The literary club that produced this magazine consisted of employees of The Falkirk Iron Company, Ltd. According to company literature, the firm was established in 1815, became a joint stock company in 1819, and only closed in 1981. Some of the records for this company are housed in Falkirk Archives. An overview of its history is available on the Falkirk Community Trust Museum and Archives Collection website. It is currently unknown when exactly the company’s Literary Club was formed.

Castings Magazine was produced quarterly and cost 3d. Following four pages of advertisements for local businesses, the table of contents lists 18 contributions. The entire work is a total of only 28 pages. This miscellany includes a variety of non-fiction articles, for example: on George Borrow’s book, Lavengro; the League of Nations; a trip from Shanghai to Hankow; instructions on ‘How to construct a cheap Receiving Set’; and one which asks ‘Who was William Shakespeare?’.

Original poetry is also included along with a feature called ‘Vanities in Verse’, which contains short, light-hearted poems on the lark, on wishes, on memory, as well as a nursery rhyme. In addition to a ‘Ladies [sic] Page’ that lists various recipes, other features include ‘Works and Welfare News’, and news on the Boys’ Welfare Club and the Girls’ Welfare Club. There are reports on the company sports teams, the company prize winners at the Falkirk Cattle Show and on the Benevolent Funds Committee.

Interestingly, there are also two employee biographies. The first is on James Kidston, a dresser at Falkirk Iron works, who started work for the company on 24 March 1863, and was still in same department in 1923. Kidston wrote prose pieces, and one of his poems (about being kind and patient) is given at end of the piece. The second biography is on John Hastings, who started working for the company at age 10 on 5 June 1860 and retired in 1922. He started in the Grate Fitting Shop, eventually became a Shop Foreman, before finally working in the Hollow-ware Department, having charge of the Tin Cover Shop.

Of note is that there is a writing competition offered in this issue, with prize money for the best two articles and photographs (10/ for each) submitted for the issue. The competition subject was to be ‘Holiday Experience’.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Literary Club of The Falkirk Iron Company, Ltd.

Date of Existence

1923?-?

Date of Magazine

June 1923 (No. 2)

Number of Issues

1 (extant) (at least 2 produced)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Published

Contents and Contributions

Advertisements; Art/Illustrations; Letters to Editor; Photographs (company employees); Photographs (company sports teams); Poems (original); Reports; Table of Contents; Title page

Repository

Falkirk Archives, Callendar House

Reference

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

The evidence for this society and its magazine comes solely through reports of society meetings published in the local press. An account of the society’s formation was included in the Chairman’s speech at the group’s first social meeting held in January 1880, which was the subject of an article in The Teviotdale Record.

According to the Chairman, about two months prior to the social, there were a number of disputes within the Jedburgh Debating Society, the result being that most of the members of the society resigned and formed the present Literary Association. This event was couched in the positive terms of ‘stirring up the members, and now they all seemed to have the welfare of the Association at heart, and the intellectual improvement of themselves and others’ (‘Jedburgh Literary Association’s Social Meeting’, The Teviotdale Record, 29 January 1870, p. 4).

The literary association took over the lectures formerly provided by the Jedburgh Debating Society. These lectures were provided primarily for the working-classes, and the Chairmen expressed his regret that these were not well-attended as had been hoped.  From this, it appears that (most?) of the members of both the Debating Society and the Literary Association were middle class.

Interestingly, following the Chairman’s speech, one Mr J. D. Peacock, a member of the Women’s Rights’ Association (local branch?), spoke about the association’s work and the important role of women in world history, which included their supportive role in the Disruption of 1843. He ended by expressing the hope that women’s education would be included in the upcoming plans for re-structuring Scotland’s educational system, and finished with a verse from ‘Woman’s Mission’, a poem by Ebenezer Elliott (‘The Corn Law Rhymer’).

To date, the earliest evidence we have of the society’s manuscript magazine comes, unusually, from the poetry section of The Jedburgh Gazette and Border Courier of March 1872. In this section, an anonymous poem entitled ‘On the First Violet of Spring’ is published and credited ‘From Jed. Lit. Assn. MSS. Magazine’ (‘On the First Violet of Spring’, The Jedburgh Gazette and Border Courier, 02 March 1872, p. 4). From this, we know that original poetry at least appeared in the association’s magazine. The poem is on a very standard theme, but the very interesting part is that it is taken from the literary society’s manuscript magazine. Whilst fairly common practice in newspapers in Australia (examples of which are available in the nineteenth-century newspapers digitised on Trove), this is the very first case we have seen where a piece from a literary society magazine has been used in a local newspaper and has been attributed as such.

The magazine appears to have survived until at least 1881, as the next evidence of the society’s magazine comes from a report in The Teviotdale Record on the group’s annual general meeting, which was held in October 1881. Amongst the office-bearers elected for the coming term was Mr J. M’Kean, who was to act as Editor of the magazine (‘Jedburgh Literary Association’, The Teviotdale Record, 08 October 1881, p. 2). No other details are given.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Jedburgh Literary Association

Date of Existence

1869-1881?

Date of Magazine

1872 (-1881?)

Number of Issues

(at least) 2 (not extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Poem (original); (other contributions currently unknown)

Repository

Heritage Hub, Hawick (both The Teviotdale Record andThe Jedburgh Gazette and Border Courier)

Reference

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.

Overview

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

‘A Book of “Ours”‘ is the only magazine that was produced by this group. According to the ‘Prefatory Note’, it was the result of a meeting held on 22 February 1907 at which one of the members read a paper about the club, highlighting it with his original sketches using lantern slides prepared by another member. The effect was a hit, and a Committee duly formed to see about the preservation of the sketches, and about adding other materials, the audience for which would be the group members and their friends.

The result is a lively, good-humoured magazine full of tributes to and insights about the club along with insider jokes, which were the subjects of its eclectic mix of poetry, toasts, and songs that are accompanied numerous sketches, cartoons and photographs. The spirit of one of camaraderie and bonhomie between its members.

The magazine has 44 pages (unpaginated). In addition to the ‘Prefatory Note’, it contains: six poems; one toast in the form of a poem; three souvenirs/poems; six songs or ballads; two toast lists, four menus with toast lists, and three programmes/menus from club dinners; a humorous, mock list of rules; a rebus of the 1896-7 session; twelve pages of illustrations and cartoons; and six pages of photographs of the members.

It is currently unknown how many copies of this magazine was produced.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Glasgow Philological and Literary Club (aka This Club of Ours, Our Literary and Social Club, or ‘Ours’ Club) (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1871-present

Date of Magazine

1909

Number of Issues

1

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Print (Glasgow: Wm. Lyon, 1909)

Contents and Contributions

Art/Illustrations (original); Ballads (original); Menus (Club suppers); Outing schedules (Club excursions); Photographs(members); Poems (original); Preface; Programmes (Club supper); Puzzles; Rules (mock); Songs (original);  Souvenirs; Toast Lists (Club supper)

Repository

University of Glasgow Special Collections

Reference

‘A Book of “Ours”‘ (“Ours” Literary and Social Club. A book of “Ours.” Contributions by the members. [Andrew Lyon, Editor] (Glasgow, 1909) (Sp Coll Bh11-c.28, Wylie Collection)

Additional Notes

See also entry for Glasgow Philological and Literary Club (aka This Club of Ours or ‘Ours’ Club) 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].