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 Monday evenings in a “mere garret – and a very poor garret – as garrets go[.]” This garret was the attic of the Cramb family house, shoemakers “of a political and intellectual cast, as shoemakers often are,” and was located at the east end of Dundee High Street (barely five minutes’ walk from Lamb’s Coffee House in the Murraygate, where the Dundee Literary Society met).

Their first concerns were in discussing literary and scientific affairs, but their minds soon turned to the prospect of a manuscript magazine, as a way to ‘vent’ their energy and intelligence. As well as Tawse and two brothers from the Cramb family, the original members included geologist and journalist James Adie, who emigrated to Canada around four years after the society’s foundation. At the time, Adie was known among his friends for his love of verse, ‘if in rhyme,’ and his recitations of poems by Scott, Byron, and in particular James Hogg, from which he gained the nickname ‘Kilmeny.’

An earlier recollection of the beginnings of the Literary and Scientific Institute was written by James Barnet, mostly in memory of Adie, and appeared in the periodical The Scottish American in 1890. He describes himself and three other boys ‘just in their teens,’ including Adie, who “took it into their heads that they would form a mutual improvement society.” At the time of publication, Barnet said this took place ‘around fifty years ago,’ placing the events described around 1840.

Their meetings took place domestically at first, in Barnet’s house and then in Adie’s, before the “first mutual improvement society in town” grew from the small group. If Barnet joined the group for the transition to Cramb’s garret, Tawse does not seem to remember him. Similarly to the Literary Institute, the young members of this group took turns at presenting an essay each meeting, but in the early days this did not have to be original work. Barnet, when nominated for the first essay, found a story about Genghis Khan in the Chartist Circular to read, despite a total prior lack of knowledge on the subject.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Dundee Literary and Scientific Institute

Date of Existence

1844 -1848

Date of Magazine

1844-1847 (or possibly 1855?), Vol. 1?-Vol. 2

Number of Issues

2

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Articles (non-fiction); Editorial; Essays; Letter to ‘Critic’; Letter to Editor; Magazine Rules; Poems (original); Title page

Repository

Dundee District Central Library, The Wellgate

Reference

D22022, Lamb Collection, 265(17)

Additional Notes

See also Dundee Natural History and Literary Magazine.

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

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

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 as the first volume of a new number (perhaps leaving open the possibility for further issues, should inspiration or time allow.)

Unlike The Wreath of Wild Flowers, this collection is of poems gleaned from other published sources: most issues feature work by Mrs Hemans, a favourite of Gardiner’s, as well as other well-known poets such as Lord Byron, Eliza Cook and Percy Shelley. They have all been copied out in Gardiner’s hand. Potentially, Gems of Poesy was intended as a companion volume to The Wreath of Wild Flowers, as they both circulated at similar times – a source of inspiration and examples of poetry for people who may not be able to access these poems elsewhere.

The value of copying out particularly interesting poems from printed sources for an audience was probably a response to the comparatively expensive price of periodicals prior to the repeal of stamp duty.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

(Currently unknown) (Dundee)

Date of Existence

1834?-1836?

Date of Magazine

1(1)-1(3), Mar. 1834-Mar. 1836 (produced yearly)

Number of Issues

3

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Poems (republished material); Magazine Rules; Title page

Repository

Dundee District Central Library, The Wellgate

Reference

D22012, Lamb Collection

Additional Notes

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

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Hackney Literary and Scientific Institution (London) (formerly the Hackney Mutual Improvement Society) (London)

Date of Existence

1848-1894?

Date of Magazine

Jan.-June 1857 (Vol. 2, No. VIII) (first issue possibly produced in June 1856)

Number of Issues

12 (extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Repository

Hackney Archives Department

Reference

D/F/TYS/70/15

Overview

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Kirkwall Young Men’s Literary Association (later the Kirkwall Young Men’s Literary and Scientific Association?) (Orkney)

Date of Existence

1857-29 Mar. 1899

Date of Magazine

No. 1-No. 9, Mar. 1875-Nov. 1875

Number of Issues

8 (there is no extant issue of No. 2, April 1875)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Repository

Orkney Library and Archive (Kirkwall)

Reference

800 Y

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, but no others have been traced.

Gardiner was a poet and amateur botanist who would become well-regarded in the natural science circles of 19^th century Scotland. He left school at an early age and was apprenticed as an umbrella-maker, a trade he continued to work in while pursuing literary and scientific interests outside of work. He also combined these interests by including poems on the moral and spiritual meanings of plants in some of his botanical works, including his most popular, The Flora of Forfarshire (Dundee: McCosh, Park & Drewar, 1848).

Gardiner’s interest in poetry began early in life, likely inspired by his father, who had published two collections of poetry during Gardiner’s childhood. In his teens, he kept a “Literary Scrap Book and Poetical Miscellany,” in which he transcribed copies of poetry from periodicals, books and other sources. While there is no indication this was intended for an audience beyond himself, it may have inspired him to undertake a similar project with interested friends.

