Children's Periodicals

Abstract

Children's Periodicals Harriet R. Christy Thank you for encouraging me to submit a description of the recent research I have done in 19th century children's periodicals. I am no different from many others who do research—after spending so much time and effort on the project and becoming so excited about the possibilities of further study, I look forward to the opportunity of telling about what I have done. First, a little background may be in order before I describe the actual research. Even though the first magazine for children in America was published in 1789, children's periodicals are often overlooked in the history of children's literature. All through the 1800's many different types of periodicals were being published. Some were short-lived (Little Bouquet, The Mentor, Monthly Repository) while others had a comparatively long life (Juvenile Magazine, Nursery, Merry's Magazine, Youth's Companion, St. Nicholas). Editors appealed to varied interests and ages of readers. The Sunday School Tract literature, the blood-and- thunders, school magazines, the so-called weeklies, the pulps, story papers—all were available throughout the 19th and early 20th century. Format, size, style and content varied according to the designs and interests of the editors and publishers. There is much of value and permanence in children's periodicals. My research concerned only those secular periodicals published for home reading, and encompassed those actually held by the University of Minnesota Libraries. This may seem as if too-strict limits were placed on the study, but it was not so, due to the scope and size of the University collection. The influence of this segment of magazines is extensive. The four major areas of influence I described are the following: (1) cultivation and development of a reading audience, using a variety of techniques, such as puzzles, serialized stories, premiums for the largest number of new subscriptions, reading material for all ages in a family, etc.) (2) molding of attitudes and minds, using moralistic, didactic literature and illustrations in subjects such as temperance, nationalism, sex roles, treatment of Chinese and other immigrants, Indians and Blacks. (3) setting of standards for today's publications. Subject matter and writing style have changed in response to the current social trends, but most of the features now found in magazines originated as early as the 1820's in Lydia Child's Juvenile Miscellany. The different appearance of present-day magazines is attributed mainly to advanced printing and photographic techniques.(4) encouragement of authors to write expressly for children. Early authors preferred to remain anonymous and were identified by initials or by invented names such as Vieux Moustache, Lxxx and Kallie Fornia. It was beneath the dignity of an author to be recognized as a writer for children. And seldom in an author's biography is any mention made of the person's contribution to children's literature. As America grew, however, toward the democratic goals of freedom and self-expression, authors moved away from moralistic writing which satisfied the parents, to creative, imaginative literature which expressed universal, real interests of the children themselves. The authors were no longer reluctant to sign their real names to what they wrote. It is the fourth influence that is represented in the research I recently completed and developed into a slide presentation. [End Page 17] Beginning with what is probably the earliest known "classic" published in a children's periodical—William Cullen Bryant's "To a Fringed Gentian," printed in Juvenile Miscellany in November 1828, I have filmed approximately 60 examples of well-known 19th century literature for children which appeared in a magazine before being published in book form. Examples are taken from Juvenile Miscellany, Little Pilgrim, Student and Schoolmate, Our Young Folks, Riverside, Wide Awake, Harper's and St. Nicholas. Authors represented include Sarah J. Hale, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Horatio Alger, Celia Thaxter, Lucretia Hale, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Edward Lear, Hans Christian Andersen, Howard Pyle, Louisa May Alcott, Frank Stockton, Palmer Cox, John Bennett, Rudyard Kipling, A.A. Milne, and others. All of the examples except "Mary Had a Little Lamb" were available and filmed at the Children's Literature Research Collection at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Karen...