Overview 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 Read More …
Contents and Contributions: Title page
Saltcoats Literary Society Magazine
Overview 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. Read More …
Eastville Free Methodist Mutual Improvement Class Manuscript Magazine
Overview This magazine was produced by a mutual improvement class based at Eastville Free Methodist Church, which was located on Fishponds Road in Eastville (northeast of Bristol). (For a brief history of this church see ‘Eastville Methodist Church (now Pentecostal Read More …
The Excelsior Manuscript Magazine
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 Read More …
The Spoutmouth Institution Magazine
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 Read More …
Abbey Foregate Congregational Church Literary Society’s Magazine
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 Read More …
Aemulus
Overview 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 Read More …
Barony M.S. Magazine
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 Read More …
Bridge Street United Presbyterian Literary Society’s Magazine
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 Read More …
Budgett’s Budget
Overview This magazine was created by some members of staff employed by James Budgett and Son Limited. This company began as a wholesale grocer in 1857 in central London, and became a wholesale tea and coffee company in 1875. In Read More …
Crescent Chapel Literary and Debating Society Magazine
Overview The only information we currently have on the Crescent Literary and Debating Society comes from the magazine it produced. Members were most likely part of the congregation of the Crescent Congregational Church, which was located on Everton Brow in Read More …
Salem Chapel Mutual Improvement Society Monthly Magazine
Overview The mutual improvement society that produced this monthly magazine was made up of members of the Salem Methodist Church in Baptist Mills (an area in the northeast of Bristol). The church was founded in 1853 and located on Lower Ashley Read More …
Dundee Diagnostic Society’s Volume for 1846
Overview Unusually, The Dundee Diagnostic Society’s Volume for 1846 was published in the ‘traditional’ manner, printed specially for the society by McCosh, Park & Dewars. The content is partially highlights from the society’s MS magazine, and partially pieces specially composed Read More …
Dundee Literary and Scientific Institute Magazine
Overview George Tawse, one of the founding Literary and Scientific Institute members, wrote a light-hearted and affectionate recollection of the society’s early days in 1846, in which he depicted its humble beginnings as eight or ten “mere lads”, meeting on Read More …
Edinburgh Collegiate Magazine
Overview 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 Read More …
Friends’ Hall Literary Society MSS Magazine
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 Read More …
Gems of Poesy
Overview Gems of Poesy is an MS magazine compiled by William Gardiner, who also compiled The Wreath of Wild Flowers. The two magazines had identical publication schedules and readers’ lists, so probably served as companion volumes. Each issue is numbered Read More …
GENII, A Monthly Circulating Magazine
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 Read More …
Glasgow Border Counties’ Literary Society’s Manuscript Magazine
Overview A summary of the history of the Glasgow Border Counties’ Literary Society is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below). This magazine is unlike most other mutual improvement and literary society magazines that we have seen Read More …
Kelvinside Parish Church Literary Society Magazine
Overview A summary of the history of the Kelvinside Parish Church Literary Society is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below). There is only a single extant issue of this society’s (yearly?) magazine, which is bound with Read More …
Kent Road Quarterly
Overview A summary of the history of the Kent Road United Presbyterian Church Young Men’s Institute is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below). The one extant issue of this magazine is a miscellany comprising 162 pages with Read More …
La Bouquet
Overview The only surviving manuscript magazine from an all-female society in Dundee. The Editorial Preface pre-empts criticism by giving a very modest account of the work: “However much ladies in general, are disposed to self delusion, we can not imagine Read More …
Manuscript Book of the Literary and Convivial Association
Overview The Paisley Literary and Convivial Association was a group of about 25 men who met weekly on Saturday nights between 1814 until around 1864 for readings, discussion of pre-selected topics, and to read their original essays and literary compositions Read More …
Our Literary Album
Overview The one (extant?) issue of this magazine currently housed in Argyll and Bute Archives is a photocopy of the original manuscript. The ‘Order of Circulation’ at the front of the issue lists 36 male members. From the ‘Introductory remarks Read More …
Our Magazine. L.Y.M.C.A. A Monthly Journal of Literature & Art
Overview A summary of the history of the Lansdowne Young Men’s Christian Association (aka L.Y.M.C.A.) is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below). According to the editorial in the first issue produced in November 1890, the idea to Read More …
Our Mutual Friend: A Monthly Magazine of the Various Literary and Mutual Improvement Societies of Warrington, St Helens and the Surrounding District
Overview There are 12 issues of this monthly print magazine dating from June 1887 to May 1888 which were bound together in one volume in 1888. The entire volume is a total of 240 pages with each issue having 20 pages. Read More …
Sandyford Literary Association MS Magazine
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 Read More …
The Attic Journal
Overview The Attic Journal, launched in 1848, while not explicitly affiliated with a particular society, was edited by Peter Begg, who was also a member of other literary societies in Dundee. Its readers included John Sime and two members of Read More …
The College News, A Quarterly Magazine
Overview 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 Read More …
The Essayist. A M.S. Magazine
Overview A summary of the history of the Pollokshields Free Church Literary Institute is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below). One 74 page volume (the second) survives of this magazine. The volume is neatly written in Read More …
The Highbury Magazine (1901-1911), later The Park Church Literary Magazine (1929-1937)
Overview This society was based at Park Church, located on Grosvenor Lane, Highbury, London, which was a Scottish Presbyterian church. It had a thriving middle-class congregation, and several active clubs and societies attached to it, including this young men’s literary association. Read More …
The Manuscript Magazine of the Church of God at the Meeting House St John’s Square, London
Overview 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 Read More …
The Monthly Instructer
Overview The London Metropolitan Archives suggests that this Sunday school was connected to a Baptist church that was located on Worship Street, City of London. The church itself was running from at least 1791. It was still running in the 1870s, Read More …
The Queen’s Park Literary Magazine (aka The Queen’s Park Magazine)
Overview A summary of the history of the Queen’s Park, St. George’s United Presbyterian, UK Church Literary Institute is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below). There are three extant volumes of this society’s magazine. The first two Read More …
The Weekly Miscellany
Overview According to the ‘Preface’ of the 1849 volume, The Society for Mutual Improvement was formed in 1846. Since that time, it had admitted 48 men (see below) and had 108 essays delivered at its meetings. The society had its Read More …
The Wreathe of Wild Flowers
Overview This magazine is in the handwriting of William Gardiner (1809-1852), aged 25 when the first issue was compiled. Gardiner’s work appears under the pseudonym Sylvanus. All of the contributors appear under classically alluding pseudonyms, including Daphnus, Corydon and Damon, Read More …
St. Stephen’s Literary Society’s Magazine; also St. Stephen’s Young Men’s Guild, Magazine of Literary Section
Overview St Stephen’s Church is located at 105 St Stephen Street in Edinburgh. (For further details about this church, see the article, ‘Saint Stephen’s Stockbridge‘, on the Edinburgh-Stockbridge.com website.) The information that we currently have on this group comes from Read More …
Wellpark F. C. Literary Society M.S. Magazine
On Overview A summary of the history of the Wellpark Free Church Literary Society is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below). There are three extant issues of this magazine, which together contain an eclectic mixture of prose Read More …