This society was most likely based at the Selkirk West United Free Church in the Scottish Borders. The information that we currently have on its magazine comes solely from an article published in the early twentieth century in a local newspaper, The Border Advertiser.

According to the article, on 6 March 1905, the society met in the church hall to hear the magazine’s editor, Mr W. F. Robertson, read aloud six contributions to the society’s magazine. These included: ‘An Anomaly’; ‘The Power of Music’; ‘Britain’s Industrial [illegible]’; ‘Suggestions’; ‘My Window “Serial” Chap. iii’; and ‘The Ascent’ of Man’ (‘West UF. Church Literary Society’, The Border Advertiser, 07 March 1905, p. 3).

There were apparently not many present at this particular meeting, but nonetheless, ‘[t]he articles were well received by a small but appreciative audience’.

Further research in the local newspapers and archives may well bring further information on the group and its magazine to light.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

West United Free Church Literary Society

Date of Existence

1905?-?

Date of Magazine

06 March 1905 (contributions to the magazine were read aloud at the society’s ‘magazine night’)

Number of Issues

(at least) 1 (not extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Articles (non-fiction); Serial article/story

Repository

Library Headquarters, Selkirk

Reference

N/A

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 City Mission), Eastville, Fishponds‘ on the Places of Worship Database website.) The lists of members at the front of the extant 1893 and 1894 issues have 26 and 24 names respectively. It was a mixed-gender class with perhaps a fairly equal number of men and women (there are several names on these lists where only the surname is given). No addresses are given after these names, but these can be found by consulting the entries for the parents in the church register, also available in the archives. The group members were pro-temperance, and two pieces by different authors in their magazine mention attending a Band of Hope meeting. (For more information about the Band of Hope, see the article, ‘Band of Hope‘ on the Spartacus Educational website.)

There are only two extant issues of the manuscript magazine that this class produced. These are roughly A5 in size, with a brown paper cover and are hand-stitched. It is unclear if there was a set production date for each issue (e.g. monthly, bi-monthly, etc.), but it might have been tied to the semester schedule. The format of the contributions vary: some are written solely on one side of the paper, whilst others are on both front and back, which is a bit usual for these magazines. All the contributions — the majority of which are essays on a variety of topics — are in the authors’ own handwriting. With few exceptions, all of the contributors and reviewers use their own initials. There is no original poetry and no illustrations or artwork in either issue. Readers were allowed one week to view the magazine.

The issues are compact not only in size but in the number of contributions: there are 68 pages (unpaginated) in total in the 1893 issue with 7 contributions followed by four readers’ responses over 10 pages in the ‘Notes and Comments’ section, and 30 pages with 5 contributions in the 1894 issue. Interestingly, whilst there are also a number of blank pages left for readers to provide their responses in the ‘Notes and Comments’ section in the later issue, none of the readers chose to use this space.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Eastville Free Methodist Mutual Improvement Class

Date of Existence

1894?-1895?

Date of Magazine

No. 1, October 1893 and No. 5, October 1894

Number of Issues

2 (extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Annotations; Articles (non-fiction); Circulation Lists; Editorials; Essays; Extracts of published works; Letters to Editor; Magazine Rules; Poems (republished material); Readers’ Criticisms; Serial articles/stories; Tables of Contents;  Title pages

Repository

Bristol Archives & Record Office

Reference

40836/EP/95-96

 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.

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

At a meeting of this society held on 28 April 1868, it is recorded that two men (who were later to briefly become joint editors) were to form a  committee to look into the feasibility of starting a manuscript magazine for the group, and they were to make a report at the next meeting. The society discussed the report at the second meeting in the 1868-1869 session, and the matter was approved, so long as they were ‘economical in the matter of paper’. This highlights the fact that like most small societies, costs were an important factor in the decision to establish a magazine.

The ‘Report of [the] Committee appointed at [a] meeting of [the] Renfield Association, April 28th 1868, on [the] proposed Association Magazine’ can be found at the back of the group’s minute book and makes for interesting reading: this document is a rare example where the thought and care that went into the planning and execution of a society magazine is documented and preserved.

The committee couches the formation of the new magazine within the framework of an existing culture for society manuscript magazines already being produced in the city. It recommended having a monthly magazine, that the paper be provided by the association, and that the magazine should be bound. Circulation would be restricted to the members, and the list that would accompany the periodical would be constructed according to the proximity of members to each other, beginning and ending with the Editor/s. The committee also gave a full list of the Editors’ duties. The cost of the paper (approximately 50 sheets), ruling and binding of the magazine was estimated at 2s 6d per month.

However, we know very little about the magazine that was actually produced: interestingly, outwith the noting of the periodic change of editors for various reasons, there is no mention of the production of the magazines in the minutes.

At the close of the 1867-1868 session, there were 22 members on the roll, which dropped to 10 in this society’s very last session. This means that from the time of its proposal to the dissolving of the group, there was a decreasing number of members that would have contributed to this magazine.

