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

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

Overview

Members of this literary society were part of the congregation of Bridge Street United Presbyterian Church, located in Musselburgh, East Lothian, to the east of Edinburgh. (For a brief history of the church, see the National Records of Scotland catalogue entry.)

There are three extant volumes of the manuscript magazine that this society produced. The ‘Index’ at the start of the 1890-1891 volume lists the contributions by the date of the meeting at which they were read aloud. This tells us that the society held regular ‘Magazine Nights’ during their yearly sessions. Thus, almost all of the contributions included in the magazine were intended to be heard first and then read later.

‘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 1890-1892 volume is a ‘typical’ issue containing a mixture of prose non-fiction articles and essays, original poems, along with a few letters to the Editor. There is no artwork in any of the issues. Interestingly, readers’ criticisms — the comments written into the magazine by readers on the various aspects of the contributions and/or the magazine itself — are not included in this magazine, but a regular feature entitled ‘Appendix’ (later called ‘Editor’s Remarks’) written by the Editor works in a similar manner. This reports on the society’s magazine nights and provides us with some indication of the reception of each piece that was read aloud. In addition, it discusses the ‘Appendix of Criticism’ that was also read aloud at the meetings, which did include comments about the previous issue of the magazine.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Bridge Street United Presbyterian Literary Society (Edinburgh)

Date of Existence

1890?-1901?

Date of Magazine

Vol. II, 1890-1891; Vol. IV, 1892-1893; 1899-1901

Number of Issues

3

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Articles (non-fiction); Editorials; Essays; Indexes; Letters to Editor; Poems (original); Reports; Table of Contents; Title page

Repository

National Records of Scotland

Reference

CH3/1495/12;
CH3/1495/13;
CH3/1495/14

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 Sandyford Church Literary Association is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

This was a first attempt at a magazine from this association, and either it was not a success or further issues have not been preserved. It contains thirteen articles written in different hands, with blank pages at the end of the volume for readers ‘to briefly record any remarks or criticism which they may have to make on the various papers’ (Preface). These pages are blank, so readers evidently did not respond as hoped. The editorial preface mentions the ‘youthful inexperience’ of writers and the ‘disadvantages against which we strive’, asking readers not to view contributions ‘in the strong light of professional standards.’

The magazine contains interesting accounts of ‘Local Government in India’ by a writer who worked in the British civil service and of churchgoing in Canada, in ‘On the Verge of the Backwoods’. The unsigned ‘Sitting on a Volcano!’ is particularly notable: it responds to Rev. Andrew Mearns’s famous pamphlet ‘The Bitter Cry of Outcast London’ in highlighting the plight of the poor, in Glasgow as well as London, but disagrees with his call for greater mission activity and religious education; arguing that good housing, food and clothing are the primary needs and that religion is secondary.

The magazine also contains a report on the Sandyford Church Literary Association and its activities, highlighting a rise in numbers, improvement in participation, and successful new monthly meetings involving the whole congregation. This report also mentions joint debates held with St George’s Literary Association and the Park Literary Institute (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

The magazine includes travel writing and accounts of work overseas, description of Scottish places with some illustrations, articles on steam navigation, Shakespeare, ‘Newspaper Politics’ and a satirical semi-fictional account of poetic ambition, ‘A Budding Bard.’

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Sandyford Church Literary Association (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1879-?

Date of Magazine

1883

Number of Issues

1

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Editorial; Essays; Fiction/Narrative; Readers’ Criticisms (pages left blank); Report; Title page

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference

642424

Additional Notes

See also entry for Sandyford Church Literary Association on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

See also entries for Free St. George’s Literary Association, and The Park Literary Institution on 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.