Leisure Hour, Sunday at Home was published by the Religious Tract Society. Both publications are notable for their wood engravings, and they were designed for family consumption, with the aim of countering the effects of ‘pernicious’ reading. However, Sunday at Home included serialized novels, signalling a departure from the tract-based education for which the RTS was known. The journal’s featured stories showcase the reward of virtue, and they are characterized by their strong Christian message, rather than their literary qualities. Nevertheless, in its annual report for 1879, looking back on twenty-five years of publication, the RTS claimed that between them Sunday at Home and The Leisure Hour ‘have together addressed not far short of a million readers monthly’.]]> Religious Tract Society]]> Periodical]]> Penny Magazine (1832-1845) was a Whig competitor to the more conservative Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal. Sponsored by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,the Penny Magazine was known for the striking wood engravings on its cover pages. Early sales were strong, and the journal achieved a weekly circulation of 200,000 in its first year.]]> Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge]]> Periodical]]> Magazine of Science (1840-1849)was another attempt to reach a working-class audience, this time with a focus on science and industry. Its editor, George William Francis, later served as director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden. The 27 April 1839 cover presents a remarkable meeting of two modes of visual representation. Henry Fox Talbot had recently made public his experiments in ‘photogenic drawing’ – one of the earliest photographic processes. Francis copied Fox Talbot’s procedure, then presented his own works to his wood engravers, who produced woodcuts that imitated the new technology. In this way, readers unable to see Fox Talbot’s creations in person could at least have a sense of their characteristics.]]> George William Francis, editor]]> Periodical]]> Sponsored by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Saturday Magazine (1832-1844) was an Anglican rival to the Penny Magazine. As the issue featured here suggests, it closely modelled its design on the Penny Magazine, but its wood engravings lacked the quality of its competitor.

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Society for the Promoting Christian Knowledge]]> Periodical]]>
Vanity Fair was well-known for its chromolithographic caricatures of prominent figures. James Tissot’s image of Charles Darwin appeared in 1871, the year in which The Descent of Man was published. The accompanying article describes Darwin as ‘one of the most accomplished naturalists now in existence’, noting that ‘any theoretical structure that he builds upon his researches must be regarded with great respect’. While Tissot captures Darwin’s physical infirmities (note the pile of cushions, which signify his ongoing ill health), he does so gently, contrasting his subject’s physical frailty with the intense intelligence to be seen in his eyes.

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James Tissot, artist]]> Periodical]]>
Magazine of Science, and School of Arts (1840-1849) declared on its frontispiece that it ‘intended to illustrate the most useful, novel and interesting parts of natural history and experimental philosophy, artistical processes, ornamental manufactures, and the arts of life’. While it included some wood engravings, much of the journal was text. Articles included features on lathes, oil paintings, sculptors’ instruments, and insect coloration. It was superseded in 1850 by the Magazine of Science and Artists and Artists, Architects, and Builders Journal.]]> George William Francis, editor]]> Periodical]]> Science-Gossip (1865-1893, 1894-1902) was a popular science magazine, aimed at the educated lay reader. Its first editor was the botanist Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, and the journal purported to be ‘a medium of interchange and gossip’ regarding discoveries, developments, and the scientific world. In 1871, a review of the magazine in the scientific journal Nature noted that Science-Gossip was perceived as a scientific equivalent to Notes and Queries: ‘The two resemble each other, indeed, in many particulars, and in none more than in the very unequal value which attaches to the articles contained in their pages’.

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Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, editor]]> Periodical]]>
Punch, or the London Charivari led to many imitations. The best-known in the Southern hemisphere was the Melbourne Punch (1855-1928), which, like its London counterpart, also circulated in New Zealand. Regional versions appeared in Auckland (1868-1869), New Plymouth (1860), Canterbury (1865-1866), Wellington (1868), and Dunedin (1865-1867). There was also a New Zealand Punch (1898-1900). The magazine covered a mixture of local and national issues, particularly politics. Featured here is a parody of the journalist, politician, and explorer Vincent Pyke’s West Coast Expedition to discover a route from Lake Wanaka to the West Coast. Pyke is pictured astride a moa, since he was known for his theories relating to its extinction (he was to publish a pamphlet on the topic in 1890).]]> The Punch Office]]> Periodical]]> ‘The Coming Man’s Arrival’ is one of Dunedin Punch’s better-known images, drawing attention to the arrival of Chinese gold miners in Otago. These miners were invited by the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce in the hope that they would replace those who had been lured by the promise of better and more plentiful gold on the West Coast. Dunedin Punch first appeared on 27 May 1865. On 1 September 1867, it changed its name to the Otago Punch.