We do know that there were in total six issues or ‘parts’, and that at the last meeting, they were allocated to six group members who are named.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Renfield Free Church Young Men’s Society

Date of Existence

26 February 1851-18 January 1870

Date of Magazine

1868-1870

Number of Issues

6 (Nos. 1-6)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

(unknown)

Repository

(Glasgow City Archives)

Reference

(See: Glasgow, Renfield Free Church, U.F., Young Men’s Society minutes, 1851-69, CH3/1166/13)

Additional Notes

See also entry for Renfield Free Church Young Men’s Society 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

A summary of the history of the Free St. Peter’s Young Men’s Association is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

The earlier manuscript magazine dates from January 1871, and is a bit smaller than other periodicals of this type (approximately A5 size). According to the Editor, this was the third magazine that the society had produced in the 1870-71 session, thus it was a monthly periodical.

The magazine has 118 pages and includes 11 contributions. This issue is framed within a report on the meeting of the society regarding the production of the current issue, which quickly breaks down into a story-telling and singing session, with members taking it in turns. The contributions are mostly prose, with only three poems. However, many of the prose contributions include a combination of poems, songs and illustrations. The contributors are all anonymous. The illustrations are pen-and-ink, and the title page is pen-and-ink and watercolour.

The later print magazine from 1883 is housed in the University of Glasgow Special Collections. According to the Editor’s ‘Preface’, the contributions to the magazine are by the current members of the congregation or those who were formerly connected with it. The illustrations are, however, almost entirely by ‘outsiders’.

This magazine has 80 pages with 19 contributions. Including the frontispiece, there are 10 illustrations, all of which are not included in the pagination (this number does not include the illustration of the church on the title page). There are slightly more prose pieces than poems, numbering 11 and 8 respectively. Five contributors use pen-names and there are two unsigned pieces. The rest of the essays and poems are signed with either the authors’ own name or initials. There is one article that is possibly by a woman entitled, ‘Lords of Creation’, a piece which challenges men’s so-called superiority, and is signed by ‘Female Modesty’.

This literary society magazine is of note as at least three of its contributors were–or were to become–men of some import in the community. The first contribution in the magazine is a nature poem called ‘A Wild Geranium’, and is written by Hugh Macmillan. Macmillan was the then current minister of the church, and the poem reflects his keen interest in botany. (For more information about Macmillan, see ‘Hugh Macmillan‘ on The Glasgow Story website).

The second piece, a review of a new biography of James Clerk Maxwell, which includes an overview of his life, is written by James Brown. This was probably Reverend James Brown. (For more information about Brown, see ‘2nd Lieutenant Alexander Brown‘ on The University of Glasgow Story website.)

The last example is an article entitled ‘Some Glasgow Churches’ that was written by A. M’Gibbon and was accompanied by his wonderfully detailed drawings of the churches he discusses. The author/illustrator was almost certainly Alexander M’Gibbon (alternatively McGibbon) (1861?-1938), who, at the time of the publication of this magazine, was working as a draughtsman for John Honeyman. M’Gibbon later became an influential teacher at the Glasgow School of Art. (For more information about M’Gibbon, see the entry for ‘Alexander McGibbon‘ on The Dictionary of Scottish Architects, 1660-1980 website.)

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Free St. Peter’s Young Men’s Association (later became Free St. Peter’s Literary Society) (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1871?-?

Date of Magazine

January 1871; 1883

Number of Issues

2 (extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript (January 1871); Print (1883) (Glasgow: Dunn & Wright, 1883)

Contents and Contributions

Annotation; Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Circulation list (1871); Editorial (x2) (1871); Essays; Fiction/Narrative; Fiction/Narrative (vernacular) (1871); Frontispiece; Poems (original); Preface; Table of Contents

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC) (Jan. 1871 issue)

University of Glasgow Special Collections (UGSC) (1883 issue)

Reference

321129, GO52 BLY (MLSC)

Sp Coll Robertson Bf68-b.23 (UGSC)

Additional Notes

The Free St Peter’s Literary Society Magazine (1883) housed in the University of Glasgow Special Collections is part of the Alexander Robertson collection, and is item 8 of 9 bound together.

See also entry for Free St. Peter’s Young Men’s Association (later became Free St. Peter’s Literary Society) on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

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

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 Liverpool. (Along with this society’s magazine, the records for this church are also housed at Lancashire Archives. Please refer to their catalogue for further details.)

From the magazine, we know that the society met in the Assembly Rooms, which were located at the back of the chapel. How frequently they met is currently unknown. This may have been a relatively small group: instead of a list of readers and/or members at the front, there is a list of 12 contributors, two of which were unmarried women.

The magazine has 14 contributions including the ‘Editorial’ and is 64 pages in total. Like other society magazines, it is a miscellany containing a mixture of non-fiction essays and fictional stories. In terms of subject matter, it may be that the Editress assigned each contributor a subject, as is suggested in the ‘Editorial’ (p. 1). There are no original poems in this issue, but, interestingly, at the close of several articles are quotes from a variety of published authors including Ellen Hooper, Henry Ward Beecher, François de La Rochefoucauld, Samuel Johnson and Cicero, to name a few.

The magazine was originally produced in manuscript and was read aloud at a society meeting at what was generally called a ‘Magazine Night’. ‘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.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Crescent Chapel Literary and Debating Society (Walton, Liverpool)

Date of Existence

1906?-?

Date of Magazine

1906

Number of Issues

1 (extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Typescript (previously in manuscript)

Contents and Contributions

Annotations; Articles (non-fiction); Caricatures; Essays; Fiction/Narratives; Letter to Editor; Poem (republished material); Republished materials; Table of Contents; Title page

Repository

Lancashire Archives (Preston)

Reference

CULI 6/54