[NOTES: The prices quoted here are for a subscription to the periodical; throughout the period, subscribers also paid postage, which varied depending on the format of the periodical (newspapers were usually cheaper than magazines) and the distance it was sent.
• Unless noted, page size is the size when trimmed, usually for binding; page size is approximate. Page size is described as height by width, thus: [measurement in inches]" h x [measurement in inches]" w
• about frequency: semimonthly: twice a month (usually 24 issues per year); biweekly: every other week (usually 26 issues per year); bimonthly: every other month (usually 6 issues per year)
• about availability: selections or complete issues available for free on the Internet, or available at libraries on microform
• abbreviations: APS, American Periodical Series (microfilm); AAS, American Antiquarian Society, MA; NUC, National Union Catalog; OCLC, database available at many institutions via WorldCat (information may also be available in the NUC); ULS, Union List of Serials in Libraries of the United States and Canada, ed. Winifred Gregory (New York, NY: H. W. Wilson Co., 1927)]

Cold Water Army and Youth's Picnic (also Cold Water Army) ; 1841-1843

cover/masthead: 1841

edited by: Isaac F. Shepard; address in 1841: 11 Cornhill, Boston, MA

published: Boston, MA: Massachusetts Temperance Union, 1841; printed by William S. Damrell, 9 Cornhill

frequency: weekly: Thursday

description: 4 pp.; page size untrimmed, 15" h x 10.5" w; price, $1/ year in advance • Temperance focus

relevant quote: Description: "Each number will contain one or more original cuts to illustrate and enforce some subject discussed or fact stated in the number. It will be devoted to the organization and support of the Cold Water Army. Tales founded on fact, and sketches of men and manners, will be prepared of suitably attractive character and useful influence, historical events will be rewritten to adapt them to impress the minds and hearts of the young, and such matters of news, incident and anecdote as may be thought interesting and instructive will be introduced. It is hoped the Cold Water Army and others will take it. Let two, four, or eight boys and girls take one between them, if unable to do so separately." [1 (14 Oct 1841): 23]

source of information: 14 Oct 1841 issue

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 137.

Golden Rule ; 1841-1842

published: Groton, MA: Henry L. & George P. Brown.

frequency: monthly

description: Price, 50¢/ year

source of information: Lyon

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 139.

Juvenile Mirror and Youth's Literary Companion ; 1841

edited by: G. H. Hickman

published: Baltimore, MD: G. H. Hickman

frequency: 2 Jan-27 March 1841, weekly; 15 April 1841, monthly

description: Page size, 6.5" h

source of information: AAS catalog

The Tutor ; 1841-1842

frequency: weekly

source of information: Lyon

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 137.

The Young Ladies' Casket ; 1841-24 March 1842

edited by: vol 2: Lydia A. Duncan; Margaretta S. Compton

published: Charlestown, MA: Charlestown Female Seminary.

frequency: semimonthly

description: Page size, 8" h
• Vol 2 is 23 Dec 1841-24 March 1842
• Perhaps an amateur publication

source of information: NUC

Youth's Magazine and Juvenile Harp ; 1841-

edited by: Harriet Beecher Stowe

published: Cincinnati, OH: S. W. Johns

frequency: monthly

description: 7.75" h

source of information: AAS catalog; OCLC

Youth's Family Instructor and Sunday School Visitor (also Youth's Family Instructor) ; 7 Jan 1841-

published: Portland, ME: L. D. Fleming.

frequency: biweekly

description: Page size, 10.25" h

source of information: OCLC

Robert Merry's Museum ; Feb 1841-Nov 1872

cover/masthead: Feb 1841 | 1841-1843 | 1844 | 1845-1847 | early 1848 | 1848-1853 | 1854-1856 | 1857-1867 | 1868-early 1870 | late 1870-1872

edited by: Feb 1841-Dec 1854, Samuel Griswold Goodrich ("Robert Merry" & "Peter Parley")
• Sept 1847-March 1848, Samuel Kettell.
• 1851-Nov 1855, Stephen T. Allen ("Robert Merry")
• May 1854-before 1867, William C. Cutter ("Hiram Hatchet")
• Jan 1855-1866, John N. Stearns ("Robert Merry")
• April 1857-1859, Francis Chandler Woodworth ("Uncle Frank")
• April 1857-Jan 1871, Susanna Newbould ("Aunt Sue")
• Jan 1862-?, William A. Fitch ("Uncle William")
• Oct 1867-1869, Louisa May Alcott
• 1870, "Uncle Miles"

published: Publishers are difficult to sort out precisely; following dates are taken from issues of the magazine and are organized by city.
• Boston, MA: Bradbury & Soden, Feb 1841-1844; office at 10 School St., 1841-1844; office at 12 School St., 1845-1846. Boston, MA: Bradbury & Guild, 1847; office at 12 School St. Boston, MA: Horace B. Fuller, 1868-Nov 1872.
• Philadelphia, PA: Samuel Hill, April-May 1841. Philadelphia, PA: Drew and Scammell, June 1841-after May 1842; Drew and Scammell at "Corner of Third and Dock Street".
• New York, NY: Darius Mead, Jan 1845-Dec 1846; office at 148 Nassau St., 1845; office at 141 Nassau St., 1846. New York, NY: W. K. Vaill, April 1841; Vaill at 91 Nassau St. New York, NY: Bradbury & Soden, Feb 1842-June 1843; office at 127 Nassau St. New York, NY: George W. & Sylvester O. Post, Jan 1847-after April 1848; office at 5 Beekman St., Clinton Hall. New York, NY: James E. Hickman, before Aug-Dec 1848. New York, NY: D. McDonald & Co., Jan-Sept 1849. New York, NY: Stephen T. Allen & Co., Oct 1849-; office at 141 Nassau St., Oct 1849-May 1850; office at 142 Nassau St., June-Dec 1850; office at 116 Nassau St., 1852-1855. New York, NY: Stephen T. Allen, Isaac C. & John N. Stearns, Jan-Nov 1855. New York, NY: Isaac C. & John N. Stearns, Dec 1855-Dec 1856; office at 116 Nassau St., 1856. New York, NY: John N. Stearns & Co., 1857-April 1861; office at 116 Nassau St. New York, NY: John N. Stearns, May 1861-; office at 111 Fulton St., May 1861-March 1866. New York, NY: Eugene H. Fales, April 1866-1867; office at 111 Fulton St., April 1866; office at 172 William St., May 1866-July 1867.

frequency: monthly; 2 vol/ year

description: Feb 1841-Dec 1867: 32 pp. Jan 1868-Dec 1869: 40 pp. Jan 1870-Nov 1872: 48 pp.

• Price: 1841: 12.5¢/ copy; 1 copy, $1.50/ year; 4 copies, $5/ year. 1843: $1/ year; 6 copies, $5/ year; 13 copies, $10/ year. 1844-Sept 1864: $1/ year. 1844: 4 copies, $3/ year; 7 copies, $5/ year; 15 copies, $10/ year; 32 copies, $20/ year; 40 copies, $24/ year. Oct 1864-: $1.50/ year.

• Page size untrimmed: Feb-June 1841, 8" h x 6" w; Nov 1841-Nov 1872, 8.5" h x 6" w

• Circulation: May 1841, 7000 (from magazine); July 1842, 12,000 (from magazine); Feb 1843, 12,000 (from magazine); June 1850, more than 12,000 (from magazine); 1850, 13,000 (from Kennedy); 1857, 20,000 (from the magazine; the number became the traditional number of subscribers, referred to many times by editors and subscribers); 1869-1872, 10,000 (from magazine).

• Issues were stereotyped from the beginning.

• Vol 1-vol 53 (Feb 1841-Dec 1867); new series, vol 1-vol 10 (Jan 1868-Nov 1872)

relevant information: "Robert Merry," the putative editor of the magazine, first appeared in 1839 in Robert Merry's Miscellany, a paperbound gift book published by Samuel Colman. While much of the material in the Miscellany is by Samuel Goodrich--who fictionalized his childhood to provide Merry's background--the author isn't listed. Many of the pieces in the Miscellany appeared in the Museum during its first year. In 1839, Colman also published Robert Merry's Annual, a collection which includes none of Goodrich's material.

• After the Museum absorbed The Schoolfellow in Oct 1857, former subscribers to the Schoolfellow received the Oct-Dec 1857 issues of the Museum inside a copy of the Schoolfellow's cover altered to include the address of the Museum's publisher.

• Before Eugene Fales bought the magazine in 1866, he was the office boy. Having enlisted in the army during the Civil War, he endured a romantic series of adventures which ended in his marrying one of the Museum's subscribers. Ill health, however, forced him to sell the magazine to Horace B. Fuller, who gave it a more professional tone.

relevant quotes:
• "Robert Merry" introduced himself to readers on the first page: "Kind and gentle people who make up what is called the Public--permit a stranger to tell you a brief story. I am about trying my hand at a Magazine; and this is my first number." [1 (Feb 1841): 1]

• The uniquely intimate relationship between editor and readers began the first year: "I return a thousand thanks to my many young friends, who have written me letters.... Jane R---- will accept my thanks for--she knows what! ... The basket of chestnuts were duly received from Alice D----, and were very welcome. Ralph H---- will see that I have done as he requested; I have given a portrait of the fine gray squirrel he sent me, in this number. He is well, and as lively as ever." [2 (Dec 1841): 187]

• The Museum probably was sold before the Boston Fire which destroyed Horace B. Fuller's business in Nov 1872: "The Publisher of Merry's Museum announces its discontinuance with the issue of the present number [November]. He has made an arrangement by which it will be merged into the Youth's Companion, and the subscribers shall be furnished for their unexpired terms with that paper. ... The Publisher feels assured that his friends and readers will find in the Youth's Companion all of the qualities that have pleased them in this Magazine, and in addition, other attractive features which have made the Companion one of the most interesting and popular publications in the country. Its enormous circulation, almost one hundred thousand copies, enables the publishers to secure many of the finest writers of the day, and we hope our readers will not fail to renew their subscriptions to the Youth's Companion for 1872, as we feel assured it cannot fail to please them." [62 (Nov 1872): insert]

absorbed: The Youth's Medallion ; 17 April 1841-10 Dec 1842 • Parley's Magazine ; March 1833-1844 • The Playmate ; Sept 1847-May 1848 • Woodworth's Youth's Cabinet ; 1846-March 1857 • The Schoolfellow ; Jan 1849-Sept 1857

absorbed by: The Youth's Companion ; 1827-1929

source of information: Feb 1841-Nov 1872 scattered issues and bound vols; APS reels 743 &1499-1501; Dechert

available: APS II (1800-1850), reels 743 & 1499-1501; excerpts online

bibliography: Review. Rural Repository, 18 (September 25, 1841): 63. online
• Advertisement. Brother Jonathan, (12 February 1842): advertising cover, p. xxviii. online
• Review. The New-York Mirror, 20 (26 March 1842): 103. online
• Notice. Brother Jonathan, 1 (16 April 1842): 437. online
• Notice. Ladies' Pearl, 2 (May 1842): 462. online
• Notice. Scientific American, 2 (27 March 1847): 213. online
• Notice. Scientific American, 2 (29 May 1847): 287. online
• Notice. The Youth's Casket, 1 (March 1852): 52. online
• Advertisement. The Youth's Companion, (12 January 1865): 8. online
• Notice. American Literary Gazette, 9 (1 October 1867): 298. online
• Notice. American Literary Gazette, 10 (15 January 1868): 177. online
• A Noble Life: John N. Stearns. New York: National Temperance Society and Publication House, n.d.
• William H. Coleman. "The Children's 'Robert Merry' and the Late John N. Stearns." The New York Evangelist 16 May 1895: 19. online
• Death notice for Horace B. Fuller. The Publishers' Weekly (21 January 1899): 56. online
• Harriet L. Matthews. "Children's Magazines." Bulletin of Bibliography. 1 (April 1899): 133-6.
• William Oliver Stevens. "'Uncle' Peter Parley." St. Nicholas Nov 1925: 78-81. online
• Frank Luther Mott. "Merry's Museum." In A History of American Magazines. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1930. Vol. 1: 713-715. [useless: listed here only for completeness]
• Dorothy B. Dechert. "The Merry Family: A Study of Merry's Museum, 1841-1872, and of the Various Periodicals that Merged with It." MA thesis. Columbia University, 1942.
• Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 163-167.
• Madeleine B. Stern. "The First Appearance of a 'Little Women' Incident." American Notes & Queries 3 (Oct. 1943): 99-100.
• John B. Crume. "Children's Magazines, 1826-1857." Journal of Popular Culture 7 (1973): 698-706.
• Justin G. Schiller. "Magazines for Young America: The First Hundred Years of Juvenile Periodicals." Columbia Library Columns 23 (1974): 24-39.
• Rex Burns. Success in America: The Yeoman Dream and the Industrial Evolution. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1976; pp. 27-45.
• Jill Delano Sweiger. "Conceptions of Children in American Juvenile Periodicals: 1830-1870." PhD diss. Rutgers University, 1977.
• Children's Periodicals of the United States, ed. R. Gordon Kelly. Westport, CT & London, England: Greenwood Press, 1984.
• Pat Pflieger. "A Visit to Merry's Museum ; or, Social Values in a Nineteenth-Century American Periodical for Children." PhD diss. University of Minnesota, 1987. online
• Pat Pflieger. "Robert Merry's Museum and the Lure of the Sensational." Paper presented at the American Culture Association conference, 1988. online
• Pat Pflieger. "Death and the Readers of Robert Merry's Museum." Paper presented at the American Culture Association conference, 1994. online
• Pat Pflieger. "An 'Online Community' of the Nineteenth Century." Paper presented at the American Culture Association conference, 2001. online
• Pat Pflieger, ed. Letters from Nineteenth-Century American Children to Robert Merry's Museum Magazine. Lewiston, NY: Mellen Press, 2001.

