Lady's Pictorial

Last updated

Lady's Pictorial was an English women's magazine aimed at middle class audience that was particularly well known in the 1890s. [1] It ran from September 1880 to 26 February 1921, when it merged with Eve: The Lady's Pictorial. It began as a monthly, priced at 3d., and became a weekly issued every Saturday from 5 March 1881, still priced at 3d. In 1884 it was revamped into a larger format (with some other improvements) at the higher price of 6d. Its price remained 6d. until 1918. [2] [3]

Description

The founder and first editor of the Lady's Pictorial was Alfred Gibbons. In an 1895 interview [4] he said that he established it as a rival to The Queen: The Ladies Newspaper and Court Chronicle, which had began in 1864, had made no attempt to keep up-to-date in terms of the techniques it used for its illustrations, and had long relied on Paris (rather than London) as the source of its fashion plates. Unlike what he took to be other more solely "literary" oriented editors, Gibbons clearly took a strong interest in the production or "make-up" of his publication. An early example of a Meisenbach halftone portrait of the Italian ballet dancer Emma Palladino (then performing in London) appeared in the Lady's Pictorial in 1882, [4] soon after Georg Meisenbach patented this process.

In 1887 Gibbons began pioneering the printing colored pictures of pretty women rather than a seasonable subject (such as Santa Claus) for the Lady's Pictorial Christmas annuals. The circulation figures he gave for these usefully reveal the increasing popularity of the magazine. The first, "Sweet Sixteen," by the Italian painter Corcos, sold 80,000 copies. The following year, "Lady Love," by the same artist, sold 125,000 copies. [5] Another picture by Corcos, "The Queen of the Roses," mentioned by Gibbons in his 1895 interview as he pointed to the original painting on his office wall, sold 175,000 copies. [4]

When asked about the success of the magazine in the crowded market of "ladies' papers" Gibbons said (in his 1895 interview) it was due in part to the "sincere interest" and perfectionist impulse that he put into it; their high artistic standards, involving illustrations commissioned from many "strongly original unconventional artists;" their "large employment of women writers;" and (perhaps most importantly) because he was "splendidly backed, both with unlimited capital and sound advice, by Sir William and Mr. Charles Ingram, of the Illustrated London News." [4] Two of the Ingram's other successful illustrated weeklies of the mid-1890s were The Sketch and the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. [1]

In its entry in the 1895 Newspaper Press Directory the Lady's Pictorial is listed as "neutral" in its political orientation and described as "A newspaper for the home. A specially arranged paper for ladies; well edited, and admirably illustrated. Not a mere fashion journal, but deals with all subjects interesting to ladies." [6]

A Victorian studies specialist examining a random volume of the Lady's Pictorial from the 1890s noted as significant the presence of a serial by the New Woman writer Ella Hepworth Dixon, whose book The Story of a Modern Woman (with illustrations by an unknown artist), which first appeared in weekly installments between 6 January 1894 to 24 March 1894. In addition, there was "a series on women's sports, and pictures of prize winners from the London School of Medicine for Women. More than half the pages, however, are occupied by answers to correspondents on music, art, fashion, fancy work, furnishings, children, pets, health, cookery, etiquette, beauty, antiques, graphology, and other subjects." [7]

Anna Kingsford, who studied medicine in Paris, graduating in 1880, contributed a series of “Letters to Ladies” to the Lady’s Pictorial between 1884 and 1886. Due to their popularity her columns were reissued in 1886 in a book titled Health, Beauty and the Toilet: Letters to Ladies from a Lady Doctor. [8] A posthumous revised third edition appeared in 1889. [9] The first letter in Kingsford’s book deals with obesity, [10] and in an obituary for her published in the Lady’s Pictorial in 1888 she was reported to have had great success in her medical practice in treating “hysterical girls.” [11] [12]

