Victorian Periodicals Review

Front matter from The Bookseller, January 1858, accompanied by text that says: Rachel Calder, The Bookseller, the First Modern Trade Journal, Victorian Periodicals Review, volume 58, number 1, Spring 2025.

Rachel Calder examines how The Bookseller #tradejournal laid the foundation for the communication and information system that remains at the heart of today’s global #publishing industry. Read about founder Joseph Whitaker’s innovative strategies in VPR 58.1: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

Front page of The Gartnavel Gazette; or Monthly Journal of the Glasgow Royal Lunatic Asylum, Wednesday, July 6, 1853, image courtesy of Wellcome Collection, https://wellcomecollection.org/works/jvk8aued/items?canvas=7. Accompanied by text that says: Mila Daskalova, Passing the Hours: Measuring, Recording and Experiencing Time Through Periodical Publishing in Victorian Asylums, Victorian Periodicals Review, volume 58, number 1, Spring 2025.

Drawing on a transatlantic archive, @miladaskalova.bsky.social explores the experience of time in asylum #periodicals. Learn how these publications served as instruments of both recalibration and resistance in the latest issue of VPR: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

Illustration titled “Andhamunir Putraśok” from Sandeś 2, no. 1 (Baiśāk 1321/April–May 1914), courtesy of Jadavpur University Central Library, Kolkata. Image accompanied by text that says: Nilkantha Pal, Imagining Childhood in Colonial Bengal: Children’s Periodicals, Readership, and Vernacular Publishing, ca. 1880–1920, Victorian Periodicals Review, volume 58, number 1, Spring 2025.

Nilkantha Pal investigates the emergence of children’s #periodicals in Bengali literary culture. Learn how these vernacular periodicals helped shape a literary selfhood among Bengali middle classes from the 1870s onward: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org #ExpandingTheField

The Linda H. Peterson Fellowship – RSVP The Linda H. Peterson Fellowship was named after the widely influential Yale professor and longtime RSVP Board member and Vice President, Linda Peterson. The purpose of the Peterson Fellowship is to…

Peterson Fellowships open today! Named for Yale professor and our dear friend, Linda H. Peterson, the Peterson Fellowship is designed to support one scholar for four full-time months conducting research focused on the British periodical press of long #19thC. Applications due Nov. 15!

Illustration for “The War of the Worlds” showing a man at a telescope, Pearson’s Magazine 3 (April 1897): 365. Accompanied by text that says: Adele Guyton, “A Certain Amount of Scientific Education”: Science, Sensation, and the Everyman Narrator in the Serialised War of the Worlds (1897), Victorian Periodicals Review, volume 58, number 1, Spring 2025.

In VPR 58.1 @adeleguyton.bsky.social compares Pearson’s 1897 serialization of "The War of the Worlds" to #hgwells ’s later revisions for book publication. Discover how the serial narrator underscores the value of layperson experiences to scientific knowledge: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

Cover of Victorian Periodicals Review, volume 58, number 1, spring 2025; burgundy background with illustration of alien aircraft from H. G. Wells's _The War of the Worlds_.

NEW ISSUE ALERT! It's a happy day when you find the latest VPR in your mailbox. This number includes the 2024 VanArsdel and Expanding the Field essays as well as articles on asylum periodicals and the bookselling trade. Treat yourself to some delightful reading: muse.jhu.edu/issue/55567 @rs4vp.org

Background of gold stars with banner that says: Congratulations! 2025 VanArsdel Prize winner Yevhen Yashchuk, Wadham College, Oxford.

