The Periodical as Cultural Object

Consulting periodical literature comes naturally to the experienced researcher, but how often do we really stop to consider what we are doing or how effective our search strategy may be? James Mussell presents a scientific approach to the search and proposes a new methodology for understanding the periodical press in terms of its movement in time and space. His thesis is “that it is the combination of immutability across space, enabling periodical numbers to be distributed to readers, combined with mutability across time, enacted by the serial appearance of successive numbers, that defines the periodical as genre.” He discusses the periodical as cultural object and looks at the way this object moves through culture and what happens to it on its way.

Admittedly, dealing with the whole of nineteenth-century periodical literature is a challenge. Even merely looking at the vast amount of it is daunting. It has been estimated that the number of individual periodical titles published during that period is something like 125,000, an overwhelming amount of printed matter. If one is to consider the changes in title over the run of some periodicals as well as the number of people involved (editors, publishers, printers, advertisers, contributors and illustrators), the diversity is immense.

The attempts to index and record all of this is a study in itself, beginning with Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature, continuing with the Wellesley Index and current electronic forms such as Nineteenth-Century Masterfile and Proquest. Electronic indexes have proved both a boon and a curse since much of the information located may turn out to be irrelevant without a consideration of the methods of access—including key words and subject index terms.

One of the benefits of online resources is that they may actually restore a connection to material that has been fragmented in hard copy. A complete run of a periodical may not even exist in a single library or repository, but the best online resources can make it possible for the researcher to reassemble the parts and make use of them at a single workstation.

Mussell divides his study into the two obvious parts, one focusing on space and the other on time. A lengthy introduction ably elaborates his theory and background. In chapter one he considers publications about astronomy and the way they represent space (no pun intended) to their readers. He discusses four titles in particular: English Mechanic, the Observatory, the Journal of the British Astronomical Association and Knowledge. He continues this theme in the second chapter, which deals with the pleasurable spaces presented in the Strand Magazine. Chapter three is transitional in nature and covers the weekly press, in particular the Illustrated London News.

The fourth and fifth chapters consider time. Chemistry (represented by the Journal of the Chemical Society and Chemist and Druggist) is used to demonstrate the temporality of new discoveries and the way the public learns to recognize objects. The fifth chapter compares what is revealed in the articles in the periodicals (Athenaeum, Nature and Chemical News) with the scheduled meetings of the scientific societies called to discuss the revelations. His conclusion argues the importance of understanding the manner in which electronic forms of texts are related to their paper predecessors.

Throughout, Mussell is careful to record the way in which periodicals make use of illustrations, especially photographs to enhance the appearance of the publications as well as to convey information. No periodical is remembered as much for its illustrations as for its text as the famous Strand Magazine.

Mussell begins his discussion of the Strand with a general account of its genesis in July 1891 and the contributions of the Strand in representing the middle-class world of the reader. It was undoubtedly one of the most successful of the sixpenny magazines launched in that decade and the first issue sold 300,000 copies. George Newnes, its publisher, was able to make use of the new print technologies to present a highly visual world in its pages. [End...