The records for the Saltcoats Literary and Debating Society are housed in Ayrshire Archives Headquarters, Ayr. They include the minutes from 1897 until 1982, along with lists of members, syllabi, cash books, correspondence and newspaper articles for various years. A full study of this society remains to be conducted. The one extant issue of the magazine that this group produced is housed in Irvine Townhouse.

The table of contents lists 22 contributions to this magazine, including the ‘Introduction’ and ‘Answers to Correspondents’, and is a total of 80 pages. The authors’ names — presumably all male — are given, which is not very common for either manuscript or published literary society magazines.

According to the ‘Introduction’, the group met on a weekly basis, and its ‘primary object’ was ‘the acquiring of knowledge by mutual effort’. The purpose of the published magazine was prompted by the wish of ‘putting into more permanent form some of the work overtaken by the Society during the winter session’ (‘Introduction’,  Saltcoats Literary Society Magazine, Session 1904-05 (Saltcoats: Archibald Wallace, 1905), p. 3).  While the articles are admittedly of a more serious tone — ‘It undoubtedly lacks much of the humorous element common to popular magazines’ — it reflects the tone and seriousness of the members’ collective endeavours.

The introduction asks readers to remember that the magazine is a production of amateurs, and makes no claim for absolute originality. Almost all of the articles were first read aloud at the society meetings, and they appear in the magazine in condensed form so as to limit costs as well as the readers’ patience. The magazine’s intended audience was to include not only society members but also the public.

In addition to advertisements for local businesses that appear at the front and back, the issue contains a mixture of non-fiction articles, original fiction and poetry. Outwith those that accompany the advertisements, there are no illustrations for any of the contributions.

The ‘Answers to Correspondents’ is the final contribution in which the Editor replies to letters singly and collectively, as in the case of ‘J. M. and Others’: ‘We were very much surprised at the amount of poetry received for this Magazine. We had room for a very few of the more suitable ones’ (Editor, ‘Answers to Correspondents’, Saltcoats Literary Magazine, p. 79). In addition to providing feedback on the contributions, there are also answers to factual questions posed, often with a humorous twist. For example, the answer to ‘K”s question was as follows: ‘Saltcoats is 30 miles from Glasgow and 390 from London. We are unable to compute its distance from Ardrossan. Judging from the remarks of some people we know it must be a long way off indeed’ (Ibid). (Ardrossan is just under 2 miles from Saltcoats: there appears to have been a rivalry between the two towns during this period.)

To date, it is unknown if any further issues of this magazine were produced.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Saltcoats Literary and Debating Society

Date of Existence

1891-1982?

Date of Magazine

1905 (Session 1904-05)

Number of Issues

1

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Published (Saltcoats: Archibald Wallace, 1905)

Contents and Contributions

Advertisements; Articles (non-fiction); Correspondence column; Essays; Fiction/Narrative; Poems (original); Table of Contents; Title page

Repository

Irvine Townhouse, North Ayrshire

Reference

This society was most likely based at the Selkirk West United Free Church in the Scottish Borders. The information that we currently have on its magazine comes solely from an article published in the early twentieth century in a local newspaper, The Border Advertiser.

According to the article, on 6 March 1905, the society met in the church hall to hear the magazine’s editor, Mr W. F. Robertson, read aloud six contributions to the society’s magazine. These included: ‘An Anomaly’; ‘The Power of Music’; ‘Britain’s Industrial [illegible]’; ‘Suggestions’; ‘My Window “Serial” Chap. iii’; and ‘The Ascent’ of Man’ (‘West UF. Church Literary Society’, The Border Advertiser, 07 March 1905, p. 3).

There were apparently not many present at this particular meeting, but nonetheless, ‘[t]he articles were well received by a small but appreciative audience’.

Further research in the local newspapers and archives may well bring further information on the group and its magazine to light.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

West United Free Church Literary Society

Date of Existence

1905?-?