Congrats to yevhenyashchuk.bsky.social for his #VanArsdelPrize winning essay “‘A Special Correspondent of the Times Sends a Telegram from Odessa’: Kyiv Newspapers, Victorian Media, and the Translation of the International Crisis in 1875–78.” Learn about VPR’s prizes at rs4vp.org/awards. @rs4vp.org

Every issue of Victorian Periodicals Review includes reviews of new academic titles related to #periodicals studies. If you're a scholar interested in reviewing for VPR, just visit rs4vp.org/vpr to volunteer and indicate your areas of expertise. @rs4vp.org #RSVP2025

Illustration titled “Scenes in the Courtyard of the Tuileries,” from Illustrated London News, March 4, 1848, 139. Image shows drawing of a revolutionary mob carrying weapons, flag, drum, and wine bottles. Accompanied by text that says: Camille Stallings, “Seriality and Characterisation in the Press: Death Club Sensationalism, the 1848 Revolutions, and Reviews of Mary Barton,” Victorian Periodicals Review, Volume 57, Number 4, Winter 2024.

Drawing on #PeriodicalStudies, #narratology, and #MediaTheory, Camille Stallings reveals the structures of anti-working-class bias in a range of journalistic genres. See how narrative techniques shape public opinion about the working classes in VPR 57.4: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

Image of Charles Dickens seated at a table with books, ca. 1860.{{PD-US}} Accompanied by text that says: Anne-Marie Millim, “Crossing Currents: The Mother Tongue, Monolingualism, and Multilingualism in Household Words and All the Year Round,” Victorian Periodicals Review, Volume 57, Number 4, Winter 2024.

Anne-Marie Millim considers how #Dickens ’s journals championed the view that only a native speaker can master a language. Learn how contributors to #HouseholdWords and #AllTheYearRound worked to implement a prestige language in VPR 57.4: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

Image of Temperance card from the tarot deck of Jean Dodal, a classic Tarot of Marseilles deck, ca. 1701-15.{{PD-US}} Accompanied by text that says: Annemarie McAllister, “Commercialised Temperance: The Phenomenon of the Temperance Companion and How It Stayed Afloat,” Victorian Periodicals Review, Volume 57, Number 4, Winter 2024.

Annemarie McAllister examines the surprising success of the #Temperance Companion (1894–1901) in navigating the currents of the commercial market. Read about this weekly broadsheet’s adventurous female editor and its relationship to #NewJournalism in VPR57.4: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

Image of an advertisement for The Adventures of Dora Bell, Detective, by Mrs. George Corbett, Author of “Secrets of a Private Enquiry Office,” &c. from the Fife Free Press and Kirkaldy Guardian, December 30, 1893. At center of ad is a head-and-shoulders sketch of Burgoyne Corbett. Accompanying text says: Sara Lodge, “Cash for Questions: Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett’s Female Detectives, Journalism, and the Case of the Missing Income,” Victorian Periodicals Review, Volume 57, Number 4, Winter 2024.

Sara Lodge @victoriandetective.bsky.social analyzes how Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett's detective stories, published as a series in local papers, interrogate capitalism from a feminist and socialist viewpoint. Read more in VPR 57.4: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

Full page from The Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, three-column layout with a black-and-white drawing of a plant in the center. Accompanying text says: Ali Hatapçı, “General News in Early and Mid-Victorian Class Periodicals: The Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1841–70,” Victorian Periodicals Review, Volume 57, Number 4, Winter 2024.

In VPR 57.4, Ali Hatapçı @alihatapci.bsky.social examines how the Gardeners’ Chronicle, The Builder, and The Field presented general news content to their specialist readers. Learn more about the surprising role of news in transforming class #periodicals: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

Cover of VPR 57.4, Special Issue: Currents and Currencies. Image credit: “The Revolution in France,” London Illustrated News, February 26, 1848, 118. Table of contents: Introduction Currents and Currencies in the Victorian Periodical Press VICTORIA CLARKE AND ANNEMARIE MCALLISTER Articles General News in Early and Mid-Victorian Class Periodicals: The Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1841–70 ALI HATAPÇI Cash for Questions: Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett’s Female Detectives, Journalism, and the Case of the Missing Income SARA LODGE Commercialised Temperance: The Phenomenon of the Temperance Companion and How It Stayed Afloat ANNEMARIE MCALLISTER Crossing Currents: The Mother Tongue, Monolingualism, and Multilingualism in Household Words and All the Year Round ANNE-MARIE MILLIM Seriality and Characterisation in the Press: Death Club Sensationalism, the 1848 Revolutions, and Reviews of Mary Barton CAMILLE STALLINGS Book Reviews Biographies Endnotes