The Eastern Rose-Bud ; 6 March 1841-1842 • Eastern Rosebud and Sabbath School Companion ; April 1843

edited by: 1842-April 1843, John E. True

published: Portland, ME: S. H. Colesworthy, 6 March 1841-April 1843.

frequency: 6 March 1841-1842, monthly • 1842-April 1843, semimonthly

description: Page sizes: 6 March 1841-1842, 5.75" h; 1842-April 1843, 7" h

source of information: OCLC; AAS catalog

Youth's Medallion ; 17 April 1841-10 Dec 1842

cover/masthead: 1841-1842

edited by: "Uncle Christopher"

published: Boston, MA: Sleeper, Dix & Rogers, 17 April 1841-April 15, 1842; publisher at the Mercantile Journal Office, Wilson's Lane.
• Boston, MA: Sleeper & Rogers, 30 April-11 June 1842; publisher at the Mercantile Journal Office, Wilson's Lane.

frequency: biweekly; 1 vol/ year

description: 8 pp.; quarto; page size, 12.75" h x 10" w. Prices, 1 copy, $1/ year; 6 copies, $5/ year; 20 copies, $15/ year.

absorbed by: Robert Merry's Museum ; Feb 1841-Nov 1872

relevant quote: About the merger with Merry's Museum: "An arrangement has been made with the publishers of Merry's Museum, by which, after the present number [10 Dec 1842], the subscribers to the Medallion will be supplied with the work of Robert Merry, and receive the numbers of that popular periodical, regularly, until the term for which they subscribed for the Medallion is completed...." [in Dechert, p. 107]

source of information: Sept 1841-June 1842, scattered issues; Dechert

bibliography: Review. Brother Jonathan. 2 (30 April 1842): 18. online
• Dorothy B. Dechert. "The Merry Family: A Study of Merry's Museum, 1841-1872, and of the Various Periodicals that Merged with It." MA thesis. Columbia University, 1942.

The Golden Rule ; 20 Aug 1841-5 April 1842

edited by: Mary Ann Brown

published: Albany, NY

frequency: semimonthly

description: Page size, 12" h

source of information: OCLC

The Young People's Book ; Sept 1841-Aug 1842

cover/masthead: 1841

edited by: John Frost • T. S. Arthur, 1842

published: Philadelphia, PA: Morton McMichael, 1841-1842; at 57 South Third St.; Nov 1841: printed by T. K. & P. G. Collins, #1 Lodge Alley.

frequency: monthly; 2 vol/ year

description: 32 pp.; page size, 9" h x 5.5" w. Prices, 1841: 1 copy, $2/ year; 3 copies, $5/ year; 6 copies, $10/ year; 20 copies, $30/ year, "invariably in advance." 1842: 1 copy, $1.50/ year; 4 copies, $5/ year; 10 copies, $10/ year.

relevant quotes: Prospectus: "THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S BOOK ... A MONTHLY MAGAZINE Devoted to the Instruction and Entertainment of Young Persons of Both Sexes; CONDUCTED WITH A SOLE VIEW TO THEIR IMPROVEMENT IN LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE CONDUCT OF LIFE, written, not in the colloquial language which is addressed to very young children, but with such attention to the style as shall render it worthy the notice of those who are acquiring the art of Composition or forming their Literary taste; and filled with such various, original, and valuable matter as shall render the volumes, when bound up, worthy a place in the Family or School Library. ... ONE OF THE LEADING OBJECTS OF THE WORK will be to point out and illustrate by practical examples the PROPER METHODS OF SELF-INSTRUCTION in the various departments of Literature and Art, to suggest appropriate departments of study and inquiry, to prescribe courses of Reading, and to indicate the progress which may be made in the Sciences, so far as the limits of the work will allow. ... Arrangements have been made for receiving, and the publisher is now in the actual receipt of periodical publications of a similar design with that of THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S BOOK, From France, Germany, and other Parts of the Continent of Europe. From these publications, and from the choicest parts of foreign educational literature in its various departments, translations will be made of such articles as will serve to promote the main design of the work.... The preservation, however, of A TRULY NATIONAL SPIRIT; The inculcation of the duties which every American scholar owes to his country, and the exhibition of the capabilities of our EARLY HISTORY, OUR TRADITIONS, OUR CUSTOMS AND SCENERY, For supplying all the materials of a copious and brilliant literature, will be constant objects of attention, and will form frequent topics of discussion, example, and illustration." [1 (Sept 1841): back cover]

• Introduction: "Many of you, our young readers, are now receiving instruction scholastically, as our authority has it--in the schools; many others of you, have left your instructors, and are just entering upon the active duties and cares of life. To all of you, SELF-INSTRUCTION is vitally important, as the great means of mental development and of happiness. One of our greatest and most important objects in the Young People's Book, is to point out to you or to supply you with the methods and instruments of SELF-INSTRUCTION. These are many and various--as numerous as the paths and pursuits of science, art, and literature. ... In order to induce you to pursue with us the pleasant ways of intellectual improvement, it is our fixed intention to render every article which we shall present to you as entertaining and interesting as we possibly can. ... We shall not deem it necessary to speak to you as mere children, to address you in exceedingly simple phraseology; ... but we shall endeavour to adhere to the style which we may safely commend by our example, to your adoption in your own compositions. ... We hope to travel with you, pleasantly and lovingly, over many wide fields--the fields, namely, of literature, science, and art...." [1 (Sept 1841): 9-10]

• By August 1842, the magazine was promoting itself as "THE CHEAPEST MAGAZINE IN THE WORLD. PRICE REDUCED." [1 (Aug 1842): back cover]

source of information: Sept-Dec 1841, Aug 1842 issues; Sept 1841-Aug 1842 volume

bibliography: Review. The Iris, or Literary Messenger 1 (September 1841): 529. online
• Notice. The New World 3 (11 Sept 1841): 173. online
• Notice. Ladies' Pearl 2 (May 1842): 462. online
• Notice. Brother Jonathan 1 (April 9, 1842): 409. online
• Review. Brother Jonathan 2 (June 4, 1842): 157. online
• Review. The New-York Mirror 20 (August 13, 1842): 263. online

Sunday School Advocate ; 5 Oct 1841-31 Dec 1921

cover/masthead: 1845 | 1847-1848 | 1849 | 1854-1855 | 1857 | 1859-1861 | 1864-July 1865 | Oct 1865-1869 | 1871 | early 1872 | late 1872

edited by: Daniel P. Kidder, 1845, 1847-1849, 1855
• Daniel Wise, 1857-1867

published: New York, NY: Lane & Tippett, 1845-1847; 1845, publisher at 200 Mulberry St.. New York, NY: Lane & Scott, 1848-1852. New York, NY: Carlton & Phillips, 1852-1856; publisher at 200 Mulberry St., 1855. New York, NY: Carlton & Porter, 1856-1867. New York, NY: Carlton & Lanahan, 1868-1872. New York, NY: Nelson & Phillips, 1872-1874. All for the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
• Cincinnati, OH: Swormstedt & Mitchell, 1845-1849; publisher at Main & 8th St. Cincinnati, OH: Swormstedt & Poe, 1854. Cincinnati, OH: Poe & Hitchcock, 1861. All for the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
• Pittsburgh, PA: J. L. Read, for the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1861.
• Chicago, IL: W. M. Doughty, for the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1861.
• Boston, MA: J. P. Magee, for the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1861.
• Philadelphia, PA: Higgins & Perkinpink, for the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1861.

frequency: 5 Oct 1841-3 Sept 1850, semimonthly; 1845: Tuesday
• Oct 1850-Sept 1852, monthly
• 16 Oct 1852-24 June 1854, biweekly
• 8 July 1854-23 May 1874, semimonthly: 2nd & 4th Saturday

description: 1845, 1847-1849, 1855: 8 pp.; quarto; page size untrimmed, 13" h x 10" w; sent folded & untrimmed. Prices: 1 copy, 50¢/ year; 5 copies, $2/ year; 10 copies, $3/ year
• 1857-1861: 4 pp.; page size untrimmed, 14" h x 10.5" w; prices: 1-10 copies, 25¢/ year; 10 + copies, 10¢/ year; "All subscriptions to commence either with the first of October or the first of April." [16 (9 May 1857): 60]
• Oct 1864: 4 pp.; page size untrimmed, 14" h x 10.5" w; price: 40¢/ year
• 1865-1867: 4 pp.; page size untrimmed, 14" h x 10.5" w; price: 30¢/ year

relevant information: Frances E. Willard, prominent in the temperance and women's rights movements, remembered reading "the little Sunday-school Advocate, so well known to Methodist Sunday-school children," as a child; she was born in 1839. (Willard, p. 7)

• Subscribers' copies printed by 1 July 1845: 55,000. "Since the year 1845 commenced our average increase of new subscribers, daily, has exceeded ONE HUNDRED." ["Our Prospects." 4 (1 July 1845): 148]

absorbed: Good News ; 1856-1875 (absorbed in April 1875)

continued by: Portal ; Target

source of information: 1845, 1847-1849, 1855-1868, 1871, scattered issues; AAS catalog; OCLC

bibliography: Frances E. Willard. Glimpses of Fifty Years. Chicago, IL: H. J. Smith & Co., 1889. Reproduced New York, NY: Source Book Press, 1970.

Juvenile Repository ; 1842-1845

published: New York, NY

source of information: Kelly

bibliography: Children's Periodicals of the United States, ed. R. Gordon Kelly. Westport, CT & London, England: Greenwood Press, 1984.

Youth's Temperance Enterprise ; 1842-1844

published: Albany, NY: Executive Committee of the New York State Youth's Temperance Society, 1842-1844.

frequency: monthly

description: Page size, 9.75" h

source of information: OCLC

The Child's World ; 1842-1871

cover/masthead: 1864 | 1865 | 1866 | Jan-April 1868 | Sept 1868-Feb 1869, 1871

edited by: 1868-1869, 1871, Richard Newton

published: Philadelphia, PA: American Sunday School Union; publisher at 1122 Chestnut St. • New York, NY: American Sunday-School Union; 1864-1869, publisher at 599 Broadway; 1871, publisher at 10 Bible House, Astor Place.

frequency: monthly & semimonthly editions; 1 vol/ year

description: 1864-1871: 8 pp.; page size, 13" h x 9.5" w. Prices: monthly ed., 10 copies, $1.20/ year; 20 copies, $2.40/ year; 50 copies, $6/ year; 75 copies, $9/ year; 100 copies, $12/ year. Semimonthly ed., 10 copies, $2.40/ year; 20 copies, $4.80/ year; 50 copies, $12/ year; 75 copies, $18/ year; 100 copies, $24/ year
• A new series of the periodical began in 1862; a March 1862 issue is vol 1 #5 of the new series. Both the old and new volume numbers were printed on the masthead.
• Each issue of the semimonthly edition is dated only with month and year; thus, vol 23 #17 and vol 23 #18 are both dated Sept 1866.

