontinuation for reasons that are left ambiguous.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Glasgow Foundry Boys’ Religious Society, Wellington Palace Branch

Date of Existence

1867-1914?

Date of Magazine

Jan. 1886-Dec. 1886

Number of Issues

12

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Print (lithograph?)

Contents and Contributions

Address; Advertisements; Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Attendance records (totals); Bible lessons; Branch statistics; Correspondence columns; Directories; Editorials; Essays; Hymn; Letters to Editor; Miscellaneous (announcements); News (local branches of society); Poems (original); Reports; Serial articles/stories; Sketches

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference

Mitchell (GC) 206 98783

Additional Information

See also entry for Glasgow Foundry Boys’ Religious Society, Wellington Palace Branch on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.