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 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.

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

Members of this literary club were enrolled at Edinburgh Collegiate College. Opened in 1868, the College was located at Nos. 27/28, Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. From a photograph of the group in the 1871 magazine, the club was quite small (if all members were indeed present), there being only five boys in the photo.

The number of contributions to this magazine is unusually large: there are 51 pieces, and 39 illustrations that are listed separately in the table of contents at the front. The entire issue has a hefty total of 694 pages, particularly considering that it only had 13 contributors that included non-members of the group (see below). It may be that the pieces were written over a number of months and were collected and bound into one volume for a Christmas number.

According to the magazine’s list of rules, contributors did not have to be a member of the club. Although anonymous contributions were permitted, many of the authors signed their names at the end of their pieces. The order of the contributions was determined by the date when they were received by the Editor, who could reject any unsuitable material. Swearing and ‘bad language’ was not allowed.

Further, the group voted for those who were allowed to contribute, and could democratically dismiss them as well. Contributors had to submit a piece of not less than four pages to every other issue of the magazine. The order of reading was determined by the order in which the contributions were received, and each reader only had 2 nights to keep the issue. Emphasis was placed on original stories and artwork. Interestingly, the group wished to underscore the seriousness of their endeavours and of their club’s rules by punishing transgressors: Rule XI states ‘That Punishment be determined by ballot.’

Perhaps not surprising for this age group, this magazine is more of a boys’ adventure magazine, with serial fictional stories by the contributors, with simple accompanying illustrations of ships, campfire scenes, or of imaginative exotic places, many of the stories even having their own illustrated title page at the start. Other contributions include filler materials like enigmas and riddles.

The next extant issue of The Edinburgh Collegiate Magazine dates from March 1890 and is a print magazine. According to the ‘Editorial’, the College magazine was being revived after lapsing around 1885. This is a slimmer volume with 12 contributions including the editorial, ‘Correspondence’ and ‘Notice to Contributors’ features. Primarily, it reports on the College’s activities and this issue focuses on the sports clubs. The next extant issue dates from February 1891 and also contains college news and sports, but includes articles on Emily Bronte and a couple of travel stories.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Edinburgh Collegiate Club

Date of Existence

1871?-1891?

Date of Magazine

Christmas 1871; No. 1, March 1890; Vol. II, No. 1, February 1891

Number of Issues

3 (extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript (Christmas 1871); Print (No. 1, March 1890; Vol. II, No. 1, February 1891)

Contents and Contributions

Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Correspondence column; Editorials; Essays; Letter to Editor; List of contributors; Magazine Rules; Photograph (members); Poems (original); Puzzles; Riddles;  Serial articles/stories; Table of Contents; Title page

Repository

Edinburgh Central Library (ECL) (Christmas 1871; No. 1, March 1890; Vol. II, No. 1, February 1891)

National Library of Scotland (NLS) (Vol. II, No. 1, February 1891)

Reference

ECL reference for Christmas Number: Class No. YLF 1135 E23 C; Book No. C5564;

ECL reference for 1890-91 print magazines: Class No. qYLF 1135 E23 C; Book No. 21311

NLS reference for Vol. II, No. 1, February 1891: Q.50

Overview

The society that produced this magazine had its origins in the adult school classes run by Quakers held at Friends’ Hall, located on Barnet Grove in Bethnal Green in the East End of London. Amongst the fairly complete set of records for this group is a history of the society by one of its members, its President, Arthur Hadley. From this, we learn that as members of the adult school classes, several of the men formed a discussion group that later became a Shakespearean Reading Circle, then a literary and debating society in 1906. Ladies were allowed as guests at the meetings; it would later become a mixed-gender group. Hadley describes their object or purpose as being the members’ mutual improvement.

The group initially met in the Red Room at Friends’ Hall on Friday nights. Following a dispute with the school’s superintendent, the society shifted their venue to The Traveller’s Rest, a ‘Coffee Tavern’ that was located on Bethnal Green Road. The group not only changed their meeting place but changed their name as well to the Bethnal Green Literary Society. Shortly after this, they moved their meetings to the Town Hall on Cambridge Road. Along with reading papers, listening to lectures and holding group discussions, the society had a study group, a summer reading programme, and a manuscript library comprised of the members’ original pieces (see below). In addition, in order to raise funds for the group, members wrote and performed original plays. The group founded a manuscript magazine fairly early on when they were still members of the adult school classes at Friends’ Hall.

Twice a year (generally in May and December), members would send their contributions to the magazine’s Editor, who would select from them the pieces to be read aloud at a society meeting held for the purpose. These were then collected and variously bound (see below). The number of contributions to these issues varies generally between half a dozen and a dozen pieces, and include mostly original prose fiction and poems. In addition, there are also puzzles, some humorous advertisements, letters to the Editor and a correspondence column. Contributors mostly use pen-names and only occasionally their own names or initials. As is fairly typical for the periodicals that were produced in the early twentieth century, the pieces are a mixture of typescript and manuscript within a single issue.

