Notices & Reviews of Robert Merry’s Museum (1841-1872)

About periodicals for children

Rural Repository, 18 (September 25, 1841): 63.

Merry’s Museum.—We have looked over this interesting little Magazine with considerable care, and recommend it as decidedly the best publication for children that we have seen this many a day. It is a work well calculated for children, combining as it does amusement with instruction, we are convinced that all young readers will be delighted with the story called, “My own Life and Adventures.” The Editor of this work is well known to the younger class of readers, and it needs no higher commendation than to know, that it is conducted by their old friend, Peter Parley. One number of this work will appear on the first day of each month, containing 32 pages, at $1,50 per annum, in advance.


Notice. Sabbath School Messenger, 5 (4 February 1842): 67. Ed. Edward Otheman

Who does not like to see Robert Merry’s face as he makes his cheerful visit month by month? He is always lively and friendly, and always has interesting and instructive stories to tell. Then he shows beautiful pictures, and sometimes sings sweetly. If any of our young readers never have seen his Museum, we say to you, only get your parents to send your name and a dollar to Bradbury & Soden, 10 School St., Boston, and it will come along every month, and you can have it all to yourselves. A new volume has just begun.


Review. The New-York Mirror, 20 (26 March 1842): 103. Ed. Daniel Fanshaw.

Robert Merry’s Museum. Bradbury, Soden & Co. Boston and New-York.

A little favorite, desirous of a peep into the Museum, is so deeply engaged in looking through its varied treasures that we feel unwilling to interrupt him in his agreeable employment. We judge of the interest of the present number by the delight pictured in his countenance, and the free, joyous and soulful tones in which he exclaims, "I thought so! I thought so! He talks very much like good old Peter Parley!" The remarks of our little reader are the true recommendation of the Museum.


Brother Jonathan, 1 (16 April 1842): 437.

Mr. Goodrich is unquestionably one of the best caterers for the infant mind who ever wrote; and it is no contemptible task either, to sit down to please juvenile critics. If any one think the vocation is an easy one, we recommend him to attempt it. It requires a pure mind, ready invention, and good common sense, qualification which every youth’s gazette cannot give proof of in its conductors.


Ladies’ Pearl, 2 (May 1842): 462. Ed. Daniel Wise.

Merry’s Museum. This charming monthly for the little boys and girls who love pleasant reading, is well worthy the large patronage it enjoys. No parent should fail of making it the companion of his children; it will make them intelligent, happy and good. $1—to be had at this office.


Notice. Scientific American, 2 (27 March 1847): 213.

Parley’s Magazine and Merry’s Museum. No. 4 of Vol. 13 of this combination of literary, historical, musical and comical talent, is received; and when our readers are informed that the number before us contains at least 15 illustrations, consisting of such engravings as were never seen before, besides music, and that the price of the work is only one dollar per volume of 12 monthly numbers, it is presumable that they will all subscribe for the work without further recommendation. Published by G. W. & S. O. Post, No. 5 Beekman St.


Notice. Scientific American, 2 (29 May 1847): 287.

Robert Merry’s Museum. For June, is as merry and interesting as the preceding volumes and numbers. “Jean Pie de la Mirandole,” is the first thing that meets our eye: but turning a few pages to the left and right, we find a variety of embellished lively articles on various subjects, from the Towers of Ireland to Maximilian Christopher Miller, the giant, with a forest of tall plumes on his head. Well, we shall not tell our readers much about it, but they can call at Posts’ No. 5 Beekman st., and secure the whole volume for $1.


Henry C. Wright. “Letter From Henry C. Wright: ‘Merry’s Museum’ the Handmaid of Slavery.” The Liberator, 27 (March 20, 1857): 48, col 3-4.

An abolitionist takes on the letters column of the Museum; on a separate page, with commentary


Notice. American Literary Gazette, 9 (1 October 1867): 298.

Mr. Fuller has purchased ‘Merry’s Museum,’ the oldest juvenile magazine in the country, and will issue it in a superior style.


Notice. American Literary Gazette, 10 (15 January 1868): 177.

A new series of ‘Merry’s Museum,’ an illustrated magazine for children, begins with the new year. It is full of pleasant pictures and good stories, and is published by H.B. Fuller, Boston.


Death notice for Horace B. Fuller. The Publishers’ Weekly (21 January 1899): 56.

Horace B. Fuller, well known in the sixties as a member of the Boston publishing house of Walker, Fuller & Co., and later as the publisher of the magazine for young people, entitled Merry’s Museum, and numerous excellent juvenile books, was found dead in his boarding-place, 29 Pinckney Street, Boston, January 12. A strong odor of gas in the room indicated suicide. For the last fifteen or twenty years he had had a precarious existence, earning a scant living by peddling books. He was 65 years old.

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