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

In the 1830s and 1840s, there appears to have been a strong connection between natural history and literature in Dundee (see also The Wreath of Wild Flowers and the Literary and Scientific Institute). This magazine divided its pages between Botany, Gleanings in Natural History, Ornithology, Geology, Poetry, Reviews, and Miscellaneous (which included travel reports or editors’ notes.)

Contributors to this magazine published under their real names, and these include botanist G. Lawson, who produced most of the content, John Sime (a schoolteacher who was active in several societies) and John Findlay. The only pseudonym is the “Mountain Muse,” almost certainly the poet Alexander Wilson, a weaver from Alyth who moved into Dundee, who contributed a piece on “The Plants of the Bible.” Another weaver poet James Gow, a Chartist and the author of “Lays of the Loom,” also contributed a poem entitled “The Snow Drop” to an issue of the magazine.

Gow and Wilson knew each other from an earlier group known as “The Republic of Letters” (see ‘Additional Notes’ below), politically active writers who met in Dundee pubs and weaving sheds in the 1830s. James Adie, who contributed geographical essays, was also involved in the Dundee Literary and Scientific Institute around this time. He later emigrated to Canada, where he died in a snowstorm.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

(Currently unknown if this is a formal society)

Date of Existence

Jul. 1846?-?

Date of Magazine

Vol. I., Dundee, 1846, Jul. to Dec. 1846; Vol, II., Jan. to Jun. 1847; Vol. III, Jul. to Dec. 1847

Number of Issues

18 issues (not extant?)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Articles (scientific); Editorial; Essays; Poems (original); Review; Table of Contents

Repository

Dundee District Central Library, The Wellgate

Reference

365(5), Lamb Collection

Additional Notes

See also The Dundee Literary Society’s Magazine, and The Attic Journal.

These magazines were collected in the 1860s by A.C. Lamb, a Dundee temperance hotelier. Many of the societies represented met on premises owned by either himself or, in earlier decades, in his father Thomas’ coffee house. Lamb was often involved in society life himself, and his collection of over 450 boxes covers a wide range of material relating to literature, poetry, culture and politics in Victorian Dundee. For more information on this material, please contact local.history@leisureandculturedundee.com.

Overview

Like The Athenaeum, this magazine was founded by and for the students of the University of Glasgow (see ‘Additional Notes’ below). The idea to start a periodical was raised at a student meeting presumably in late 1827.  There are four issues of this weekly magazine, each of which is only four pages. It is unknown if further issues were produced after January 1828.

The students voted unanimously to start a magazine that would contain their original contributions. The difficulty they had was deciding what they would call it. The first issue reports on the discussions that ensued and the few suggestions that were offered, including the ‘Stethescope and Literary Index’. The stethoscope being, apparently, mostly unknown, and the student defines it to his colleagues as he was told it by an acquaintance, a medical student:

‘…that it was an instrument, used to detect disease in the internals, by an application of it to the bared breast of the patient, I judged that this would be a most original title for our work, and withal, superlatively suitable’ ([Editorial], The College Stethescope and Literary Index, No. I, 3 January 1828, p. 1).

The Chairman then laid out the purpose of the magazine as follows:

‘…it will take cognizance of the whole internal arrangement of the University, the Lord Rector, Principal, Professors, and the various classes of students, in the several departments of Divinity, Law, Literature and Medicine, in order that, in cases where diseases shall be found to exist, it may by a timely application of purgatives and correctives, prevent further devastation of the College frame.
As a Literary Index, it will embrace original productions of every kind, whether in prose or verse, serious criticisms, or humorous sketches; in short, every species of writing, except polemical divinity’ (Ibid).

The magazine was priced at 1d, which was to cover the printing and delivery costs. Generally, each issue has the same layout: there are one or two articles followed by one or two poems or songs, with the correspondence column at the very end. The articles are anonymous and presumably by the Editor/s, but the poetry and songs are signed with the contributors’ initials.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

(Students of the University of Glasgow)

Date of Existence

3 Jan. 1828-?

Date of Magazine

3 Jan. 1828

Number of Issues

1

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Print

Contents and Contributions

Articles (non-fiction); Correspondence column; Editorial; Essays; Poems (original); Reviews; Songs

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference

Mitchell (AL) 890768

Additional Notes

See also The Athenaeum: An Original Literary Miscellany.