• In 1867, the masthead was changed: "On the first of the year 1867, we shall present the readers of THE CHILD'S WORLD with a very attractive sheet. We have had a new head engraved on purpose for it, and a new fount [sic] of type will be used for printing it...." [23 #14 (Dec 1866): 3]

relevant quote: At the end of 1864, the editor pointed out, "It is now twenty-two years since we began to publish a paper for children and youth. Since that time a great many such papers have been started, and some of them continue to this day. We are very glad that so many people are at work to please the taste and improve the minds of our young friends. Those who read the early volumes of our paper, are now men and women grown up, with children of their own to care for...." [21 #24 (Dec 1864): 4]

source of information: 1864-1869, 1871, scattered issues in bound vol; AAS catalog; OCLC

Every Youth's Gazette (also Youth's Gazette; Peter Parley's Youth's Gazette) ; 22 Jan-31 Dec 1842

cover/masthead: 1842

edited by: "Grandfather Felix"

published: New York, NY: J. Winchester; publisher at 30 Ann St.

frequency: 22 & 29 Jan, weekly • 26 Feb-17 Dec, biweekly • 24-31 Dec, weekly

description: 22 Jan-5 Feb, 8 pp.; quarto; page size, 12" h x 9" w
• 26 Feb-31 Dec, 16 pp.; quarto

• Price, 1 copy, $2/ year; 2 copies, $3/ year, "in notes of all solvent and specie-paying Banks in the United States and Canada, payable always in advance" • A few advertisements declared at the top that the Gazette was "ONLY ONE DOLLAR," though the price was listed as $2 in the advertisement itself. [1 (26 Feb 1842): 50]

• An advertisement for 1843 announced that the price would be lowered: 1 copy, $1.50/ year; 5 copies, $5. [1 (24 Dec 1842): 402]

• 22 Jan 1842 begins with page 3 • 28 issues total

relevant information: In its first prospectus, the periodical was called Peter Parley's Youth's Gazette; in fact, the masthead shows an old man looking very much like Peter Parley (though without Peter's trademark small clothes), chatting with children. The editor made some caustic comments in his introduction, charging "Parley" with conduct unbecoming a literary gentleman: "I am told by respectable persons that he did not write many of the works that bear his name. ... I do not much regret Peter's withdrawal from the Gazette; because I should have had all the labor, and he would have won all the credit." ["Grandfather Felix to His Young Readers." 1 (22 Jan 1842): 7] The editorial tone is less surprising when coupled with the fact that the publisher--J. Winchester--also published The New World ("The largest and cheapest family newspaper in America"), edited by Park Benjamin, who was a harsh critic of Parley's creator, Samuel Griswold Goodrich.

relevant quotes:
• Introduction: "I do not now, for the first time, discharge the pleasant duty of writing for the young. I am the author of many small volumes, that were great favorites in their time--yes, as great as those of my respected old friend, Peter Parley. Peter has frequently asked and obtained my assistance in the composition of his various stories. I am told by respectable persons that he did not write many of the works that bear his name. ... I asked Peter, for the sake of our early friendship, to let me call the Youth's Gazette after him, and to be one of its editors; at first he consented, but afterward changed his mind, because, as he had said, he had already taken his farewell of his youthful readers, and did not mean to write any more.... I do not much regret Peter's withdrawal from the Gazette; because I should have had all the labor, and he would have won all the credit. It will now be quite as good, as if it were supposed to be his--and, I rather think, better; for I shall strive to win for myself ... 'golden opinions from all sorts of people.'" ["Grandfather Felix to His Young Readers." 1 (22 Jan 1842): 7] Samuel Griswold Goodrich, creator of "Peter Parley," beset by plagiarists, in fact "killed off" the character in 1839, in Peter Parley's Farewell.

• In the first issue, the editorial tone was a combination of boast and diffidence: "Some time must elapse before a new journal like this can be generally known. So many unworthy publications of the kind have appeared, that the public have reason to be doubtful of any new enterprise. No doubt, however, need be entertained with regard to the firm establishment of the Youth's Gazette. Arrangements have been made to continue it for a year at least, and such has been the encouragement, with which it has already been received, that our friends need not fear that it will be always published. Efforts will be made to engage the best writers for the young, both in this country and abroad. Orders were sent to England in December last, to a bookseller there, to forward all the new books for the young that were good, and from these the very best will be selected for publication. ... I respectfully request all good people, who are interested in the welfare of the young, to do all in their power to promote the circulation of 'Every Youth's Gazette.' I ask all who hold the pen of ready writers, to send us articles of a kind suitable for youth. I want teachers of youth to take it under their patronage and favor me with their suggestions concerning the manner in which it ought to be conducted. I solicit the clergy to lend their aid in making it a medium for the inculcation of religious and moral duties. I entreat fathers and mother to place it in the hands of their children, and thus inspire them, at a tender age, with a desire for knowledge and a love of literature." [1 (22 Jan 1842): 7]

• That Every Youth's Gazette was the publication described in its prospectus remained the subject of puzzlement for a handful of issues: "There are some persons who do not seem to understand that 'Every Youth's Gazette' is precisely the same paper that 'Peter Parley's Youth's Gazette' would have been, had not the design of publishing it under that title been given up. It was considered that the matter was clearly enough explained in the first number; but it seems that it was not--for letters of inquiry have been received. To these, the following clear and explicit reply is now given. The present journal differs in no respect whatsoever from that which was at first proposed, except in name. It is edited precisely in the way that it would have been had the name of Peter Parley been used. Readers who are so unreasonable as to object to a mere change of name, should remember the truth couched in the lines of Shakspere: 'That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.'" [1 (26 Feb 1842): 43]

• About the illustration in the masthead: "It was designed by that delightful artist, Chapman, and it was engraved by one scarcely inferior, Adams." ["Grandfather Felix to His Young Readers." 1 (22 Jan 1842): 7]

• Like most periodicals of the time, the Gazette wasn't shy about filling its pages with pieces from other periodicals; the first issue was no different: "I am indebted to a number of the Juvenile Miscellany, published sixteen years ago, for some of the articles in this number. The Miscellany was very popular with all young folks in its day; but, as its readers have since grown up to be men and women, the present generation will find them as new as if it had now appeared for the first time." [1 (22 Jan 1842): 7]

• Beginning with the issue for 26 Feb 1842, the paper's frequency and size changed: "After the present week [12 Feb], 'Every Youth's Gazette' will appear once a fortnight, instead of once a week, as heretofore. Each number will contain sixteen pages instead of eight. Instead of being printed with Brevier type, which is too small to be pleasing to children, it will be printed with a new and handsome Bourgeois, which is larger and better adapted to a juvenile publication. The lines, instead of being placed closely together, will generally be set a little apart, leaded, as the printers say.... This will give each an open, elegant aspect, more like a book, and less like a newspaper. These changes, with regard to frequency of publication and the size of type, were determined upon in accordance with the advice of my respected friend, Mrs. L. H. Sigourney. ... As 'Every Youth's Gazette' is not a journal in which the latest news is published, it will be quite as agreeable to receive it once a fortnight as once a week." ["To Subscribers." 1 (12 Feb 1842): 31]

source of information: 22 Jan 1842 issue; APS II reel 606; Dechert; Lyon; AAS catalog

available: APS II (1800-1850), reel 606

bibliography: Dorothy Dechert. "The Merry Family: A Study of Merry's Museum, 1841-1872, and of the Various Periodicals that Merged with It." MA thesis. Columbia University, 1942.
• Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 168-172.
• John B. Crume. "Children's Magazines, 1826-1857." Journal of Popular Culture 7 (1973): 698-706.

Wreath ; 2 March 1842-1843

edited by: Mrs. C. L. Adams

published: Portland, ME: Brown Thurston.

frequency: weekly

description: Page size, 15.25" h

source of information: AAS catalog

The Youth's Emancipator ; May 1842, Aug 1842-Mar 1843

edited by: May-Nov 1842, J. H. Livingston; John Giles Jennings
• Dec 1842-Jan 1843, J. H. Livingston
• Feb-March 1843, John Giles Jennings

published: Oberlin, OH: Executive Committee of the Oberlin Youth's Anti-Slavery Society, May 1842-Jan 1843.
• Oberlin, OH: n.p., Feb-March 1843.

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: 4 pp.; octavo; price, 25¢/ year

source of information: OCLC; Kelly

bibliography: Children's Periodicals of the United States, ed. R. Gordon Kelly. Westport, CT & London, England: Greenwood Press, 1984.

Boys' and Girls' Literary Bouquet ; Nov 1842-1844 • Boys' and Girls' Monthly Bouquet ; Jan 1845 • Boys' and Girls' Bouquet ; Feb-June 1845

edited by: March 1844, Philip Pleasant

published: New York, NY: Aaron F. Cox, Jan 1843-1844.
• Philadelphia, PA: A. F. Cox, 1844; publisher at 88 N. 6th St., 1844; printed by Barrett & Jones, 1844; printer at 33 Carter's Alley, 1844. Philadelphia, PA: Cox & Catlin, Jan-June 1845; publisher at 34 Carter's Alley.

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: Page size, 7" h; price, 50¢/ year.

relevant quote: "A notice of its discontinuance by Mr. Catlin was found in another Philadelphia magazine of the same period, The Satchel which was a new venture of Mr. Cox's. Mr Catlin gave as his reason, that the low cost of fifty cents a year was not sufficient to maintain the magazine, so he decided to give it up." (Lyon; p. 177)

source of information: Lyon; AAS catalog; OCLC; Maxwell; NUC

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 175-177.
• Checklist of Children's Books, 1837-1876, comp. Barbara Maxwell. Philadelphia, PA: Special Collections, Central Children's Department, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1975.

The Wreath ; 1 Nov 1842-1 June 1843

edited by: W. T. O. Dalton

published: Boston, MA: Dalton, Brown & Campbell

frequency: semimonthly

description: Page size, 6.5" h • Amateur periodical

source of information: AAS catalog

Jugend-Zeitung (Young people's newspaper); 1843-1845

edited by: Carl Weitershausen

published: Pittsburgh, PA: Carl Weitershausen. Printed by J. G. Backofen

frequency: biweekly

description: 4 pp.; quarto • German-language periodical

source of information: Arndt; Fraser

bibliography: Karl J. R. Arndt & May E. Olson. German-American Newspapers and Periodicals: 1732-1955. Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer Publishers, 1961.
• Sybille Fraser. "German Language Children's and Youth Periodicals in North America: A Checklist." Phaedrus 6 (Spring 1979): 27-31.

The Juvenile Wesleyan ; 1843-1852?

edited by: 1843-1846, O. Scott
• 1843-1844, L. C. Matlack
• 1849-1850, Luther Lee

published: Boston, MA: John B. Hall, 1843.
• New York, NY: O. Scott, 1846. New York, NY: Lucius Matlack, 1849-1852.
All for the Wesleyan Methodist Connection

frequency: semimonthly

description: 16 Sept 1843 is vol 1 #2

source of information: AAS catalog; OCLC

The Youth's Gazette ; 1843-?

published: Chicago, IL: K. K. Jones

frequency: weekly

description: Page size, 11.25" h • 3 June 1843 is vol 1 #2

source of information: OCLC

Youth's Guide and Star ; 1843

cover/masthead?: 1843

edited by: Edward N. Harris

published: Boston, MA: Edward N. Harris, 1843; Harris at 14 Devonshire St. Printed by "Dow & Jackson's Power Press," 14 Devonshire St. (20 May 1843)

description: 16 pp.; page size untrimmed, 10" h x 6" w. Price, 1 copy, $1/ year; 10 copies, $6/ year; 20 copies, 62½¢/ copy; 40 copies, 50¢/ copy; "No subscription taken for less than one year. When the pay is not in advance, we must add 20 per cent, because it will make that difference to us in issuing the work." (20 May 1843; p. 48)

• 20 May 1843 is vol 1 #3

• Youth's Guide and Star may be the running title of a periodical with another cover title.

source of information: 20 May 1843 issue

Boys' and Girls' Magazine ; Jan-Dec 1843 • Boys' & Girls' Monthly Library ; Jan 1844-?

cover/masthead: 1843

edited by: 1843, Mrs. Samuel Colman

published: Boston, MA: T. Harrington Carter & Co., 1843-1844; publisher at 118 1/2 Washington St., 1843

frequency: monthly; 3 vol/ year

description: 1843: 36 pp.; page size, 6.5" h x 5" w; price, $1.25/ year.

relevant quote: Plans for 1844: "[W]e propose, for the new year to commence with January, 1844, to reduce the price of the work to one dollar, trusting thereby to meet the wishes of a much larger number throughout the whole country." [3 (Dec 1843)]

relevant information: Published works by Catherine Sedgwick and James T. Fields; also published "Little Daffydowndilly," by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Aug 1843: 120-269).

source of information: May-Dec 1843 bound vols; Lyon; AAS

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 173-174.

New Church Magazine for Children ; Jan 1843-June 1844, Jan 1846-June 1862 • The Children's New-Church Magazine ; July 1862-June 1867, Jan 1868-1891?)

published: Boston, MA: Otis Clapp, 1843-1859.
• Boston, MA: T. H. Carter & Co., 1862-1867.
• Boston, MA: T. H. Carter & Sons, 1868.
• New York, NY: General Convention of the New Church, 1868-1870.