Unlike most periodicals produced by mutual improvement and literary societies, the magazine that this group produced lacks uniformity: it does not show the same consistency between issues or even within a single issue. The covers, when present, and the binding of each issue differ. Further, the size of paper used by the different contributors is quite dissimilar. These factors are a reflection of the oral medium, or the ‘magazine nights’, for which the contributions were produced and the decision taken to simply collect and use the submissions in the issues as they were. Further, the less polished appearance of the society’s magazine belies the importance that the group attached to their original literary pieces: in 1909, they voted to start a library to preserve these issues and other papers that were given at the meetings. The members of this literary group would go on to become prominent writers and novelists (e.g. Beatrice Kean Seymour), local politicians (e.g. Edmund Dutton), scholars in various fields (e.g. Horace Shipp), and eminent members of their respective communities.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Friends’ Hall Literary Society; later became the Bethnal Green Literary Society (London)

Date of Existence

9 Feb. 1906-1916

Date of Magazine

No. 2, December 1907; No. 3, May 1908; No. 4, Christmas 1908; No. 5, May 1909, No. 6, Christmas 1909; No. 7, May 1910; No. 8, December 1910; No. 9, June 1911; (loose contributions for the manuscript magazine dating from December 1911 to June 1912)

Number of Issues

8 extant, along with some loose contributions not attributed to any issue

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Typescript and manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Advertisements (humorous); Circulation Lists; Correspondence columns;  Dialogue (fiction); Editorials; Essays; Fiction/Narratives; Jokes; Poems (original); Postcard; Puzzles; Readers’ Criticisms; Tables of Contents; Title pages

Repository

Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives

Reference

S/BGL (S/BGL/2/1; S/BGL/2/2; S/BGL/2/6)

Overview

This literary group was a bit unusual in that the members formed solely for the purpose of producing a magazine of original works. While they referred to their group as an ‘Association’ and collected subscriptions, it appears that they did not hold any formal meetings. It started as a group of 10 young men (women were allowed later) that were initially asked to join by F. J. Osborn, who would act as the magazine’s Editor.

Osborn, in his ‘Editorial’ in the first number, explains his methods of persuasion to elicit contributions: after convincing one young man to contribute an article, he would then approach another acquaintance and tell him that ‘Fizgog’ has sent in his contribution. He would then go on to say it was such a poor production that surely he (the acquaintance) could produce something better. This ‘harmless subterfuge’ appears not to have been necessary after the launch of the first issue as contributors were more forthcoming thereafter.

According to the magazine’s rules in the first number, each member of the group was to aim for contributing an article every month, but was certainly to do so at least every three months. The magazine was to be kept for four days only (this would later change to 48 hours) and then passed on to the next member on the list or he would have to pay a fine of 1d per day. Friends were allowed to read the magazine, but the listed member was responsible for its condition. Later on, contributions were accepted from non-members. In the first issues, the Editor re-wrote each of the pieces submitted, and the authors’ artwork was cut and pasted in.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

(Currently unknown) (Hertford)

Date of Existence

1904?-1911?

Date of Magazine

March 1904 – May 1911

Number of Issues

70

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript and Typescript

Contents and Contributions

Advertisements (humorous); Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Circulation Lists; Editorials; Essays; Fiction/Narratives; Jokes; Letters to Editor; Magazine Rules; Notices; Prefaces; Puzzles; Readers’ Criticisms; Sketches; Tables of Contents; Title pages

Repository

Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS) (Hertford)

Reference

DE/FJO/A11/1-70

Overview

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

The first issue of this magazine was produced in January 1893, four months after the club was founded. According to its Editor, the magazine was ‘instituted in order to allow those who are not public speakers or orators to contribute in writing original pieces of Literature’ (Andrew Ross, ‘Editorial’, New Literary Club Magazine, 18 January 1893, p. 3). At that point, the club had not yet worked out what pieces to include within it, but members generally agreed that these should be on subjects ‘which are common and instructive to all’ (Ibid).

There are 9 issues of this (mostly) monthly magazine bound into four volumes. With the exception of one poem in typescript in the December 1893 issue, all of the pieces are in manuscript.

Most of the issues run about 40 pages each with between 9 and 17 contributions (including the frontispieces). The largest issues were those produced in Summer 1894 and Spring 1895, which average about 130 pages and just over 20 contributions apiece (the largest, the Summer 1894 issue, having 27 contributions).

These issues contain mostly prose works with about ten percent of the contributions overall being poems, all of which are in the authors’ own handwriting, with most choosing to sign their own names. There are also a small number of puzzles and games throughout.

While this club was restricted to men, from the editorials, we know that women contributed a few pieces  (a small percentage overall) of artwork to its magazine. The artwork is in a variety of media, but a sizeable percentage of the illustrations are in pencil, which is a bit unusual.

There is one (extant) issue of the magazine that the club produced under its new name, the Literary Twenty-One Club, which clearly carries on the format and style of the previous issues that were produced by the group as the New Literary Club, with several of its old members staying on (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

The New Literary Club was formed in 1892. In 1896, it became the Literary Twenty-one Club. Even later, it amalgamated with the Holyrood Literary Society and took its name on 24 September 1897. On 3 October 1899, it changed its name to The Holyrood Literary Club, thento  The New Holyrood Literary Club. Later it was simply known as The Holyrood Club. (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

9 September 1892 – 21 April 1896; 21 April 1896 – 24 September 1897 (as Literary Twenty-One Club); on 24 September 1897 it amalgamated with Holyrood Literary Society and took its name

Date of Magazine

January 1893; [February?] 1893; [March?] 1893; October 1893; November 1893; December 1893; January 1894; Summer 1894; Spring 1895

Number of Issues

9 issues in 3 bound volumes

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Annotations; Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Circulation List; Club notices; Editorials; Epilogue; Essays; Frontispieces; Jokes; Letters to Editor; Maps; Music; Photographs; Poems (original); Poems (republished material); Poem (translation); Prize competition; Puzzles; Readers’ criticisms (unused section); Serial articles/stories; Sketches; Song (original); Table of Contents

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference

(Note: The records for this club are housed together with the records of The Holyrood Club (891047))

Additional Notes

See also entry for New Literary Club on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

See also The Literary Twenty-One Club Magazine and The Holyrood Magazine.

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)