Overview

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

This society appears to have had a dynamic group of members that contributed to and supported the production of this magazine for over twenty years. The magazine was issued (mostly) monthly during the yearly session, which ran from October until April; like most societies, there were no meetings held (nor magazines issued) during the summer.

The length of each issue varies a good deal, and is dependent upon the number of pieces and the length of each contribution, which did not appear to have a limit as did some magazines. Each bound volume contains roughly a couple hundred pages (e.g. Vols. II-II, bound into one hardcover book, has 410 pages, while Vol. XIII, one of the slimmest, has approximately 200).

Each contribution is in the author’s own handwriting, but the authors are on the whole not identifiable: pieces are either anonymous, signed with a pen-name, or more rarely with an initial or initials. However, when accompanied by artwork and/or other materials, each contributor’s individuality and creativity shines through, and the care that was taken in the magazine’s production is quite evident. These issues were valued and intended to be preserved.

There is a wide variety of subjects covered in the articles, essays, and poems. There is also a range of means used to illustrate these contributions: each issue (particularly the later ones) includes much good quality, detailed artwork in a range of media (pen-and-ink and watercolour being the most popular, although oil paintings are not uncommon). There are also a number of photographs, swatches of fabric, and cuttings from various printed media, which includes a map that has been folded and bound into one of the volumes. Most issues have an elaborate illustrated cover, as shown in the example of the photograph included here.

It was only in the 1890s in the later issues of the resurrected monthly entitled The Literary Magazine that Readers’ Criticisms’ — the comments that readers wrote into the blank pages of the magazine left for this purpose — were introduced. This section is located at the back of each issue, and readers mostly used pen-names. In a few cases, individual members can be identified by their initials.

The circulation lists for The Literary Bond only list men that are presumably members. The lists from the later 1890s issues show that by this time the society allowed women to join, and, from the ‘Readers’ Criticisms’, we know that they contributed many of the pieces to the magazine.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Free Anderston Church Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Society (later became the Free Anderston Church Literary Society) (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1849-1897?

Dates of Magazine

The Literary Bond: the Mitchell Library has Vol. 2 (Sept. 1862) – Vol. 13 (Dec. 1875), Vol. 16, No. 1 (Oct. 1876) – Vol. 18 (October 1879), and Vol. 21 (October 1881) – Vol. 22, No. 6 (March 1883) (Vols. 14, 15, 19 and 20 no longer extant?);

The Literary Magazine: the Mitchell Library has Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jan. 1896) – Vol. 2, No. 2 (Feb. 1897)

Number of Issues

The Literary Bond: 15 bound volumes containing a total of 121 issues;

The Literary Magazine: 2 bound volumes. (The total number of issues for this later magazine is currently unknown as Volume 2 was unavailable for viewing at time of research.)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Annotations; Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Circulation Lists; Cuttings (printed materials); Editorials; Essays; Fiction/Narrative; Letters; Letters to Editor; Magazine Rules; Music; Photographs; Poems (original); Prefaces; Readers’ Criticisms; Reviews; Serial articles/stories; Sketches; Tables of Contents

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference

Mitchell (AL), 891310 (The Literary Bond)

Mitchell (AL), 891311 (The Literary Magazine)

Additional Notes

See also entry for Free Anderston Church Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Society on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

The Freethinking Christians formed in 1799, or possibly in 1801, after having broken off from a Universalist Baptist congregation in Parliament Court Chapel, located in Bishopsgate Street, City of London (Hannah Adams (1755-1831), in her Dictionary of All Religions (1817), gives 1799 as the year in which this society was founded, while William T. Whitley’s, The Baptists of London (1928), dates the congregation’s secession as 1801).