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: 1847-1859: 32 pp.; page size, 6.5" h x 4" w
• No issues for July 1844-Dec 1845, July-Dec 1867
• 1869: price, $1.75/ year
• General Church of the New Jerusalem focus

source of information: 1847-1859, scattered issues in bound vol; 15 Nov 1869 The Little Messenger; AAS catalog; OCLC; NUC

available: excerpt in Lessons of War: The Civil War in Children's Magazines, ed. James Marten. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1998.

bibliography: Advertisement. The Little Messenger. 2 (15 Nov 1869): 28.
Lessons of War: The Civil War in Children's Magazines, ed. James Marten. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1998.

Youth's Penny Gazette ; 11 Jan 1843-Jan 1859

cover/masthead: 1845 | 1846-1847 | 1848 | 1849-24 Nov 1852 | 5 Jan 1853-17 Dec 1856 | 7 Jan 1857-22 Dec 1858

published: Philadelphia, PA: American Sunday School Union, 11 Jan 1843-1859; at 146 Chestnut St., 7 Jan 1852-23 Nov 1853; at 316 Chestnut St., 7 Dec 1853-13 May 1857; at 1122 Chestnut St., 27 May 1857-22 Dec 1858.
• New York, NY: American Sunday-School Union, 7 Jan 1852-22 Dec 1858; at 147 Nassau St., 7 Jan 1852-4 June 1856; at 59 Chambers St., 18 June 1856-18 March 1857; at 375 Broadway, 1 April 1857-22 Dec 1858.
• Boston, MA: American Sunday-School Union, 7 Jan 1852-9 June 1858; at 9 Cornhill.

frequency: biweekly

description: 1 Jan 1845-22 Dec 1847, 7 Jan 1852-22 Dec 1858: 4 pp.; page size, 12.5" h x 9.5" w
• Price: 1 Jan 1845-22 Dec 1847, 7 Jan 1852-7 Dec 1853: 1 copy, 25¢/ year; 40 copies, $5/ year. 18 Jan 1854-2 Dec 1858: 20 copies, $3/50/ year; 40 copies, $5/ year; 100 copies, $10/ year

relevant quote: 1846's new illustration at the top of the paper's first page was the occasion of some ferocious punning: "People sometimes say of a very shrewd, wise man that he has "an old head." They say of a youth, who is not properly corrected by his parents or guardians, "he has his own head," that is, he does as he likes. To say that a man's "head is turned," is to say t hat he has gone crazy. And if three or more "lay their heads together" for some unlawful end, they are called conspirators. We may add that there is a head to a pin, to a nail, to a class, to a company, and to a nation, as well as to the Youth's Penny Gazette. Now, though we have put a "new head" to our paper, we have "old heads" to see that each number is properly filled up. There is a committee to look to it, that the Editor does not "have his own head," except so far as he goes right. Nothing is likely to appear, therefore, which will turn "any boyd's head," by its error or folly. And we are all pledged "to lay our heads together" for the pleasure and profit of our readers, and not for any evil end. In pursuing this course we need not care "a pin's head" for opposition or competiton. Our aim must be "to hit the nail on the head," by saying just the right thing at just the right time. Such care will give us the head of this class of newspapers. It will place us, as we trust, at the head of a great company of children and youth, who may safely follow where we lead, and thus we may be able to show to the head of the nation a great multitude of orderly, industrious, intelligent and virtuous citizens, who shall fear God and keep his commandments." ["Our New Head." 4 (7 Jan 1846): 2.]

• The new head for 1846 was intended as allegory: "In [the Jan 7] number we called the attention of our readers to our new and beautiful head or title. We now wish them to notice particularly the lesson which the ornamental devices are intended to teach. It presents human life in four stages. At first we see the mother and her two little children, one in the cradle and the other learning from an alphabet card. Soon the two nurslings become school-children, with a globe and other implements of study. By and by parents come forward training their children up in the ways of truth and wisdom, and soon the scene closes, and old age seeks its resting place in the grave. Our life is but a vapour, that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away!" ["Our New Head." 2 (21 Jan 1846): 6.]

relevant information: Perhaps the work cataloged as Youth's Sunday School Gazette; Philadelphia, PA: American Sunday School Union, 1843-?; listed in OCLC

source of information: 1845-1847, 1852-1858 vol; AAS catalog; OCLC

The Child's Friend ; Oct 1843-before 1853 • The Child's Friend and Youth's Magazine ; in 1853 • The Child's Friend and Family Magazine ; 1856-Oct 1858

cover/masthead: 1853 | 1858

edited by: 1843-1850, Eliza L. Follen • 1851-1858, Anne Wales Abbot

published: Boston, MA: Leonard C. Bowles, Oct 1843-1857?; Bowles at 11 Washington St., 1853
• Cambridge, MA: Anne Wales Abbot, July-Nov 1857. • Cambridge, MA: John Bartlett, Dec 1857-Oct 1858.

frequency: monthly; 2 vol/ year

description: 36 pp.; octavo • 1858: 48 pp; page size, 7.5" h x 5" w
• Price: 1853, $1.50/ year; 1856, $2/ year; 1858, 1 copy, $2/ year; 3 copies, $5/ year; 10 copies, $15/ year
• Subscribers, from magazine: Oct 1857: 400

relevant quotes: Introduction: "We call ourselves the Child's Friend; how shall we prove ourselves worthy of the name?--Jesus was a friend of children; how did he show his love for them? He desired his disciples to allow little children to come to him, he took them in his arms and blessed them. ... We say then to children, come to us, you shall find love, you shall find instruction in our pages; come with that simplicity and innocency of heart with which your Creator sent you into his beautiful world." ["To Children." 1 (Oct 1843): 1-2]

• Abbot was publisher from July to Dec 1857: "[The editor] is assured by urgent messages from different quarters that its readers, some of them at least, are its warm friends, and would be sorry that it should be sacrificed on account of a temporary derangement of its finances. Help from able pens has been promised, and the Editor has determined to carry on the work to the end of the present year at her own risk, in the hope of saving it. She has therefore purchased the subscription list, or, as it is technically termed, the good-will, and is now the Editor, Publisher, and Proprietor of the concern, the latter term signifying, at present, only the responsibility of paying its bills and the privilege of directing its affairs. A principal reason why it seems to her worth while to make this effort, is that the subscribers, with less than forty expections, had paid in advance, and most of them to the end of the year 1857. That each could receive back his dollar, by taking the trouble to apply for it, would not console the children for their disappointment. That some other publication, not of their own choice, and perhaps not to their liking, would be sent to close the year, would not be much more satisfactory to old subscribers. ... Although, from its not being kept in the public view by advertising, or other means, its continued existence has been known only to a few, those are mostly its old, substantial friends. They are numerous enough, even now, to sustain it under careful management; therefore, if it survives its present embarrassment, it will go on next year with a surplus, instead of a deficit. The Editor will require nothing for her services but the pleasure of continuing her pleasant relations with the young readers, and keeping their old Friend alive and useful. The profits are to be devoted to the aid of indigent and friendless children." [29 (July 1857): 47-48]

• Abbot as editor: "To supply a young family with reading of a healthful quality requires more judicious care than formerly, when there were fewer books. The Child's Friend has an established character, which the present Editor will humbly endeavor to maintain, so that a parent may always put it into his child's hand with confidence, before he has read it himself. It will aim to instil religious ideas, not of a doctrinal or sectarian cast, to cultivate a pure and high moral taste, to convey information, and to develop social and benevolent affections. The subscriber [Anne W. Abbot] has purchased the subscription list, in order to carry on the Magazine, which was about to be discontinued. Her own services will be gratuitous, and those of the publisher and contributors also; and the profits will be devoted to the relief of indigent and neglected children. She solicits subscribers and literary contributions for this object, and trusts that she shall find so much favor with the public as to give permanent success to her effort." [31 (Aug 1858): inside front cover]

• In late 1857, Abbot planned to give the profits of the magazine to the Children's Mission to the Children of the Destitute: "This is a society supported by the contributions of children, and its object is not merely to rescue exposed children from vice, ignorance, and degradation, but to foster the spirit of Christian benevolence in the minds of the young who are growing up in more fortunate circumstances. ... 'The Children's Friend' may with peculiar propriety be devoted to such an object as this, and the editor has sought an interview with Mr. Fearing, the President, with the intention of making it the property of the Mission, on condition that the publishing work, as well as the editing, should be done without charge, leaving the whole surplus over the bills for printing and paper for the charity. There are now four hundred subscribers, and the surplus cannot be far from a hundred and fifty dollars, making no allowance for loss, by some falling off or failing to pay. The state of the times making the continuance or increase of subscribers unusually uncertain, it is thought best that the transfer shall not take place until January, when the bills for 1858 will be sent out, and the prospect will be rendered more definite. ... [E]very new subscriber will be a subscriber of two dollars a year to the Children's Mission." [29 (Oct 1857): 238-240]

• The economic panic of 1857 made publishing precarious, and as publisher, Abbot made a better editor; her relief when John Bartlett took over was palpable: "Through the disinterested kindness of a friend, the Editor is enabled to withdraw from the troublesome office of Publisher. She will retain the ownership of The Child's Friend for the year to come, as the times render all calculations of profit uncertain, and a possible loss ought not to fall upon the funds of the Children's Mission. ... [John Bartlett's] services as publisher are gratuitous. The subscribers and the Editor have reason for mutual gratulation that the management of the business affairs have passed into abler hands than hers. Those subscribers who, through her ignorance of post-office regulations, received duplicates of the last number, are requested to lend, or give them, with a view to making the work known, and if any person failed to receive a copy, he can obtain one on application to Mr. Bartlett." [29 (Dec 1857): 288]

• Abbot kept the magazine's economic difficulties before her readers, describing a fictional reader who grew up reading it: "See him at his study-table, with one hand buried in his hair, which no longer flows abroad in bushy curls. He knows that the Friend of his boyhood is about to expire, in the midst of its days, from neglect. He is not too busy to give it a thought, and he has not become so learned as to despise it. He remembers the day of small things; he feels that he owes it a debt of gratitude for some good seeds sown, and for some quiet and pleasant hours in those days, when every hour had its share in his mental and moral growth. He shuts his lexicon, or perhaps makes it his desk, and the next mail carries to the disheartened Editor a contribution from his graceful pen, and an encouraging letter, with a promise of future aid." [30 (Jan 1858): 2-3]

• By July 1858, it was evident that the magazine would fail: "We entered on this year with a list which seemed to promise security from loss, and a small overplus for the Children's Mission. But in a time of panic like last winter, the first measure of economy, with many, is to cut off papers and periodicals. They fell like dead leaves, and the Child's Friend suffered in common with those who could better afford it. By the publisher's account for the half-year, it appears that our resources, when all called in, will not last beyond October, with the most careful management. So it was necessary for the Editor to decide whether to go on, and pay for November and December, or to sell the list of subscribers to some other Magazine. Far be it from us, this customary resort in such cases, (sending to those who have paid punctually something which they did not bargain for, or prefer,) though it is often a means of making money, instead of losing it. Our best subscribers, who have sustained the Magazine to a good old age, shall not have occasion to consider themselves sold. The respectable old Juvenile shall die honorably with the year, deserving the regret of its friends." [31 (July 1858): 48]

• The August 1858 issue included no advertising (paid or otherwise) at all.

• The last issue did not include the remaining chapters of a story being serialized in 1858; though Abbot deleted a scene, the segment ended on what had to be a frustrating cliff-hanger: "As some of our readers are much interested in 'Uneika,' we carry on the story as far as we can in our closing number, by omitting a portion containing a conversation between Uneika and the missionary...." [31 (Oct 1858): 254]

source of information: April 1853 issue; Aug 1858 issue; Oct 1843-Sept 1847, 1849, 1857 bound volumes; APS II reels 509-512; Lyon; Kelly

available: APS II (1800-1850), reel 509-512

bibliography: "To Subscribers." Child's Friend. 29 (July 1857): 47-48.
• "The Children's Mission to the Children of the Destitute." Child's Friend. 29 (Oct 1857): 238-240.
• "A New Year's Greeting." Child's Friend. 30 (Jan 1858): 1-3.
• Mabel F. Altstetter. "Early American Magazines for Children." Peabody Journal of Education 19 (Nov 1941); p. 132.
• Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 178-182.
• Jill Delano Sweiger. "Conceptions of Children in American Juvenile Periodicals: 1830-1870." PhD diss. Rutgers University, 1977.
• Children's Periodicals of the United States, ed. R. Gordon Kelly. Westport, CT & London, England: Greenwood Press, 1984.