All the issues of The Wreath of Wild Flowers contain a list of readers, and later, addresses are also given. The “W. Jackson” listed in the first issue may be tailor-turned-naturalist William Jackson (or his son of the same name, who would be fourteen at the time), both of whom were part of the same social circles as Gardiner and also became respected self-educated scientists. The authors’ links to natural history circles are evident in many ways. The back pages contain updates on the progress of “The Amateur Naturalist’s Repository,” either inviting submissions or noting it is on hiatus due to having too many mosses and insects to collect.

The second issue notes that it is “requested to be kept particularly clean,” and that readers may keep it for three days. By the third issue in 1836, the allocated time has been reduced to two days. This issue also lists street addresses for its readers. They are all based in central Dundee, often in industrial areas like the Scouringburn, suggesting a mainly working-class readership. Despite the warning, all the extant issues have been subjected to some minor spillages at some point.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

(‘Private distribution amongst small group of readers’) (Dundee)

Date of Existence

1834?-1836?

Date of Magazine

1(1)-1(3), Mar. 1834-Apr. 1836

Number of Issues

3

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Essays; Magazine Rules; News (local branches of society); Poems (original); Title page

Repository

Dundee District Central Library, The Wellgate

Reference

D22011

Additional Notes

See also Dundee Natural History and Literary Magazine, and Gems of Poesy.

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.

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

The members of this all-male group wrote down the papers that they gave at the meetings into a society year book. Thomas Lugton (the attributed author of the 1907 newspaper article from which this information comes) seems to have a copy of the group’s 1894 volume to hand, as he gives details on the contributors, a bit of their respective histories subsequent to their membership in the association, and critiques each contribution. (For more information about Thomas Lugton, see ‘Additional Notes’ below.)

According to the article, there are 78 articles in the 1849 volume. Most of these seem to be essays, fiction and non-fiction, but there are also a few poems. The volume also includes artwork, of which there is at least one illustration and one etching.

Lugton tells us there are 63 signed and 15 unsigned articles, and in the case of some of the latter pieces, he is able to work out who the author was, and it seems this group had some remarkable members. The contributors to the society year book went on to become notable figures in Glasgow and beyond. To give a couple of examples, the first essay, described by Lugton as ‘[a] short and lively tale with a long title’ called ‘The House on the Hill, or The Fratricide, a Tale of the 17^th Century,” was written by one John Trayner, who was later to become Lord Trayner LLD (1834–1929). (For more information on Trayner see ‘John Trayner, Lord Trayner‘ on Wikipedia, the entry for ‘John Trayner‘ on The University of Glasgow Story website, and a painting entitled ‘John Trayner (1834–1929), Lord Trayner‘, which was painted by George Reid (1841–1913) on the ArtUK website.)

The author of another article entitled, ‘History’, who had his own tripartite classificatory system of ‘the fabulous’, ‘the doubtful’, and ‘the authentic’, signed himself ‘M.G.’. Lugton identifies this as Matthew Gass. Gass (1830-?) was a Georgeite reform agitator. Influenced by Chartism in his youth, in his adult life, he was renowned for his influential speeches on Glasgow Green and the many pamphlets he published calling for labour and land reforms. (For more information on Gass, see ‘Testimonial to a Veteran Reformer’, The Single Tax, Vol. VI, No. 69, February 1900, pp. 130-1. See ‘Additional Information on The Single Tax.)

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Western Scientific Association (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1843-?

Date of Magazine

1849

Number of Issues

1 (unknown if still extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Art/illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Essays; Fiction/Narrative; Poems (original)

Repository

(Currently unknown if any copies extant)

Reference

–

Additional Notes

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

Thomas Lugton was a member of the Old Glasgow Club in the early twentieth century. This group first met in 1900, and is still running. Members still meet twice a month to read papers and discuss the history of Glasgow. Some of these papers (including Lugton’s) have been published. See the club’s new website here: Old Glasgow Club. As a member of this club, Lugton himself would have been a scholar of the history of the city. You can see examples of the papers he gave in a list of the Transactions of the club between 1903 and 1908 on the club’s old website here: ‘Transactions Volume 1 – Numbers 1 to 5 (1903 to 1908)’, Old Glasgow Club.

For more information about The Single Tax, see ‘The Single Tax‘ on Wikipedia. This newspaper has not yet been digitised by the British Newspaper Archive. Copies are available at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow and the British Library, London.

Overview

A summary of the history of the Glasgow Orkney and Shetland Literary and Scientific Association is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Glasgow Orkney and Shetland Literary and Scientific Association

Date of Existence

9 Nov. 1862-present

Date of Magazine

1 Jan. 1864-1950s

Number of Issues

12 (between 1864 and 1912)

Contents and Contributions

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript, later type-script

Repository

Shetland Archives, Lerwick

Reference

D58/2/1-12 (within date range of this study)

Additional Notes

See also entry for Glasgow Orkney and Shetland Literary and Scientific Association on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.