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The Punch Office]]> Periodical]]>
Vanity Fair: A Weekly Show of Political, Social, and Literary Wares(1868-1914) took its name from Thackeray’s novel and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Established by Thomas Gibson Bowles, it was intended to be a ‘society’ magazine. In its early years, Bowles wrote most of the articles himself, hiding behind a range of pseudonyms to make it look as though the magazine boasted more contributors. Adopting a clear satirical mission, Vanity Fair’s first editorial pledged to ‘display the vanities of the week’, which it achieved through its distinctive caricatures of prominent public figures. The publication’s eventual success led to Bowles selling it off in 1889 for £20,000.]]> Thomas Gibson Bowles, founder]]> Periodical]]> Vanity Fair was known for its vibrantly coloured lithographs, which were often accompanied by satirical text. This delightful image of Wilkie Collins, author of works including The Moonstone and The Woman in White, is by Adriano Cecioni, and it is accompanied by text celebrating Collins’s contributions to the sensation novel genre.]]> Adriano Cecioni]]> Periodical]]> Sketch (1893-1959) was conceived as a lighter alternative to the Illustrated London News. Its focus was on celebrity, culture, metropolitan life, the royal family, and society gossip. Founder and editor Clement Shorter was particularly committed to the use of photography in journalism, preferring it to more traditional techniques such as wood engravings. Sarah Bernhardt was one of the most popular actresses of the day, and she was acutely conscious of the power of the press. These images showcase her many different personae, both on and off the stage. Prominent contributors to the Sketch included Max Beerbohm, Walter de la Mare, and Agatha Christie, who wrote almost 50 stories for the publication.]]> Clement Shorter, editor]]> Periodical]]> North and South, a serial of life in industrial Manchester, appeared over 20 weeks in Dickens’s Household Words from September 1854 to January 1855. Dickens and Gaskell frequently clashed over editorial matters, so much so that both swore never to work together again. However, Dickens realized Gaskell’s talent and popularity, and lured her back to serial publication with generous remuneration and promises of greater creative freedom.]]> Elizabeth Gaskell]]> Periodical]]> Cornhill Magazine, offering his services as a staff writer for the new periodical and suggesting that he might write five short stories. Trollope offered five short stories, but three days later George Smith, the Cornhill’s publisher, wrote back, offering him £1000 in exchange for a three-volume serialized novel. The first part of Framley Parsonage appeared just after Christmas 1859 (officially, the issue was January 1860). With illustrations by John Everett Millais, Trollope’s story of love, gambling, and theft was both eye-catching and compelling. The new magazine sold 120,000 copies in its first week, although figures later settled down to between 80 and 85,000 each week.]]> Anthony Trollope]]> Periodical]]> In 1874, when Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd was published in the Cornhill Magazine, readers were shocked at some of the work’s sexually explicit scenes. Although the Cornhill received complaints, Hardy’s work continued to be in demand. The twelve illustrations accompanying the tale were by Helen Paterson Allingham, a watercolourist whose work also appeared in the Graphic. The scene depicted here shows the farmer William Boldwood on the verge of proposing to the novel’s complex heroine, Bathsheba Everdene.