Date of Magazine

06 March 1905 (contributions to the magazine were read aloud at the society’s ‘magazine night’)

Number of Issues

(at least) 1 (not extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Articles (non-fiction); Serial article/story

Repository

Library Headquarters, Selkirk

Reference

N/A

Overview

This magazine was produced by a mutual improvement class based at Eastville Free Methodist Church, which was located on Fishponds Road in Eastville (northeast of Bristol). (For a brief history of this church see ‘Eastville Methodist Church (now Pentecostal City Mission), Eastville, Fishponds‘ on the Places of Worship Database website.) The lists of members at the front of the extant 1893 and 1894 issues have 26 and 24 names respectively. It was a mixed-gender class with perhaps a fairly equal number of men and women (there are several names on these lists where only the surname is given). No addresses are given after these names, but these can be found by consulting the entries for the parents in the church register, also available in the archives. The group members were pro-temperance, and two pieces by different authors in their magazine mention attending a Band of Hope meeting. (For more information about the Band of Hope, see the article, ‘Band of Hope‘ on the Spartacus Educational website.)

There are only two extant issues of the manuscript magazine that this class produced. These are roughly A5 in size, with a brown paper cover and are hand-stitched. It is unclear if there was a set production date for each issue (e.g. monthly, bi-monthly, etc.), but it might have been tied to the semester schedule. The format of the contributions vary: some are written solely on one side of the paper, whilst others are on both front and back, which is a bit usual for these magazines. All the contributions — the majority of which are essays on a variety of topics — are in the authors’ own handwriting. With few exceptions, all of the contributors and reviewers use their own initials. There is no original poetry and no illustrations or artwork in either issue. Readers were allowed one week to view the magazine.

The issues are compact not only in size but in the number of contributions: there are 68 pages (unpaginated) in total in the 1893 issue with 7 contributions followed by four readers’ responses over 10 pages in the ‘Notes and Comments’ section, and 30 pages with 5 contributions in the 1894 issue. Interestingly, whilst there are also a number of blank pages left for readers to provide their responses in the ‘Notes and Comments’ section in the later issue, none of the readers chose to use this space.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Eastville Free Methodist Mutual Improvement Class

Date of Existence

1894?-1895?

Date of Magazine

No. 1, October 1893 and No. 5, October 1894

Number of Issues

2 (extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Annotations; Articles (non-fiction); Circulation Lists; Editorials; Essays; Extracts of published works; Letters to Editor; Magazine Rules; Poems (republished material); Readers’ Criticisms; Serial articles/stories; Tables of Contents;  Title pages

Repository

Bristol Archives & Record Office

Reference

40836/EP/95-96

Overview

There are nine extant issues of the manuscript magazine that was produced by this mutual improvement society. The title was taken from the poem, ‘Excelsior’, written in 1841 by the American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and the poem’s message of struggling towards a righteous, distant goal was used as the group’s own precept. We do not know very much about the group itself as there are no other (known) records. Most likely, the society was associated with a local church in Liverpool as many of the contributions discuss religion and/or the Bible (e.g. a serial essay entitled, ‘Praising God, No. 2′), and it was firmly pro-temperance.

We do know that it was a fairly small society: there are 17 members listed in an (undated) magazine circulation list. It was a mixed-gender group, with 13 men and four unmarried women. The members lived in and around the Toxteth area of the city. (For more information about this area, see ‘History of Toxteth‘ on the Historic Liverpool website.) One of the women, however, lived in London.

Each issue of The Excelsior is approximately 100 pages with roughly 20 contributions apiece, and contain a mixture of prose and poetry, articles and essays, a couple of short musical scores, with a small number of original illustrations (mostly pen-and-ink, to which should be added the detailed artwork on the covers on Nos. 7, 8 and 10).

There are a couple of unique elements to this magazine. First, the contributors seemed to particularly like writing serials, both non-fiction and fictional pieces, with pieces commonly running through most of the issues. Second, the members appear to have taken the ‘improving’ element to heart, as beginning in the sixth issue, a ‘List of Errors in Spelling’ is added to the back, which ran up to five pages in issue No. 10. Finally, whilst not including a separate section for readers’ ‘criticisms’ per se, the Editor none-the-less allowed readers to write in to him with their remarks and he would include them in the next issue, a practice that readers took to with particular enthusiasm, or rather with vehemence; many of these are long letters outlining in detail the particular merits — and by no means neglecting the demerits — of the contributions.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

(currently unknown)

Date of Existence

1860?-1862?