VPR's special issue "Currents and Currencies in the #Victorian #PeriodicalPress" is out now! Huge thanks to guest editors Victoria Clarke (@vjctorianist.bsky.social) and Annemarie McAllister. Check out their intro essay: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

The Rosemary VanArsdel Prize – RSVP The VanArsdel Prize is awarded annually to the best graduate student essay investigating Victorian periodicals and newspapers. The prize was established in 1990 to honor Rosemary VanArsdel, a…

Just one week left to submit to the VanArsdel Prize! Give us your best essay and you might win 🤑 and publication in an upcoming issue of @vpreditors.bsky.social! Submissions guidelines here: rs4vp.org/awards/vanar...
#VanArsdelPrize #RSVPprizes #VictorianStudies

Victorian Periodicals Review Expanding the Field Prize – RSVP The RSVP Expanding the Field Prize is awarded annually for an outstanding essay that diversifies the existing geographic, racial, and ethnic composition of nineteenth-century periodical studies.…

⏰ Countdown's on! Just 1 week left to submit to VPR's Expanding the Field Prize! $500 + VPR publication for work that challenges our perceptions of Victorian periodical studies.
Deadline is June 15. rs4vp.org/awards/victo...
#ExpandTheField #RSVPprizes #DecolonizeVictorianStudies

Screenshot of One More Voice website, accompanied by text that says: Ava Bindas, Kenneth Crowell, Joanne Ruth Davis, Dino Franco Felluga, Jun Yi Goh, Cherrie Kwok, K. Marielle Morgan, Rebecca Nesvet, and Adrian S. Wisnicki, "COVE, One More Voice, and the Recovery of BIPOC Voices from Victorian Periodicals," Victorian Periodicals Review, 57.3, Fall 2024.

The scholars and students behind “One More Voice” describe their work to identify, encode, publish, and analyze #BIPOC voices from #Victorian missionary #periodicals. See how this material can transform how we teach canonical texts like Jane Eyre in VPR 57.3: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

Victorian Periodicals Review Expanding the Field Prize – RSVP The RSVP Expanding the Field Prize is awarded annually for an outstanding essay that diversifies the existing geographic, racial, and ethnic composition of nineteenth-century periodical studies.…

Have a draft that disrupts the traditional boundaries of #VictorianStudies? Consider submitting it for VPR's Expanding the Field Prize, which honors essays that diversify #19thC periodical studies. Deadline is June 15. Details on our site: rs4vp.org/awards/victo...
#DecolonizeTheArchive #RSVPprizes

The Rosemary VanArsdel Prize – RSVP The VanArsdel Prize is awarded annually to the best graduate student essay investigating Victorian periodicals and newspapers. The prize was established in 1990 to honor Rosemary VanArsdel, a…

Putting the final touches on your final #19thC periodicals paper? Why not submit it to our VanArsdel Prize? Submissions are open through June 15! The best grad student essay on Victorian periodicals wins $500 + publication in VPR. rs4vp.org/awards/vanar...
#VanArsdelPrize #RSVPprizes

Screenshot of Victorian Short Fiction Project website, accompanied by text that says: Leslee Thorne-Murphy, "Experiential Learning and the Value of Novice Scholars: Victorian Short Fiction and the Periodical Market," Victorian Periodicals Review, 57.3, Fall 2024.

Leslee Thorne-Murphy describes her students’ research and editing work for the Victorian Short Fiction Project, a peer-reviewed digital anthology. Learn how to translate humanities skill sets to life beyond the academy in the latest issue of VPR: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

Cover of the Illustrated London News for August 15, 1857, with image of ships landing at Isle of Wight, accompanied by text that says: Iain Crawford, "Periodicals, Undergraduate Research, and Disciplinary Futures: The Promise of Course-Embedded Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs)," Victorian Periodicals Review, 57.3, Fall 2024.