In 1809 (?) they built a church at (Jewin) Crescent, Jewin Street, where between 400-500 ‘members and strangers’ attended the weekly meetings (Hannah Adams, ‘Freethinking Christians’,  A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations, Jewish, Heathen, Mahometan and Christian, Ancient and Modern… (Boston: James Eastburn and Company, and Cummings and Hilliard, 1817), p. 82-3. A Dictionary of all Religions and Religious Denominations <https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Dictionary_of_All_Religions_and_Religi.html?id=yQRaAAAAMAAJ> [accessed 17/06/18].) In 1832, a new meeting house was completed in St John’s Square for the congregation which could seat 300 people, and it served as their place of meeting until 1871 (‘St John’s Church and St John’s Square,’ Survey of London: Volume 46, South and East Clerkenwell, ed. By Philip Temple (London: London County Council, 2008), pp. 115-41. British History Online <http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol46/pp115-141> [accessed 17 June 2018]).

This church produced  (at least) two different magazines, the first perhaps as early as January 1811, and the second in 1842 until at least 1844. (The evidence for the earlier magazine comes from the second volume of The Freethinking Christian’s Magazine. See The Freethinking Christians’ Magazine; Intended for the Promotion of Rational Religion and Free Enquiry, No. 13, Vol. 2 (London: printed and published by Charles Mitham, 1812). The Freethinking Christians’ Magazine <https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wTIEAAAAQAAJ> [accessed 17 June 2018]).  The first magazine will not be discussed here as it was a church magazine used  primarily as a discussion forum for its members and a vehicle to set out its differences from other established religious doctrines and dogma.

The group based at the Freethinking church produced at least twenty-six issues of their own manuscript magazine, of which only five issues – those dating from August to December 1844 bound into one volume – have survived. The volume itself is 442 pages, and is bound in a hard-board cover with a leather spine and corners, held by a brass clasp. The book housed in the collection of the London Metropolitan Archives once belonged to Thomas Wolstencroft, whose signature appears on the blank page inside the cover. The five issues are preceded by a title page for this fourth volume, and an index of the entire contents was added at the front. Each issue begins with a short transcription of a sermon or quote from the Bible written on the back of the ‘Contents’ page. The magazine is a miscellany that includes essays on church policies and practices along with moralistic pieces, but contributions of original prose fiction and particularly poetry also feature regularly.

When compared to the earlier, print magazine produced by the church, the manuscript magazine is decidedly more ‘literary’, and literature along with the ‘Uses of Books’ are discussed with some zeal. For example, a series entitled ‘Scraps’, and later ‘Our Scrapbook’, includes short transcriptions from a variety of sources under themed headings, all of which were meant to be instructive.  Books are reviewed in two of the issues.  In addition, a series of articles entitled ‘My Literary Favourites’, featuring Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Dugald Stewart and Charles Lamb, were written by a frequent contributor to the volume known only as ‘V’. But the magazine could also be the site of less serious, more playful discussion of books and literature, as in the article entitled, ‘A Glance at One of the Uses of Books’, which takes the form of a pseudo-medical, half-jesting treatise.

Other regular features in all the issues were letters to the Editor, extracts from personal letters, the ‘Editor’s Present Reply to Questions Sent’, a correspondence column, and articles written in reply to previous pieces. What is evident from these five issues is that the magazines acted as a medium in which to carry out a series of dialogues between the contributors, the Editor, the readers, as well as the church community. This interdiscursivity is foregrounded throughout all of the issues. The church Elder, in his role as magazine Editor, acted as gate-keeper to the magazine as well as moderator. The predominant purpose of the letters to the Editor was to ask for his opinion on, or clarification of, the finer points of various doctrines, or alternatively for the elucidation of religious terms.

This later manuscript magazine appears to have been a platform for which a number of writers, both men and women, of varying experience could improve and hone their skills in writing not only religious and moral essays and poems, but also more ‘literary’, even humorous, contributions for a sympathetic audience, and who hoped, perhaps one day, to earn acclaim for his/her writing.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Freethinking Christians (Church of God, St John’s Square, London)

Date of Existence

1842?-1844?

Dates of Magazine

Vol. 4 (containing No. 22, 4 Aug. 1844; No. 23, 1 Sept. 1844; No. 24, 6 Oct. 1844; No. 25, 3 Nov. 1844; No. 26, 1 Dec. 1844)

Number of Issues

5 (extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Correspondence columns; Essays; Extracts of published works; Fiction/Narratives; Index; Letters to Editor; Poems (original); Poems (republished material); Proverbs; Reviews; Sketches; Tables of Contents; Title pages

Repository

London Metropolitan Archives

Reference

CLC/197/MS02199