Date of Magazine

No. 1, 1 October 1860; No. 2, 1 November 1860;  No. 3, [no date given], December 1860; [No. 4], January and February 1861; No. 5, March & April 1861; No. 6, 1 December 1861; No. 7, January 1862; No. 8, February 1862; [No. 9 no longer extant?]; No. 10, April 1862

Number of Issues

9

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Annotations; Art/Illustrations (original); Article s(non-fiction); Circulation List; Correspondence column; Editorials; Essays; Extracts (previously published works); Fiction/Narratives; Hymn; Letters to Editor; Lists of spelling errors; Music; Newspaper cutting; Poems (original); Poems (republished material); Poems (w/ original illustrations); Prefaces; Puzzle; Readers’ Criticisms; Serial articles/stories; Tables of Contents; Title pages

Repository

Liverpool Record Office, Central Library

Reference

H050 EXC

 Overview

A summary of the history of the Spoutmouth Bible Institution is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

There is only one extant issue of this group’s manuscript magazine. It consists of 136 pages with 11 contributions bound in one hardcover volume. There does not appear to be a limit set to the length of the pieces (as was the case with some magazines): the four longest articles and essays are between 20 and 27 pages, with others being between 5 and 10. There are also three original poems (one in dialect), but no artwork appears in this issue.

The contributors either leave their pieces unsigned or they use a pen-name. However, these may all have been re-written by the magazine’s editors (?): it appears that there are only two different handwriting styles in the entire issue.

The first two articles in this miscellany are interesting as they relate the early history of the Institution and, along with a group photograph of the members that is dated 1856, we learn the histories of some of the early members. The last two pieces in the magazine are in fact obituaries of two former members.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

The Spoutmouth Institution (1848-1851), then became The Spoutmouth Bible Institution (22 September 1851-1940?)

Date of Existence

10 June 1848-1940?

Date of Magazine

No. II, 16 May 1873

Number of Issues

1 (extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Annotations; Articles (non-fiction); Essays; Obituaries; Photograph (members); Poems (original); Serial article/story; Table of Contents; Title page

Repository

Glasgow City Archives

Reference

CH3/1281/16

Additional Notes

See also entry for Spoutmouth Bible Institution on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

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

Whilst becoming more proficient in their rhetorical skills at their meetings, the purpose of starting a society magazine was so that members might improve their writing. The preface is in part a manifesto for the magazine, and quotes Lord Bacon: ‘reading makes a full man, speaking a ready man, and writing a correct man’. This was to become an oft-used phrase by literary societies more generally over the course of the nineteenth century.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Literary Debating Society (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1845?-1846?

Date of Magazine

Nos. 1-3, 1 December 1845 – 13 February 1846

Number of Issues

3

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Print

Contents and Contributions

Articles (non-fiction); Notice (printed); Poem (translation); Preface; Song (vernacular)

Repository

University of Glasgow Special Collections

Reference

The Literary Magazine, ed. by members of the Literary Debating Society, No. 1 (Glasgow: Printed by George Richardson, 1845); The Literary Magazine, ed. by members of the Literary Debating Society, Dec. 1845-Feb. 1846 (Glasgow: George Richardson 1846) (Sp Coll Mu1-d.13; Sp Coll RB 3049)

[Note: the University of Glasgow Special Collections holds two copies]

Additional Notes

From the University of Glasgow online catalogue: ‘Library holds: No. 1-3, 1 Dec. 1845-13 Feb. 1846. Copy at Mu1-d.13 has front and back covers of no.1 & 2, and front cover of no. 3, bound in. Copy at RB 3049 is item 1 of 5 bound together’ [accessed 31 January 2018].

See also entry for Literary Debating Society on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

Overview

According to the opening article in the first issue of this magazine, the Abbey Foregate Congregational Church Literary Society was founded in 1893. Meetings were held weekly, and it was quite a large society of predominantly young men and women: it was reported that between two and three hundred people often attended, and the number grew to three or four hundred by 1897.

It was three years before they decided to start their own magazine. The first issue was put into print in March 1896 and cost 2d. The second issue appeared over a year later in April 1897, and the cost went up to 3d. It seems that production costs were covered by both the subscriptions and the advertisements for local businesses that are included at the front and back of both issues. Each issue is 18 pages in length.