Juvenile Instructor ; 1844?-after 5 March 1856

published: Syracuse, NY: Lucius C. Matlock.

frequency: biweekly; 1 vol/ year?

description: Page size, 11.25" h • 19 Jan 1850 is vol 10, #212; 5 March 1856 is vol 12, #267

source of information: AAS catalog; OCLC

The Young Reaper ; Jan 1844-1855

edited by: 1844-1851, H. S. Washburn • 1854-1855, Alfred Colburn

published: Boston, MA: New England Sunday School Union, 1844-1853.
• Boston, MA: Heath & Graves, 1854-1855.

frequency: monthly

description: Page size, 11.75" h

source of information: AAS catalog

The Well-spring (also The Wellspring for Young People) ; 5 Jan 1844-1876 • The Well-spring and Missionary Echoes ; 1877-1881 • The Wellspring ; 1928

cover/masthead: 1854 | 1857 | 1865-1867

edited by: 1844-1854, Asa Bullard

published: Boston, MA: Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, 5 Jan 1844-1854.
• Boston, MA: Congregational Publishing Society, 1877-1881.
• Chicago, IL: Congregational Publishing Society, 1928.

frequency: weekly

description: 1854: 4 pp.; page size, 13" h x 9.5" w; prices: 1 copy, 35¢/ year; 3 copies, $1/ year; 10 copies, $3/ year; 20+ copies, 25 ¢ each/ year

source of information: 1854, 1857, 1865-1867 scattered issues; OCLC

The Bee ; 9 March 1844-22 April 1845

edited by: William August Munsell (8 years old in 1844)

published: Albany, NY: William August Munsell.

frequency: irregular

description: 4 pp.; page size, 9.5" h • Nine issues
• Amateur publication
• Commended by Samuel Griswold Goodrich; magazine reprints a letter from him to Munsell
• According to Lyon, the publication ceased because the editor "came down with whooping cough." [p. 138]

source of information: Lyon; OCLC

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 138.

Uncle Ezekiel's Youth's Cabinet ; May 1844-15 March 1846?

cover/masthead: 1845

edited by: "Ezekiel Loveyouth" [Joseph F. Witherell]

published: Concord, NH: J. F. Witherell.
• Concord, NH: Witherell & Lowell, 1845. (1 May & 15 May 1845)

frequency: monthly; semimonthly • 1845, 1st & 15th of each month

description: 1845: 8 pp.; page size untrimmed, 9" h x 6" w; prices: 1 copy, 25¢ 5 copies, $1; 11 copies, $2; 18 copies, $3; "The money in all cases to accompany the order."

• Witherell used the vignette of reading children which appeared in the Cabinet's masthead to illustrate the "Youth's Department" in The Gem and Literary Gazette (Dexter ME) in 1857.

relevant information: Witherell moved to Dexter, Maine, around 1850, where he set up a printing business and published The Gem and Literary Gazette for adults and Youth's Cabinet and Little Joker (April 1857-after June 1857) for children.

• Pieces from the original Cabinet probably were collected and reprinted as a 92-page book titled The Youth's Cabinet around 1857; the book was a premium sent to subscribers to Youth's Cabinet and Little Joker.

source of information: 1 May issue; 15 May issue; scrapbook & vertical file articles, & pieces in The Gem and Literary Gazette, all at the Dexter Historical Society, Dexter, Maine; AAS catalog

Little Truth-Teller: A New-Church Magazine for Children ; 1845-1852

published: Philadelphia, PA: J. H. Jones.
• Philadelphia, PA: Barrett & Jones, 1847.

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: Page size, 6.25" h
• Jan 1847 is vol 2 #2

source of information: AAS catalog; OCLC

The Child's Companion and Youth's Friend ; Jan 1845-after 1870

published: Philadelphia, PA: American Sunday School Union.

frequency: monthly

description: 1848: 32 pp.; page size, 5.75" h x 3.5" w

source of information: 1848 bound vol; OCLC; AAS catalog

The Monthly Rose ; Jan-Dec 1845

published: Albany, NY: E. H. Pease & W. C. Little, Jan-Dec 1845.

frequency: monthly

description: Page size, 9.75" h • Published by "the present and former members of the Albany Female Academy."

source of information: OCLC

The Penny Library for School Children ; 1 April-3 June 1845

edited by: William B. Fowle

published: Boston, MA: Asa Fitz

frequency: weekly

description: Page size, 6.25" h • Sold at the bookstore of Fowle and Capen

source of information: OCLC; AAS catalog

The Myrtle ; 17 May 1845-31 Dec 1904

cover/masthead: 1859

edited by: 1853, Joseph Fullerton
• 1859, William Burr

published: Dover, NH: Free-will Baptist Printing Establishment, 17 May 1845-31 Dec 1904

frequency: 17 May 1845-1897, biweekly
• 1 Jan 1898-1904, weekly

description: 1859: 4 pp.; page size untrimmed, 13" h x 8.25" w. Price: 1 copy, 25¢/ year; 10 copies, 12½¢ each; 20 copies or more, 17¢ each

relevant information: Frances E. Willard, who became important in the temperance and women's rights movements, remembered reading this "pretty little juvenile paper" as a child; she was born in 1839. (Willard, p. 7)

source of information: 23 April 1859 issue; AAS catalog; OCLC

bibliography: Frances E. Willard. Glimpses of Fifty Years. Chicago, IL: H. J. Smith & Co., 1889. Reproduced New York, NY: Source Book Press, 1970.

The Monthly Rose (also The Monthly Rose, and Literary Cabinet); July 1845 • The Monthly Rose, and Otis School Cabinet ; Aug-Nov 1845 • The Monthly Rose, and School Cabinet ; Jan 1846 • The Monthly Rose, and Literary Cabinet ; Feb-Aug 1846, Nov 1846-Oct 1847 • The Monthly Rose ; Nov 1847-

edited by: July 1845-1849, Henry C. Shepard
• 1849, T. R. Shepard, jr.
• 1849-1850, William A. Clark
• 1850, "Frank Lovelace"; W. H. Hutchinson

published: Boston, MA: H. C. Shepard, July 1845, 1846.
• Boston, MA: Shepard & Hinds, Aug-Nov 1845.
• Boston, MA: Shepard, Hinds & Woodward, Feb 1846-Oct 1847.
• Boston, MA: Benjamin P. Lane, 1846-1848.
• Boston, MA: Brown, Lane & Co., 1847.
• Boston, MA: Joseph H. Brown, 1848.
• Boston, MA: Brown, Bishop & Co., 1848.
• Boston, MA: H. C. Bishop, jr., 1848.
• Boston, MA: W. A. Clark & Co., 1849.
• Boston, MA: Clark & Hutchinson, 1850.

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: July 1845-: page size, 7.5" h • No issues for Sept-Oct 1846

source of information: OCLC; AAS catalog

The Encourager ; 1846

published: New York, NY: Carlton & Porter.

frequency: monthly

description: Page size, 5.75" h

source of information: Lyon; OCLC

bibliography: Eleanor Weakley Nolen. "Nineteenth Century Children's Magazines." The Horn Book Magazine. 15 (January/February 1939): 55-60.
• Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 139.

Youth's Monthly Visitor ; 1846

edited by: Margaret L. Bailey

published: Cincinnati, OH

description: Price: 25¢/ year

relevant quote: The editor of The Harbinger--probably George Ripley--may have been one of Bailey's fans: "We had for some time been desirous to know more of the authoress of some beautiful little poems that have from time to time met our eye, and are happy to find her as the conductor of so excellent a work. The tone of the Monthly Visitor is pure and elevated; its original articles combine good taste and good sense; its selections are judicious and instructive, and, what is rare in a journal of a religious character, it is free from bigotry or narrowness without being monotonous and flat." (Harbinger)

source of information: Harbinger

bibliography: Notice. The Harbinger. 2 (April 11, 1846): 283. online

Young Churchman's Miscellany ; Jan 1846-Dec 1848

edited by: Jesse Ames Spence

published: New York, NY

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: Page size, 7.75" h

source of information: AAS catalog; OCLC

Young People's Magazine ; Jan-Dec 1846

cover/masthead: cover

edited by: Seba Smith

published: New York, NY: J. K. Wellman; publisher at 118 Nassau St.

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: 24 pp; page size untrimmed, 9.5" h x 6" w; price, $1/ year
• Circulation (from magazine): 4,000 (June 1846)
• A portrait of Seba Smith was included in the Sept 1846 issue

relevant quotes: Introduction: "The design of this work is to present a useful and interesting periodical to the youth of our country,--one that, while it shall amuse, shall also instruct and enlighten; and not merely instruct and enlighten, but elevate and purify. A work which shall do its share towards guiding the youth of our country in the path that will lead them to usefulness and respectability as citizens, and honor and happiness as men and Christinas. With this general object in view, all suitable topics will be discussed, and the best material sought for, both original and selected, wherever it may be available. The world of fact and the world of fancy will both be explored, and their choicest treasure brought home and spread before our young readers. Without bias in party politics, the work will present clear and condensed views of political statistics, institutions, and men of the country; and without sectarianism, it will aim to present such matter as may be acceptable to any Christian family. Stories, Poetry, History, Biography, Science and Art, will all be made to contribute to our general design. Biographical notices of the distinguished men of our country and occasionally of other countries, both ancient and modern; American history; the history and statistics of the individual States, from Maine to Texas, and from the Europeans first landed upon these shores till the present times;--these are among the prominent sources from which our pages will be filled. And though this work is designed mainly for youth, it is intended that it shall be so conducted that the youth who takes it and preserves it, shall find it a pleasant and valuable companion in middle life or in old age." [1 (Jan 1846): 1]

source of information: Jan-May, July bound vol; Jan-Dec bound vol; Aug issue; AAS catalog

The Satchel ; Feb 1846-1847

published: Philadelphia, PA: Aaron F. Cox

frequency: semimonthly during school months; weekly during summer

description: 50¢/ year. • Circulation: Feb 1846 issue was reprinted twice in order to meet demand. March 1846, 3,000 or 3,500 copies; April 1846, another reprinting. May 1846: "About 16,800 copies of The Satchel have been disposed of although but five numbers of the work have been issued." [in Lyon; p. 191]

source of information: Lyon; AAS catalog

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 188-192.

Youth's Friend ; 6 March 1846-Nov 1857

edited by: "Friend Abel"

published: Cincinnati, OH: Universalist Sunday School. • Cincinnati, OH: Longley & Brother, 1853.

frequency: weekly; 1 vol/ year

description: Page size, 10.25" h. 1853, price: 50¢/ year

source of information: Gem; AAS catalog; OCLC

bibliography: Notice. The Western Gem 6 (June 1853): 22. online

The Golden Rule ; May 1846-

published: Groton, MA: Henry L. & George P. Brown.

frequency: monthly

description: Page size, 12.5" h

source of information: AAS catalog

The Student ; May 1846-April 1854 • The Student and Family Miscellany ; May 1854-Oct 1855

cover/masthead: 1849

edited by: May 1846-April 1854, Norman A. Calkins • 1848-1850, J. S. Denman • 1849-1850, S. E. Paine

published: New York, NY: Denman, Calkins & Paine, 1849-1850.
• New York, NY: Fowler & Wells, 1850-Dec 1853.
• New York, NY: Norman A. Calkins, Jan 1854-Oct 1855; publisher at 131 Nassau St., Jan 1854; publisher at 348 Broadway, 15 April 1854: "The office of The Student will be removed on the 15th of April to No. 348 Broadway, Room No. 10, over Appleton's Bookstore." [8 (April 1854): 185]

frequency: monthly; 2 vol/ year: volumes begin with May & Nov issues

description: May 1853-April 1854: 32 pp.; 8.75" h x 5.5" w; price, $1/ year

• 1850s: magazine used four different typefaces, in order to appeal to children, teenagers, and adults

relevant information: The Student's cover changed in May 1851: "Our New Title-Page.--It has already been seen that the cover appears with a new, beautiful, and attractive title-page; but we wish to call attention more particularly to its design. On one side is represented the family, a lovely group, attentively listening to the father, who is reading for their instruction, on the opposite side is a school scene during recess. In the foreground of this view, with a theodolite, is a lad making a practical application of the principles of Surveying, which he is learning at the school. Near him is another lad who has become interested in Geology and Mineralogy, and, with hammer in hand, is breaking in pieces the rock to obtain specimens for his cabinet. Near him is a girl who, having collected a handful of flowers, has seated herself to examine and analyze them; and in the distance are three smaller children taking exercize in various sports. The whole design is in harmony with and appropriately represents the character of the work." ["Our New Title-Page." The Student. 3 (May 1851): 29]