Iain Crawford argues that undergraduate research experiences are ever more important for demonstrating the value of English studies. Learn how periodicals are especially well-suited sites for student research in the latest issue of VPR: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

#Periodicals scholars (@rs4vp.org etc). How do you quantify your data? I'm researching adverts and the moment and have been using simple numbers (e.g. issue X has Y no. of advert content) as this is the most straightforward. However, space and sizing is a much more pressing issue for advert content!

Screenshot of students’ Perusall comments beside cover of The Yellow Book, accompanied by text that says: Madeline B. Gangnes, "Digital, Archival, and Collaborative Approaches in the Undergraduate Victorian Studies Classroom," Victorian Periodicals Review, 57.3, Fall 2024

Rather than offering a lit survey framed by key contexts, Madeline B. Gangnes requires undergrads to actively excavate those contexts by reading non/fiction in periodicals. Check out VPR 57.3 to learn how digital #VictorianStudies courses can succeed at small colleges: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Cover of the Boy’s Own Paper for April 11, 1891, showing two boys fighting; accompanying text says: Melissa Free, "Undergraduate Research in Late Victorian and Early Twentieth-Century Children’s Periodicals," Victorian Periodicals Review, 57.3, Fall 2024.

Melissa Free uses C19 children’s periodicals in undergrad classes to deepen student investment in the period and foster appreciation of the research process. Read about her research assignments for BOP and GOP in the latest issue of VPR: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org #VictorianStudies

Screenshots of student-created social media for Lady Audley's Secret, accompanied by text that says: Megan Burke Witzleben, "Serial Readers: First-Year College Students Reimagine Lady Audley’s Secret," Victorian Periodicals Review, 57.3, Fall 2024.

In Megan Burke Witzleben’s gen ed course, students connect Victorian serials with modern mass media. Check out VPR’s new pedagogy issue to learn how she uses the London Journal’s 1863 serialization of Lady Audley’s Secret to undiscipline the classroom: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

Cover of VPR 57.3 Fall 2024 with illustration of teacher pointing student to book of ABC's.

VPR’s special issue “Periodical Pedagogy Today” is out now! Thanks to guest editor Lindsy Lawrence @lmltelegraph.bsky.social for gathering a stellar set of essays on using 19th-c periodicals in the classroom. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org #VictorianStudies

CFP: Special VPR Issue (Winter 2026) – RSVP Call for proposals for a special issue of VPR honoring the late Brian Maidment! Proposals due May 15, 2025 and will be published Winter 2026.

CFP: Essays in Honor of Brian Maidment (Proposals due May 15; Essays due Nov. 1). Guest editors Mary Elizabeth Leighton and Lisa Surridge invite proposals for a special issue of VPR. For full details, visit rs4vp.org/cfp-vpr-spec... @rs4vp.bsky.social

Brian Maidment, past president and friend of RSVP, passed away on Jan 28. This past summer, he spoke with Marysa Demoor for our Roots of RSVP series and reflected on a long career of studying mass circulation print culture. Read the interview in VPR: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.bsky.social

Illustration of E. S. Dallas, accompanied by text that says GRAHAM LAW, The Other Besieged Residents: Dallas and Parkinson as Special Correspondents in Paris, 1870–71, Victorian Periodicals Review, Volume 57, Numbers 1-2, Summer/Spring 2024.

Graham Law draws attention to the neglected journalistic careers of E.S. Dallas and J.C. Parkinson, including new discoveries of their work for the Daily News as special correspondents in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Read it in VPR: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.bsky.social

Portrait of Mary Elizabeth Braddon in a black gown with red background, accompanied by text that says CARLEY ROBERTSON, Mary Elizabeth Braddon vs. the Pall Mall Gazette: Controlling and Exploiting the Boundaries of Editorial Identity, Victorian Periodicals Review, Volume 57, Numbers 1-2, Summer/Spring 2024.

Carley Robertson analyzes the PMG’s claims that Babington White's Circe was plagiarized from a French novel. Though framed as a battle for literary integrity, PMG’s attacks reveal how gender influenced the literary marketplace. Read more in VPR 57.1-2 muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.bsky.social