This miscellany contains a mixture of various non-fiction articles, a few fictional stories, a number of reports on past society meetings and several original photographs that accompany the articles.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Abbey Foregate Congregational Church Literary Society (Shrewsbury)

Date of Existence

1896?-1897?

Date of Magazine

March 1896 and April 1897

Number of Issues

2

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Print (Shrewsbury: W. G. Napier, Printer, 1896); (Shrewsbury: W. G. Napier, Printer, 1897)

Contents and Contributions

Advertisements; Articles (non-fiction); Fiction/Narratives; Photographs; Poems (original); Poem (republished material); Reports; Table of Contents; Title pages

Repository

Shropshire Archives (Shrewsbury)

Reference

NO4212/7/1/1-2

The mutual improvement group that produced this magazine was based at River Terrace Church (River Terrace was later renamed Colebrooke Row), Islington, London. The church was built in 1834 for its Scottish congregation. The River Terrace Young Men’s Association later became The River Terrace Bible Class, before changing again to the Islington Presbyterian Church Young Men’s Association in 1862.

There are two minute books (also housed in the London Metropolitan Archives) and three extant volumes of a manuscript magazine from this later group (see also LMA catalogue for the records of the earlier River Terrace groups). From these, we know that the association was made up of young Scottish men that met weekly at the church between December and June, a session that was a bit unusual for this type of society.  The object of the association was the ‘moral, intellectual and religious improvement of the Young men connected with the church’. Women were allowed to join as full members in January 1891. Four years after its founding, the group started its own manuscript magazine for its members.

In 1866, the first issue of The Aemulus was produced. The contributions to the issue were previously read aloud at the society’s ‘Magazine Nights’. ‘Magazine Evenings’ or ‘Magazine Nights’ were meetings that were devoted to the reading of original essays (or occasionally poems) written by group members that were submitted to the Magazine Editor beforehand. The Editor would be responsible for collecting, occasionally selecting, and reading the pieces aloud to the group (more rarely this was done by the contributor him/herself) on the appointed night. This would be followed by ‘criticism’ — or discussion on the piece’s positive and negative points — by the group members.

After the meetings, these contributions were sometimes bound and saved in the society’s library (if they had one) or would be kept by one of the office bearers. In these cases, it was intended that the magazine was to be preserved and that group members would have access to it at a later date. It is of note that literary and mutual improvement groups used the term ‘magazine’ to refer to the oral as well as the material medium.

The 1866 volume serves as a ‘typical’ example of the later volumes. There are 35 prose pieces, 14 poems (of which two that are listed as such in the front ‘Index’ are acrostics), one musical score for piano and one voice, three illustrations, and six photographs of Office Bearers. According to the ‘Preface’, the pieces were produced over the course of one year, and nineteen members and two non-members contributed.

As the Editor, Thomas William Thacker, wrote at the beginning of the volume, ‘[t]his manuscript magazine was started to give the members of the Islington Presbyterian Church Young Men’s Association a means of committing to paper thoughts more or less matured. It is strictly anonymous: and few beyond the fellow members have seen the parts as they were issued month by month.’ While the group continued to meet until 1894 (at least), it is currently unknown if they continued to produce their magazine after 1878.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Islington Presbyterian Church Young Men’s Association (London)

Date of Existence

1862-1894?

Date of Magazine

Vol. I, ‘(Parts IX)’, 1866; Vol. III, 1868-1869; Vol. III [sic], 1878

Number of Issues

3

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Editorials; Essays; Indexes; Lists of Office Bearers; Magazine Rules; Music; Photographs (members); Poems (original); Prefaces; Puzzles; Title pages

Repository

London Metropolitan Archives

Reference

LMA/4303/E/04/015;
LMA/4303/E/04/016;
LMA/4303/E/04/017

Overview

Like The College Stethescope, this magazine was founded by and for the students of the University of Glasgow (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

In the ‘Preface’, the purpose of the magazine was set out: ‘Our aim has been to relieve the severities of academical study, by furnishing a volume, in which instruction should be combined with amusement’ (‘Preface’, The Athenaeum, An Original Literary Miscellany, ed. by Students in the University of Glasgow (Glasgow: Printed by Hutchinson & Brookman, For Robertson & Atkinson; Constable & Co., Edinburgh; and Hurst, Chance & Co., London, MDCCCXXX [1830]), p. v).