• Circulation (from magazine): May 1854, 10,000

relevant quote: On absorbing The Flower-Basket: "The Flower-Basket, a monthly magazine for the young, formerly edited and published by the Rev. J. J. Buchanan, at Pittsburg, Pa. is now merged into The Student. There will be no change in The Student, from this union, but according to an arrangement between the publishers of the two works, those whose term of subscription for The Flower-Basket has not expired, will receive The Student in place of that work. ... The present widely extended circulation of The Student is a flattering testimonial of the favor with which it is received as a valuable family periodical, and of its increasing popularity among the friends of education and improvement." ["The Student and Flower-Basket United." The Student 4 (April 1852): 185]

absorbed: The Flower Basket (-April 1852) • The Student and Young Tutor ; Nov 1846-Sept 1848 • The Favourite Magazine of Instruction and Amusement for Boys and Girls (also The Favorite); April-Sept 1852

merged with: The Schoolmate (Feb 1852-Oct 1855) to form The Student and Schoolmate ; Nov 1855-1872

relevant quotes: On the magazine in 1854: "During the eight years which we have been connected with The Student, our aim has been, through its pages, to awaken an ardent love for learning and self-improvement, not only in the school-room, but in the family circle, around the centre-table of the richly-furnished parlor, and by the hearth-stone of rural country homes. ... We believe that no other periodical, claiming to be educational, has obtained so large a circulation by subscriptions as The Student. Not a county can be found, where it has not been seen and read, and, so far as we have heard, it has met with a cordial approval." [8 (April 1854): 185]

• On the change to Student & Family Miscellany, 1854: "A New and Improved Volume of The Student and Family Miscellany will commence with the number for May. It will appear in a new form, with new type, and four additional pages; containing 36 pages each month, instead of 32, as heretofore. We intend to send the first number of the new volume to each of our present subscribers, even though the subscriptions of some expire with the present number, and we hope all will examine it. Should any whose subscriptions have expired receive The Student for May, and wish to discontinue the work, please D O    N O T return that number, but keep it and show it to your friends. ... Sample numbers of the new volume will be ready on the 15th of April, and will be forwarded, gratis, on application by letter, post-paid, to any person who may desire to examine the work." [8 (April 1854): 185]

source of information: 1851-1852 issues (located in Winterthur Library, Wilmington, DE); May 1853-April 1854 bound volume; Lyon; AAS catalog

available: excerpts online

bibliography: "The Student and Flower-Basket United." The Student 4 (April 1852): 185.
• Notice. Monthly Literary Miscellany, February 1853: 64. online
• Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 224-228.

Boys' and Girls' Weekly Catholic Magazine (also Boys' and Girls' Catholic Magazine) ; 6 June 1846-1848 • Catholic Weekly Instructor (also Weekly Catholic Instructor); 6 Jan 1849-1851

published: Philadelphia, PA: William J. Cunningham, 6 Jan 1849-1851.

frequency: weekly

description: Page size, 10" h • Newspaper format

continued by: Catholic Instructor (for adults)

source of information: AAS catalog; OCLC; NUC

Youth's Monthly Friend (also Youth's Friend); July 1846-April 1858

edited by: Longley & Brother

published: Cincinnati, OH: Longley & Bro.

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: quarto

absorbed: Little Forester ; Jan 1854-1855

source of information: Lyon; NYPL

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 139-140, 146-147.

The Student and Young Tutor ; Nov 1846-Sept 1848

published: New York, NY: J. S. Denman.

frequency: monthly; 2 vol/ year

description: Page size, 9.75" h

absorbed by: The Student ; May 1846-April 1854

source of information: OCLC

The Mt. Vernon Enterprise ; 1847-?

edited by: first issue, Joseph Elder; Thomas Egleston; John Cass. after first issue, Joseph Elder; Thomas Egleston; J. B. Williams.

published: New York, NY: Joseph Elder, Thomas Egleston, & John Cass. After first issue: New York, NY: Joseph Elder, Thomas Egleston, & J. B. Williams.

frequency: monthly

description: 1¢/ copy. • Amateur publication; editors were students at the Mount Vernon School

source of information: Lyon; OCLC

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 140.

Uncle Peter's Juvenile Cabinet ; before May 1847 • The Youth's Cabinet ; May 1847-

published: Lewiston Falls, ME

frequency: monthly

description: Page size, 8.25" h
• May 1847 is vol 2 #1

source of information: AAS catalog

Young American's Magazine of Self-Improvement ; Jan-Dec 1847

cover/masthead: cover for 1847?

edited by: George W. Light

published: Boston, MA: C. H. Peirce.

frequency: bimonthly: Jan, March, May, July, Oct, Dec

description: Jan, 66 pp.; March-Oct, 60 pp.; Dec, 48 pp. • Page size, 7.50" h x 4.50" w • Price: 20¢/ issue; $1.20/ year

relevant information: Apparently intended for an audience of teenagers and older, especially young men. The six issues include poetry and general essays on speaking, moving through society, the importance of manual labor, abolition, the importance of education, and how to know oneself. Paragraphs in "Miscellaneous Notes" comment on major events and give advice; "The Book World" is a regular column reviewing poetry and nonfiction. While the pieces seem intended for a general audience, several works have subjects more in keeping with works for children than works for adults.

relevant quotes: Prospectus: "The leading purpose of this Magazine is, to awaken a more general interest in SELF-IMPROVEMENT--Physical, Moral, Intellectual, Industrial and Prudential; and to meet the wants of those who are more or less engaged in that noble work. But while it wil aim to embody in its pages ... a good share of the best self-educational spirit and talent of the age, no effort wil be wanting to make an entertaining and useful Miscellany of Prose and Poetry for the general reader."

• Light made specific demands of contributors: "The matter of the Magazine ... must be Practical; and in this view we wish to comprise criticisms and strictures upon the living manners, fashions, literature, prevalent opinions and general tone of the age. Some parts of the Spectator ... occur to us as coming near enough to a model of what we wish for in this department. ... As to Fictitious composition, we have no great respect for the common run of love-tales, we frankly confess. Nor do we intend to admit, or expect to receive any, which are not made subservient to some higher end than caricaturing human life and human nature under the everlasting mottoes of heroes and heroines, bright eyes and poison, love, murder and witchcraft. ... We shall be glad to receive well-written Biographical notices, and shall make it a point to prepare or provide them frequently. ... Occasional essays upon Composition, with an especial reference to the benefit of young writers; notices of all new works in which we believe that our readers are or should be interest; in a word, any matter which is brief, decorous, practical and spirited, will come within our professed plan." ["The Contributions Wanted." 1 (Jan 1847): 67-68]

• Light planned for another year: "Although the expenses of the work will be increased, we have concluded to reduce the price to One Dollar a volume, in the hope of a wide circulation; and we look to the friends of a sound popular literature for continued encouragement in the enterprize." [advertisement in bound volume]

continues: The Essayist (14 Nov 1829-Sept 1833): "The work is little more than the resurrection ... of another Periodical, of which we were the soul some thirteen years ago. We allude to "The Essayist," a work of humble pretensions, ... devoted to the moral and intellectual interests of Young Men, Associations for Mental Improvement, &c. We were not exactly killed off at that time." ["Some Editorial Words." 1 (Jan 1847): 65]

source of information: bound vol; AAS catalog; OCLC; Lyon; NUC

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 140-141.
Lorinda B. Cohoon. "Working-Class Boys and Self-Improved Citizenship: George Light's Editorials in the Young American's Magazine of Self-Improvement," in Serialized Citizenships: Periodicals, Books, and American Boys, 1840-1911. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2006; pp. 31-55.

Der Jugend-Freund aller Christlichen Benennungen (Youth companion); 16 June 1847-Dec? 1851 • Christen-Bote und Jugend-Freund ; Jan 1-Dec 1852 • Jugend-Freund und Christen-Bote ; 8 Jan 1853-Nov 1857? • Der Jugend-Freund ; Dec 1857-1917? • Der Jugend-Freund und Illustrierte JugendBlätter ; 1917?-? • magazine ended May 1919

edited by: 16 June 1847-1872?, S. K. Brobst • Arndt lists later editors

published: Allentown, PA; Philadelphia, PA. Published by S. K. Brobst, 16 June 1847-1872? • Arndt lists later publishers

frequency: 16 June 1847-?, biweekly; then, monthly

description: First German-language Sunday-school magazine • Circulation: 1870, 21,500

absorbed: Illustrierte Jugendblätter ; 1885-1917?

source of information: Arndt; Fraser

bibliography: Karl J. R. Arndt & May E. Olson. German-American Newspapers and Periodicals: 1732-1955. Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer Publishers, 1961.
• Sybille Fraser. "German Language Children's and Youth Periodicals in North America: A Checklist." Phaedrus 6 (Spring 1979): 27-31.

The Playmate ; Sept 1847-May 1848

edited: 1847, Joseph Cundall

published: Boston, MA: William Crosby & Henry P. Nichols, 1847-1848.

frequency: monthly

description: Price, 1848: $1/ year.
• Published simultaneously for a year with English magazine the Illustrated Juvenile Miscellany (also The Playmate)

merged with: Robert Merry's Museum ; Feb 1841-Nov 1872

relevant quotes: About the merger: "We ... have formed a project for presenting to the public the most amusing, pleasing, pictorial, instructive magazine that was ever thought of! This number will serve as a specimen. ... [W]e intend to keep up and preserve every thing that is good in the plan and spirit of Merry's Museum; we intend to get all the good hints we can from the original design of Parley's Magazine; and finally, we shall endeavor to combine in our work all the excellencies of the English periodical, entitled the Playmate. This latter has ceased, and the late publishers in Boston, Messrs. Crosby & Nichols, have engaged us to fulfill their promises to its numerous subscribers." ["Merry's Museum and Parley's Playmate United!" Robert Merry's Museum (July 1848): 3-4) From Crosby & Nichols: "We have published twelve numbers of a Child's Periodical, entitled THE PLAYMATE: A PLEASANT COMPANION FOR SPARE HOURS. This has now ceased in London, but will be continued here under the following arrangement: The publisher of Merry's Museum will add the title of Playmate to his magazine, and furnish this to the patrons of the Playmate. Accordingly, our subscribers will receive in future the numbers of MERRY'S MUSEUM AND PARLEY'S PLAYMATE; and as whatever was good in the English periodical was imitated from Parley, we cannot doubt that this arrangement will be gratifying to all concerned." [Robert Merry's Museum; Oct 1848, inside front cover] Dechert quotes a version of this announcement printed in Sept 1848. "[W]hatever was good in the English periodical was imitated from Parley" is an odd statement, given that, as Dechert explains, the London Playmate was established in reaction against Parley and didacticism. (See for example, comments on attacks on Parley.)

source of information: Robert Merry's Museum, Oct 1848 & 1848 bound vol; Dechert; AAS catalog; OCLC

bibliography: "Merry's Museum and Parley's Playmate United!" Robert Merry's Museum. 16 (July 1848): 3-4.
• Dorothy B. Dechert. "The Merry Family: A Study of Merry's Museum, 1841-1872, and of the Various Periodicals that Merged with It." MA thesis. Columbia University, 1942.

The Child's Gospel Prize ; 1848-

published: Boston, MA: J. M. Usher, for the Massachusetts Sabbath School Association.
• Also published in New York

frequency: weekly

description: Page size, 9.25" h • Vol 2 #45 is 12 May 1849

source of information: AAS catalog

Fithian's Miniature Magazine: A Student Manual and Fireside Miscellany Devoted to the Useful and Beautiful ; 1848-at least 1854

published: Philadelphia, PA: Charles Fithian.

source of information: Lyon

bibliography: Mabel F. Altstetter. "Early American Magazines for Children." Peabody Journal of Education 19 (Nov 1941); p. 132.
• Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 141-142.

The Boys' and Girls' Journal ; Jan 1848 • The Boys' and Girls' Weekly Penny Journal ; Feb-July 1848 • The Boys' and Girls' Penny Journal ; Aug 1848-1849 • Fithian's Magazine for Girls and Boys ; 1850-1853

edited by: Jan-Aug 1848, Aaron F. Cox
• Sept 1848-1853, Charles Fithian
• 1852-1853, Lydia Jane Pierson, assistant ed.

published: Philadelphia, PA: Aaron F. Cox, Jan-July 1848.
• Philadelphia, PA: Charles Fithian, Aug 1848-1853; publisher at 1 Lodge St., 1850; publisher at 3 Ranstead Place, 1853.

frequency: 1848-1849: weekly; 1 vol/ year. • 1850-1851: biweekly. • 1852-1853: monthly.

description: 1848-1849: 4 pp.; quarto. Price, 50¢/ year, paid in advance; 1¢/ issue when delivered by carriers.
• 1850-1851: 16 pp.; large octavo; price, 50¢/ year; 3¢/ issue.
• 1852-1853: 32 pp.; price, 50¢/ year.

source of information: Lyon; Maxwell; NUC

bibliography: Eleanor Weakley Nolen. "Nineteenth Century Children's Magazines." The Horn Book Magazine. 15 (January/February 1939): 55-60.
• Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 193-199.
• Checklist of Children's Books, 1837-1876, comp. Barbara Maxwell. Philadelphia, PA: Special Collections, Central Children's Department, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1975.