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Thomas Hardy]]> Periodical]]>
Captain was notable for having a separate ‘athletics editor’, renowned cricketer C.B. Fry, and it sought to disseminate notions of ‘gentlemanliness’ across classes.]]> George Newnes]]> Periodical]]> Captain: A Magazine for Boys and Old Boys (1899-1924) was known for its school serials (hence its sub-title), and included works by P.G. Wodehouse, including his famous Mike stories. Published by George Newnes (whose many periodicals included Tit-Bits and the Strand), the magazine promoted athleticism and notions of ‘fair play’, and it appeared monthly, priced at six-pence. Its editor was credited as ‘the old Fag’, pointing to his credentials as one who understood public school life.]]> George Newnes]]> Periodical]]> This early issue of the Boy’s Own Paper (1879-1967) offers insights into the range of diverting material that its publisher, the Religious Tract Society, thought suitable for boy readers. In addition to its weekly serial (in this case by the prolific adventure-writer W.H.G. Kingston), the BOP featured puzzles and games, accounts of sporting achievements, and other articles designed to be morally and spiritually improving. The magazine circulated across the British Empire and became known for its patriotic values.

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W. H. G. Kingston]]> Periodical]]>
The Pall Mall Magazine (1893-1914) was an off-shoot of the Pall Mall Gazette. This monthly publication, bankrolled by William Waldorf Astor, aimed to capture a middle-class readership. As the literary critic John Sutherland has noted, its policy was ‘to steer a respectable middle course between the morbid excesses of the 1890s aesthetes and the crassness of the English philistine’. The works of Thomas Hardy, George Meredith, Algernon Swinburne, and Rudyard Kipling appeared in its pages. Sadly, it was unable to compete with the Strand and it merged with Nash’s Magazine in 1914, becoming Nash’s Pall Mall Magazine.

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Lord Frederick Spencer Hamilton, editor]]> Periodical]]>
The Savoy (January-December 1896), first a quarterly then a monthly, folded altogether at the end of its first year. Its eight issues were edited by the symbolist poet, Arthur Symons. It was published by Leonard Smithers, the book dealer and pornographer, best remembered as one of the few publishers willing to work with Decadent writers (including Wilde) in the aftermath of the Wilde trials. Aubrey Beardsley’s distinctive artwork is present, although there were amendments to the original cover because George Moore, a contributor, complained about a naked cherub urinating on a copy of the Yellow Book. Even heavy-weight contributors like Max Beerbohm, George Bernard Shaw, and W.B. Yeats could not keep the journal afloat in a climate of suspicion and fear.

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Arthur Symons, editor]]> Periodical]]>
Yellow Book (1894-1897) was an important outlet for those writers and artists who identified with the Decadent Movement, ‘an aesthetic ideology of excess and artificiality’. The first four volumes were illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley, whose mesmerizingly grotesque drawings became one of the journal’s hallmarks. Appearing quarterly, the Yellow Book was lengthy, with each volume weighing in at around 300 pages. The cost was high at five shillings. The content was designed to be beautiful, daring, and shocking to bourgeois sensibilities. Contributors included Henry James, George Gissing, and H.G. Wells. Beardsley was dismissed following Oscar Wilde’s prosecution for ‘indecency’ in 1895. It is believed that the journal failed in April 1897 because of anxieties surrounding the Wilde trials.]]> Henry Harland, editor ]]> Periodical]]> The Strand in 1901 with The Hound of the Baskervilles, which purported to be a retrospective narrative recounted by a grief-stricken Watson. Doyle famously resurrected his character in 1903’s ‘The Adventure of the Empty House’.]]> Arthur Conan Doyle]]> Periodical]]> Strand Magazine (1891-1950) was founded by George Newnes, who envisioned it as a journal for the middle-class. It cost sixpence a week. The first editor, H. Greenhough Smith, was keen on publishing stories that featured a recurring hero, often a detective. This approach netted Smith a loyal cohort of readers, and the magazine became known for its crime fiction. Newnes contracted Arthur Conan Doyle to write his Sherlock Holmes tales for the Strand. The great detective had made his debut in A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. Holmes appeared in the Strand’s first issue in 1891, marking the beginning of a long association with the magazine, and with Sidney Paget, the illustrator responsible for Holmes’s now-famous deerstalker hat.]]> Arthur Conan Doyle]]> Periodical]]> Mary Shelley]]> Book]]> Mary Shelley]]> Book]]>