There are 242 pages with 45 contributions in this magazine, which consists of essays and poems. There are a few translations of poems into English, but also a couple translated from English into Latin and Greek. There is roughly an equal mix of poetry and prose.

Authors sometimes chose to identify themselves, but in a number of cases either their initials or a pen-name was used. Original pieces appear alongside works by (more) established authors and poets. For example, several of Thomas Atkinson’s poems appear in this volume. (For more information about Thomas Atkinson (1801?–1833), see the article, ‘Atkinson, Thomas (1801?-1833)‘, by Thomas Finlayson Henderson in Volume 2 of the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, which is available on the Wikisource website. See also the entry for ‘Atkinson, Thomas, ? 1801-1833, poet and writer, bookseller‘ on the University of Strathclyde Archives website.)

According to the ‘Preface’, contributions were accepted from various quarters and not just from the students nor just from men: ‘extra-collegiate friends’ were thanked, as was one Mrs. Grant of Laggan for her poem.

It is currently unknown if any further issues were produced.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

(Students of the University of Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1830-?

Date of Magazine

1830

Number of Issues

1

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Print (Glasgow: Printed by Hutchinson & Brookman, For Robertson & Atkinson; Constable & Co., Edinburgh; and Hurst, Chance & Co., London, MDCCCXXX [1830])

Contents and Contributions

Articles (non-fiction); Dedication page; Essays; Fiction/Narrative; Poems (original); Poems (republished material); Poems (translation); Preface; Reviews; Table of Contents

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC)

University of Glasgow Special Collections (UGSC)

Reference

Mitchell (GC) 311821 (MLSC)

Sp Coll Bh12-g.39; Sp Coll Mu21-d.22 (two copies available) (UGSC)

Additional Notes

See also The College Stethescope and Literary Index.

Overview

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

The society was formed in 1863 by young men from the congregation of the Barony Church (Church of Scotland), which was built in 1799 and located near the Glasgow Cathedral. The group later changed its name to the Barony Young Men’s Association.

This society produced manuscript magazines by and for their members between 1863 and 1875. There are six volumes housed in the University of Strathclyde Archives (GB 249 T-MIN/18/1/1-6): July 1863; August 1863; September 1863; August 1864; March 1869; and 1873-1875. The earliest magazine that we have, the July 1863 volume, is actually the third that they issued.

The August 1863 issue of the Barony M.S. Magazine is fairly typical of mutual improvement society magazines, which are almost always miscellanies, containing a mixture of prose and poetry, fiction and non-fiction pieces on various topics, along with original artwork and even music. A unique feature of this genre is the readers’ ‘Criticisms’: readers would write their comments about the articles into the back of the magazine after they were done reading it. This society was unusual, however, in that they had a very active critical community of readers. The August 1863 issue, for example (a digitised copy of which is available, see below), contains a remarkable 25 pages of criticisms.

Their August 1863 issue has been digitised courtesy of the University of Strathclyde Archives and is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Barony Mutual Improvement Society (later became the Barony Young Men’s Association) (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1863-1875?

Date of Magazine

1863-1875

Number of Issues

6

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Advertisements; Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Club notices; Editorials; Essays; Fiction/Narratives; Poems (original); Readers’ Criticisms; Serial articles/stories; Tables of Contents; Title pages

Repository

University of Strathclyde Archives

Reference

GB 249 T-MIN/18/1

Additional Notes

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

This is not the same as the Barony Free Church Literary Society. For more information about this society, see entry for Barony Free Church Literary Society on Glasgow’s Literary Bonds website.

From the University of Strathclyde Archives online catalogue:

‘Scope and content
Manuscript magazines issued under the auspices of the Barony Mutual Improvement Society, later the Barony Young Men’s Association. Subjects include religion, local history, natural history, travel, natural philosophy, mechanics. The editors were Thomas Martin, Archibald Campbell, John Goldie, Edward Railton Catterns, George Smeaton Rodger, W. Ferrie Anderson and James Meek. The contributions were bound on the premises of Robert Nelson, Princes Court, Buchanan Street. All volumes carry the bookplate of the Barony Association’s Library’ [accessed 21 January 2018].