The Boys' and Girls' Magazine, and Fireside Companion ; Jan 1848-Dec 1850 • Forrester's Boys' and Girls' Magazine, and Fireside Companion ; Jan 1851-Dec 1857

cover/masthead: 1848-1850 | 1851-1855 | 1852 | 1856-1857

edited by: Jan 1848-Dec 1852, Dexter S. King ("Mark Forrester") • Jan 1853-Dec 1856, "Francis Forrester"; "Francis Forrester, Jr." • Jan-Dec 1857, "Father Forrester"

published: Boston, MA: Bradbury and Guild, Jan 1848-Dec 1849; publisher at 12 School St., Jan 1848-Dec? 1850. Boston, MA: William Guild, Jan 1851-Dec 1852; publisher at 120 Washington St., 1851.
• New York, NY: W. C. Locke & Co., Jan 1851-1852; publisher at 24 Beekman St., Jan 1852.
• Boston, MA: F. & G. C. Rand, Jan 1853-Dec 1856; publisher at 7 Cornhill. Boston, MA: Binney & Rand, Jan-Dec 1857; publisher at 36 Washington St.

frequency: monthly; 2 vol/ year

description: 32 pp.
• 1848, page size untrimmed, 8" h x 5.5" w; price: 1 copy, $1/ year in advance; 4 copies, $3/ year (75¢/ issue); 7 copies, $5/ year (71¢/ issue); 15 copies, $10/ year (67¢/ issue); 24 copies, $15/ year (62.5¢/ issue); 40 copies, $24/ year (60¢/ issue)
• July 1850-1857, page size untrimmed, 9" h x 6" w; price: 1 copy, $1.25/ year, $1/ year in advance; 4 copies, $3/ year; 7 copies, $5/ year; 10 copies, $7/ year; 15 copies, $10/ year
• Circulation (from magazine): Jan 1851, 10,000

relevant quotes: Introduction: "I am about issuing a new Monthly Magazine, intended expressly for boys and girls.... I am aware that this field of literature is already occupied by those who can, perhaps, write you more interesting stories than I can, with my plain ways and trembling hands. In fact, I feel that I can realize all the difficulties and perplexities of an editor's life; and yet I cannot but believe that the relation of some incidents of my life, chequered as it has been with sunshine and storms, will serve to cheer me in my old age, and teach you to shun the dangers that will beset you on every side, as long as you live." ["Introduction." 1 (Jan 1848): 1-2]

• About the change in editors, 1853: "Your old friend, and my much esteemed acquaintance, Mark Forrester, has seen fit to leave his editorial chair, and to bequeath me his old pens, his curious stories, and the care of your favorite magazine. So I, Francis Forrester, Esquire, editor, author, &c., &c., beg leave to make you a bow as graceful as that of a Frenchman, and to greet you with a heart as sincere as the love of a father." [11 (Jan 1853): 1]

• "Francis Forrester, jr" becomes assistant editor: "Francis Forrester, Esq. is not in a writing mood this month. The old gentleman has been sick. [So, when his young friend offers his services as an editor, "the old gentleman" accepts and christens him.] 'If you will help me edit my magazine, I will adopt you as my literary child, and allow you to call yourself Francis Forrester, Jr.[']" ["Francis Forrester Jr.'s Chit-chat with His Readers." 8 (July 1856): 31-2]

absorbed by: The Student and Schoolmate ; Nov 1855-1872

source of information: 1848-1857 scattered issues & bound volumes; APS II reels 606-607; Lyon; Kelly

available: APS II (1800-1850), reels 606-607

bibliography: Harriet L. Matthews. "Children's Magazines." Bulletin of Bibliography. 1 (April 1899): 133-6.
• Dorothy Dechert. "The Merry Family: A Study of Merry's Museum, 1841-1872, and of the Various Periodicals that Merged with It." MA thesis. Columbia University, 1942.
• Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 173-174, 200-202.
• John B. Crume. "Children's Magazines, 1826-1857." Journal of Popular Culture 7 (1973): 698-706.
• Children's Periodicals of the United States, ed. R. Gordon Kelly. Westport, CT & London, England: Greenwood Press, 1984.

The Young People's Mirror and American Family Visitor (also Young People's Mirror ; also Mirror); 1 Jan 1848-1 Dec 1849

edited by: Benson John Lossing

published: New York, NY: Edward Walker. • Boston, MA: H. W. Swett.

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: 12 pp.; page size, 11.5" h x 8.25" w; prices: 1 copy, 50¢/ year; 5 copies, $2/ year

• Erroneously referred to as The Youth's Mirror by at least one contemporary reviewer

relevant quotes: Introduction: "In consenting to employ some leisure hours in the Editorial management of the Young People's Mirror, we obey the pleasing impulse of a desire to become thus personally linked with the younger branches of our Republican family .... Parent, son, and daughter, for you the Mirror will give its reflections from the luminaries of nature, art, and mind--for you the Visitor will make its monthly calls, and dispense its treasures of advice and knowledge." ["Salutatory." 1 (Jan 1848): 10]

• Difficulties in publishing, & a new prospectus: "We are at the close of our first volume, several hundred dollars the loser, upon our circulation, but the hope of having the Mirror yet placed upon a remunerating basis, induces us to publish another volume. All must be aware upon a little reflection, that so low a price as fify cents per annum for an illustrated paper of the size and quality of our sheet, requires a subscription list of several thousand paying subscribers, to meet the current expenses of publication. If it shall reach that mark--if its income shall equal its disbursements--we shall be satisfied. Double our list of paying subscribers, and the Mirror will be placed upon a permanent basis. We shall give it a fair trial, ... and then, if it shall not be considered worth fifty cents a year to a sufficient number of persons to pay the expense of publication, we shall, in common fairness to ourselves, abandon the enterprise, and conclude that our judgment was at fault." ["Volume II.--Prospectus." 2 (1 Jan 1849): 1]

• The last issue: "This is the closing number of the second Volume of the Mirror. Like the first, its publication has been a loss to the publisher. He had hoped for a different result, and has delayed the determination to suspend the publication of the work, until the last moment, hoping there might be better indications for the next volume. Profit was not expected, and the publisher would cheerfully give his time, if his money outlay could be reimbursed. But he does not feel warranted in working for nothing and paying the expense. There are many who are desirous of having the publication of the Mirror continued, and have substantially aided in making the publisher's loss less than it might have been. ... And we now make a pledge ..., if between this and the 1st of January, a sufficient number of subscribers shall be received to insure the publisher against loss, the first number of the third volume will appear on the first of February. If not, then our young readers, with whom we have journied so pleasantly, and ourselves, must part company." ["The Closing Number." 2 (Dec 1849): 141]

source of information: 1848-1849 bound volume; Lyon; AAS catalog

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 141.

Juvenile Gazette ; 18 March 1848-?

edited by: W. Roscoe Deane, G. W. Chapman, & G. G. Crocker

published: Boston, MA; Deane, Chapman & Crocker

frequency: weekly

description: Page size, 8" h

source of information: AAS catalog; NUC

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 142.

The Scholar's Penny Gazette ; 29 April 1848-17 Aug 1850

edited by: April 1848-March 1849, Asa Fitz, with La Fayette Forrest
• March-May 1849, Asa Fitz, with S. L. Hobbs

published: Boston, MA: Asa Fitz & L. F. Forrest, 1848.

frequency: weekly

description: Page size, 13.25" h; price, 50¢/ year • Newspaper format

source of information: Lyon; AAS catalog; OCLC; NUC

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 142.

The Youth's Pictorial Magazine ; May 1848

cover/masthead: cover

published: Papermill Village, NH: A. K. Severance

frequency: monthly (only 1 issue)

description: 24 pp.; page size, 9.25" h x 6.25" w

• "Each volume will contain upwards of three hundred pages, and more than a hundred Engravings. Every fourth number, at least, will be embellished with a beautiful steel or copper plate engraving." [p. 1]

• Price: $1/year, "invariably in advance, or on the receipt of the first number." [p. 1]

• Apparently never published

source of information: May 1848 issue

The Asteroid ; 1 Aug 1848-after July 1849?

edited by: Aug-Oct 1848, Harry Lake; Frank Lawe
• Feb-July 1849, William H. Hutchinson

published: Salem, MA: William H. Hutchinson, 1848.

frequency: monthly

description: Page size, 13" h

source of information: AAS catalog

Young People's Journal of Science, Literature, & Art ; Nov 1848-?

edited by: Nathan Brittan, Frances H. Greene

published: New York, NY: S. B. Britten.

frequency: monthly

description: Page size, 9.75" h

source of information: AAS catalog; OCLC

The Friend of Youth ; 1849-Oct 1852

cover/masthead: 1850

edited by: Margaret L. Bailey

published: Washington, DC: printed by Buell & Blanchard

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: 1850: 8 pp.; page size untrimmed, 13.5" h x 9.25" w. Prices, 1 copy, 50¢/ year; 5 copies, $2/ year

relevant information: The Friend was essentially an anti-slavery paper, containing a handful of articles about the slave trade.

• The first issue of the Friend was reprinted: "We have exhausted one edition of our first number, and shall print a second as soon as possible. Meantime, the subscribers now coming in will receive the second and third numbers, and as soon as the new edition of the first number is ready, they shall have that also. We are anxious as far as possible to have all our subscribers date from the commencement of the paper." ["Our Paper." 1 (Jan 1850): 20]

• Circulation, May 1850, 4,000-5,000

merged with: The Little Pilgrim ; Oct 1853-Dec 1868: "We have received from Dr. Bailey a list of the names of those subscribers to whom The Friend of Youth was indebted when its publication was discontinued, with pay for the same; and we shall furnish The Little Pilgrim to all of them to the full extent of their respective payments. To some only a part of a volume was due; the names of such will be stricken off our list as soon as they shall have received the number of copies due them from Mrs. Bailey, unless their subscriptions are renewed." ["The Friend of Youth." Pilgrim. 1 (March 1854): 21]

source of information: 1850 scattered issues; Pilgrim; Lyon; AAS catalog; OCLC

bibliography: "L." [Leander Lippincott] "The Friend of Youth." The Little Pilgrim, 1 (March 1854): 21.
• Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 220.

The Bubble ; 1849?

published: New York, NY

source of information: Kelly

bibliography: Children's Periodicals of the United States, ed. R. Gordon Kelly. Westport, CT & London, England: Greenwood Press, 1984.

The Scholars' Leaf of the Tree of Knowledge ; 6 Jan 1849-16 Dec 1850

edited by: M. B. Walker; Joseph Osgood Barrett

published: Portland: Walker & Barrett

frequency: Jan 1849: weekly • Feb 1849-16 Dec 1850: semimonthly

description: Page size, 10" h

source of information: NUC; Harvard University, Widener Library catalog; Yale University Library catalog

The Schoolfellow ; Jan 1849-Dec 1852, Feb 1853-Sept 1857

cover/masthead: 1856

edited by: Jan 1849-1852, William C. Richards
• 1853-1855, William C. Richards and Alice B. Haven
• Daniel Jacques.

published: Athens, GA & Charleston, SC: William C. Richards, 1849.
• Charleston, SC: Richards and Walker, 1850-1852.
• New York, NY: C. M. Saxton, Feb-April 1853. Charleston, SC: B. F. De Bow, 1853. Chillicothe, OH: Whittemore & Saxton, Feb-April 1853.
• New York, NY: Evans & Brittain, May 1853-1854?. Cincinnati, OH: Ward & Taylor, May 1853-1854?
• New York, NY: Evans & Dickerson, 1854.
• New York, NY: James S. Dickerson, 1855.
• New York, NY: Dix & Edwards, Jan-May 1856; publisher at 10 Park Place, Jan 1856; at 321 Broadway, Feb-May 1856.
• New York, NY: Dix, Edwards & Co., June 1856-Jan 1857; publisher at 321 Broadway.
• New York, NY: Miller & Curtis, Aug 1857.
• London, England: Sampson, Low, Son & Co., Jan 1856-Jan 1857.

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: 1854, 36 pp.; Jan 1856, 42 pp.; Feb 1856-Aug 1857, 36 pp.

