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  • Early Victorian Periodicals Research
  • Rosemary T. Vanarsdel (bio)

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Sarah Pavey 2017

[End Page 418]

When studying Victorian literature, the question immediately arises, "Why study periodicals?" which leads to a more generalized discussion of nineteenth-century print culture. Relatively few periodicals were published prior to the Victorian age, but, as the Waterloo Directory illustrates, there was an explosion of periodical literature from about 1825 onward. Three factors determined this explosion: the rise of literacy, new printing technologies, and improved methods of transportation which allowed periodicals to reach the outposts of the country and the empire.

As education improved and the literate public expanded, so did the number of periodicals; their contents now appealed to the middle and even lower classes, to housewives, tradespeople, shopkeepers, and housemaids seeking to improve their station. The price of copies plummeted. Improved methods of printing, transportation, and illustration promoted the broad circulation of print.

Unfortunately, for much of the twentieth century scholars largely ignored this tremendous archive of history, and this window into a vanishing culture was lost. In the late 1940s, however, many servicemen-scholars returning from duty in World War II resumed their education and in seeking topics for their scholarly dissertations turned to periodical literature. The fact that much periodical writing was published anonymously, however, made research difficult.

In 1958, a small announcement from Professor Walter E. Houghton of Wellesley College appeared in the Times Literary Supplement. It announced his new project, The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824–1900, which aimed to uncover the authorship of anonymous articles in a selection of Victorian periodicals. It was an appeal for help aimed at scholars around the world who might have special information on the authorship of anonymous articles that they would be willing to share with the scholarly community. [End Page 419]

The notice caught my eye because I had recently begun work on my doctoral dissertation at Columbia University on the Westminster Review; in fact, I had just finished reading my way through all 181 bound volumes of the journal (1824–1914). As a kind of reflex, I had noted information that might be used to establish authorship, thinking it might someday be useful. I wrote immediately to Professor Houghton, offering to send him my findings for what they might be worth. He was delighted with this first bit of scholarly cooperation, and thus began a collegial friendship that lasted until his death twenty-five years later in 1983.

For several years thereafter, I visited Prof. and Mrs. Houghton, where I was welcomed both in their home and at the Wellesley Faculty Club. There I learned to share their conviction that periodical literature was a vital part of Victorian culture. On one of these visits, Houghton invited me to join his team as an assistant editor of the Index, where the duties were flexible, consisting mostly of advice and helping with research from a variety of sources whenever possible. For instance, one summer I spent a week at the Huntington Library in Pasadena scanning manuscript sources for authorship clues. Later, as my research centered more on the years of William Edward Hickson's editorship of the Westminster (1840–51), I was able to offer new information about Hickson and his contributors during that decade, as well as the mechanics of the change in editorship from Hickson to John Chapman in 1851. All of this led to an invitation to write the second section of the introductory information for the Westminster Review which appeared in volume 3 of the Wellesley Index in 1979. (Publication of the Westminster material, originally announced for volume one, was repeatedly delayed because of the difficulty of piecing together its history.) It was an amazing opportunity for a younger (and largely untried) scholar to participate in a major research project of immense and lasting importance. It also served as a validation of my research on the Westminster Review, which led to new opportunities in future years.

Houghton, through his work on the Wellesley Index, became the center of a worldwide consortium of top Victorian scholars, and it was through these contacts that I was able to continue and re-double my research...

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