• Prices: 1856-1857, 10¢/ each; $1/ year

• Page sizes: 1854, 7.25" h x 5" w; 1856-1857, 7.75" h x 5" w

• Circulation: 1852, 2000 (from Kennedy); Nov 1853, 4000 (from magazine)

• No issue for Jan 1853

• Dechert notes that, after the Schoolfellow merged with [Robert Merry's Museum] in Oct 1857, "the numbers of Merry's Museum from October to December 1857 were enclosed in a Schoolfellow cover as well as in the Museum cover, to enable the volume for that year to be bound uniformly." [p. 133] My copy of the Nov 1857 issue has the front cover of Schoolfellow glued over the cover of the Museum at the spine; readers opening their "Schoolfellow" were presented with the cover of Merry's Museum, reinforcing the merger. The Schoolfellow cover for that issue also features its new publisher's address. Oct-Dec 1857 issues of the Museum often are found bound with the Jan-Sept 1857 issues of the Schoolfellow; the Sept 1857 issue of the Schoolfellow ends with page 324; the Oct 1857 issue of the Museum begins with page 97.

relevant quotes: About the move to New York, 1853: "So far as the character of the magazine is concerned, the removal will make no change in it. ... It will never so long as we control it, be a whit less Southern than it has always been. Necessity, not inclination, has induced us to change the scene of our labours; the spirit of them will remain the same." [(Dec 1852): 380; in Lyon, p. 205]

• About the merger with the Museum: "With this number of the Schoolfellow, children and friends, with whom we have so long been pleasantly talking, the Magazine passes into other hands. ... As the little schoolfellow grows older, and becomes large enough to look with delight at all the wonders in Merry's Museum, and study with interest the gems of Woodworth's Cabinet, you will find that he grows also more entertaining. ... He is still your old friend in a new dress: and with his face more smiling than ever. You must not cease to smile back again, and take him always kindly by the hand, you will cheer him, and he you: and as long as there are children and Schoolfellows, and Museums, and Cabinets, so long we shall think of you together, telling stories, looking at pictures, and good lessons, and all growing wiser and better as all grow older--And so good bye." ["Union of the Schoolfellow with the Museum and Cabinet." Robert Merry's Museum 34 (Nov 1857): inside Schoolfellow cover]

• John N. Stearns welcomed readers of the Schoolfellow to their new magazine: "To the Schoolfellows, thus kindly commended to our regards, we give a most cordial welcome. We hope the arrangement--the very best that could be made under the circumstances--will be satisfactory to all, and that the Schoolfellows will find themselves perfectly at home and happy with their cousins of the Museum and Cabinet. ... We trust that this addition to it will be another confirmation of the adage, so often proved in our past experience,--'the more the merrier.'" ["Union of the Schoolfellow with the Museum and Cabinet." Robert Merry's Museum 34 (Nov 1857): inside Schoolfellow cover]

absorbed by: Robert Merry's Museum ; Feb 1841-Nov 1872

source of information: 1856 issues; Jan 1857 issue; Aug 1857 issue; 1854, 1856, 1857 bound volumes; Nov 1857 Museum; Dechert; Lyon

bibliography: J. C. G. Kennedy. Catalogue of the Newspapers and Periodicals Published in the United States. New York, NY: John Livingston, 1852.
• Dorothy B. Dechert. "The Merry Family: A Study of Merry's Museum, 1841-1872, and of the Various Periodicals that Merged with It." MA thesis. Columbia University, 1942.
• Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 203-208.

Sunday School Gazette ; 4 Aug 1849-15 Dec 1871 • The Dayspring ; Jan 1872-after Dec 1879

cover/masthead: 1858-1860

edited by: 1846-1861, W. H. Cudworth
• 1861-1866, Joseph H. Allen 1866-1867, T. J. Mumford
• 1867-1868, James P. Walker
• 1878-1879, George F. Piper

published: Worcester, MA: A. Hutchinson & Co., 1849-1855.
• Boston, MA: A. Hutchinson & Co., 1856-
• Boston, MA: Sunday-School Society, 1858-1863; publisher at 21 Bromfield St. Worcester, MA: Sunday-School Society, 1858-1860; printed by Henry J. Howland, 245 Main St.
• Boston, MA: Joseph H. Allen, 1864-1866.
• Boston, MA: William V. Spencer, 1866.
• Boston, MA: Sunday School Society, 1867-1870.
• Boston, MA: Unitarian Sunday School Society, 1870-1879. Publisher at 42 Chauncy St., 1872; at 7 Tremont St., 1875-1879. Printer, 1872-1879, John Wilson & Son, Cambridge, MA

frequency: biweekly, 4 Aug 1849-1 Jan 1862; 1 vol/ year
• semimonthly, 15 Jan 1862-15 Dec 1863, 15 Feb 1866-15 Dec 1871; 1 vol/ year
• monthly, Jan 1864-Feb 1866, 1872-1879; 1 vol/ year

description: • 1858-1860: 4 pp.; page size, 15" h x 10" w; price, 25¢/ copy
• 1872-1879, 16 pp.; page size untrimmed, 8" h x 6" w. Prices: 1 copy, 30¢/ year; 4 copies, $1/ year
• Vol 1-vol 22 (4 Aug 1849-15 Dec 1871); new series, vol 1-8 (Jan 1872-Dec 1879)

source of information: 1858-1860, 1872-1879, scattered issues; AAS catalog

The Gleaner ; 11 Aug 1849-

published: Newport, RI: George C. Mason & Co.

frequency: weekly

description: Page size, 13.75" h • Newspaper format

source of information: AAS catalog; OCLC

The Daystar ; 3 Nov 1849-

published: Lowell, MA: printed by A. B. Wright.

frequency: monthly

description: Page size, 13" h
• Published for the First Baptist Sabbath School

source of information: AAS catalog

The Sunday-Scholar's Mirror ; 1850?-1854

cover/masthead: Vol 1

edited by: Daniel P. Kidder

published: New York, NY: Lane & Tippett, 1850?; printed by Joseph Longking
• New York, NY: Lane & Scott, for the Sunday-School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1852.
• Carlton & Phillips, 1854.

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: Vol 1: 24 pp.; page size untrimmed, 6" h x 4" w; issue 7 is undated
• Vol 2 is 1851

source of information: vol 1 #7 issue; AAS catalog; OCLC

Youth's Dayspring ; Jan 1850-Dec 1855 • Journal of Missions and Youth's Dayspring; 1856

cover/masthead: Jan-Feb 1850 | March 1850-1853 | 1854

edited by: H. G. O. Dwight, 1850-? • Mr. Stoddard, 1850-1851
• Nathan Dole, 1851-June 1855

published: Boston, MA: American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1850-1855; publisher at 33 Pemberton Square, 1850-1854.

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: 16 pp.; page size, 6.25" h x 4" w. Prices: 10 copies, $1/ year; 20 copies, $2/ year; 40 copies, $4/ year

• The cover image for March 1850-1853 also appears on a copy of the Feb 1850 issue; this copy is blank on the interior cover pages (cover pages two and three).

relevant quote: Introduction: "You are all fond of reading stories; and we are going to take a great deal of pains to tell you stories that will please and instruct you, and do you good; and especially lead you to try to do good to others. ... [The stories] are all true. We shall not manufacture any stories for you, out of our own imagination, neither shall we copy any from other papers, or books, that do not come well attested for truth. ... Each number will have one or more wood engravings, to enable you to understand better the condition of the people who are described in these pages; and thus ... we shall endeavor to carry you around through the world, ... and show you the missionaries laboring in the different countries, and the kinds of people for which they labor, and the appearance, manners, and customs of the countries in which they are living. And what is all this for? It is to make you more interested in the missionary work.... If each one of the children of America were to give only a single cent a year to the missionary cause, a sufficient sum would be raised to send out a great many missionaries to the heathen. Our object will be to try to induce every child and youth not only to do his own duty, but to labor in all proper ways to lead all his companions to do the same." [1 (Jan 1850): 1-3]

continues: Journal of Missions; 1849 (for adults)

source of information: Jan 1850-Nov 1853, scattered issues & bound volumes; Kelly; AAS; OCLC

bibliography: Children's Periodicals of the United States, ed. R. Gordon Kelly. Westport, CT & London, England: Greenwood Press, 1984.

The Youth's Friend ; Feb 1850-?

published: Augusta, GA: Miss W. C. Tyson.

frequency: monthly

description: Page size, 12" h

source of information: NUC; OCLC

The Juvenile Weekly Gazette ; 9 Feb 1850-13 Dec 1851

published: New York, NY: Coddington.

frequency: weekly; 1 vol/ year

description: Page size, 11.75" h

source of information: Lyon; NUC

bibliography: Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 143.

The Mentor ; July 1850-Dec 1851?

edited by: Horatio Hastings Weld

published: Philadelphia, PA: Staveley & McCalla, 1850.

frequency: monthly; 2 vol/ year

description: 32 pp.; octavo. Price: 10¢/ issue; $1/ year.
• 1850: agents in Baltimore, MD; Charleston, SC; Pittsburgh, PA; Wilmington, DE; Frederick, MD. Later, agents in New York, NY; Brooklyn, NY.

absorbed by: Woodworth's Youth's Cabinet ; 28 April 1837-March 1857

source of information: Dechert; OCLC

bibliography: New York Weekly Tribune. 11 (13 Dec 1851): 8.
• Dorothy Dechert. "The Merry Family: A Study of Merry's Museum, 1841-1872, and of the Various Periodicals that Merged with It." MA thesis. Columbia University, 1942.
• Betty Longenecker Lyon. "A History of Children's Secular Magazines Published in the United States from 1789-1899." PhD diss. Johns Hopkins, 1942; pp. 143.

Youth's Monthly Magazine ; July 1850-June 1851?

cover/masthead: 1850

edited by: John G. Adams

published: Boston, MA; James M. Usher, Sabbath School Depository; publisher at 37 Cornhill, 1850.

frequency: monthly

description: 48 pp.; page size untrimmed, 7.25" h x 4.75" w. Price: $1/ year; 5 copies, 75¢/ year; 10 copies, 60¢/ year; 20 copies, 50¢/ year

relevant quote: Prospectus: "It is the design of the conductor and publisher of the Periodical to furnish as large and as good an amount of reading, suited to the moral and religious instruction of youth, as can be found in any other Juvenile Publication now offered to the public; and to present it also in an attractive form. The character of the Magazine, though intended to answer in some respects the wants of a particular denomination, will be such as may entitle it to the favorable attention of all lovers of Christian Truth. This Prospectus is made to accompany a Specimen Number of the Magazine. It is desirable that the opinions of the friends of youth be expressed to the publisher as to the form in which the work is issued[.]" ["Prospectus." 1 (July 1850): back cover; cover p. 4]

source of information: July 1850 issue; AAS catalog; OCLC

Fireside Miscellany and Young People's Encyclopedia ; Sept 1850-July 1851

cover/masthead: cover

edited by: Darius Mead; Hannah Flagg Gould

published: New York, NY: S. G. Mead, 1850-1851; publisher at 122 Nassau St., Nov-Dec 1850; publisher at 123 Fulton St., June 1851; publisher at 151 Nassau St., Feb 1854

frequency: monthly; 1 vol/ year

description: 32 pp.; page size untrimmed, 9.5" h x 6" w; price, $1/ year in advance

• Reprinted in 1854 with same cover & description as 1850 & 1851

relevant quotes: Description: "The Fireside Miscellany is designed to be, as its name imports, a Family and Fireside Companion. It has originated in a strong persuasion of the value of enlightened and virtuous HOME influence, and in a desire to put into the hands of the various members of the family group a description of reading which shall be at once entertaining, instructive, and elevating. We hope, through this medium, to diffuse a large amount of useful knowledge to both parents and children, in connexion with the inculcation of virtuous principles; and we shall aim to make the work so far attractive in dress, manner, and matter, that it shall be a welcome guest and an agreeable and instructive visiter to those who honor it with their patronage." [1 (Dec 1850): back cover]

• Reprinted in 1854, with the same description as in 1850: "The Fireside Miscellany will be issued monthly, the first volume commencing with January, 1854. The work will contain 32 pages of original matter and choice selections, making at the end of the year a volume of 384 pages." [1 (Feb 1854): back cover]

source of information: Nov-Dec 1850, June 1851, Feb 1854 issues; AAS; OCLC

Christian Sunday School Journal ; 1851-

published: Cincinnati, OH: J. Grant

frequency: monthly

source of information: AAS catalog

The Standard-Bearer ; 1851-after 1867

cover/masthead: 1858 | 1867

published: New York, NY: Protestant Episcopal Society for the Promotion of Evangelical Knowledge, 1851-after 1867; publisher at 11 Bible House, Astor Place.
• 1853, printed by J. A. Gray, 97 Cliff St.
•