In his 1895 interview Gibbons said his magazine did not bother much with cookery and home-dressmaking, as he believed "that ladies who can afford to spend sixpence in buying the Lady's Pictorial also can afford to keep proper servants and go to good dressmakers." Regarding the "New Woman," he claimed "We are simply on the side of the womanly woman. It isn't our business to indulge in strong views on any subject, but merely to put what we think are right views firmly." [4]

Representative of the interest they took in suitable professions for women, The Lady's Pictorial from November 1893 to February 1894 ran a series on "Lady Journalists." Nearly all of them were contributors. They include profiles (and some photographic portraits) of many of the major women journalists of the era (and usefully reveal some of their pseudonyms, although others, who preferred to remain anonymous, were not covered). The first installment includes Emily Crawford, Mrs. Humphry, Mrs. Power O'Donoghue, Mary Frances Billington, Emily Faithfull and Florence Fenwick Miller. The second has Mrs Lynn Linton and Lucy Clifford; the third Lady Colin Campbell and Mrs Stannard ("John Strange Winter"); the fourth Alice Meynell; while Ella Hepworth Dixon, Lucie Armstrong and Annie S. Swan appear in the last. [13]

In one of her autobiographies, the American journalist Elizabeth Banks (who moved to England in 1893 and gained a reputation for her investigative reporting, often involving impersonating working class women) relates how Alfred Gibbons took three hours to come up with an undercover assignment for her to go to Kent and pick strawberries. [14] After she submitted a draft, he was appalled to learn that she had endangered her health by continuing to work all day in the rain. Banks describes Gibbons as gruff, but very kind and considerate: he offered the "most liberal terms I had ever received for any London work," immediately paid her for the extra column that she required beyond what he had originally allocated, and was willing to cover her doctor's bill as part of her expenses. [15]

Helen C. Black's Notable Women Authors of the Day: Biographical Sketches (1893), which profiled the lives of twenty prominent British women writers, first appeared as a series of separate articles in The Lady's Pictorial before they were revised, enlarged and updated for book publication.

Some of the prestigious contributors of stories to the Lady's Pictorial Summer and Christmas numbers are Rhoda Broughton, Marie Corelli, Violet Hunt and Margaret Oliphant. [3] Marie Corelli is known to have contributed three articles to the Lady’s Pictorial Christmas numbers in 1891, 1894, and 1895, apparently based on press reports rather than surviving copies of the relevant issues in libraries. [16] The novels that the magazine serialized were not exclusively written by women: in his 1895 interview Gibbons refers to books by Marion Crawford and W. E. Norris. [4] At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901, provides a list [17] of some of the fiction first published in the Lady's Pictorial.

The artists employed by the Lady’s Pictorial include Maurice Greiffenhage n, Dudley Hardy, Bernard Partridge and F. H. Townsend. [3] On 24 September 1887 Oscar Wilde wrote to Partridge, then a young and relatively unknown artist, sending him two short poems suitable for illustration. The illustrated poems, “Le Panneau” and “Les Ballons,” appeared in the Lady's Pictorial in December 1887, and Partridge later collaborated with Wilde to illustrate two other works, “The Young King” and “In the Forrest” that appeared in the Lady’s Pictorial Christmas numbers for 1888 and 1899. [18]

Due to poor health, Gibbons had less direct involvement in editing the Lady's Pictorial in the late 1890s. He died in 1900 at Grasse on the French Riviera. [19] [20]

In the “Nausicaa” episode of his novel Ulysses (1922) James Joyce refers to Gerty MacDowell as “a votary of Dame Fashion” dressed in a “neat blouse of electric blue (because it was expected in the Lady's Pictorial that electric blue would be worn).” Joyce parodies the language of advertisements printed in women’s magazines throughout the first half of this section of his narrative. [21]

In her memoir published in 1930, Ella Hepworth Dixon recalled that the Lady's Pictorial "had an enormous vogue in Suburbia." [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Elizabeth Braddon</span> English popular novelist (1835–1915)

Mary Elizabeth Braddon was an English popular novelist of the Victorian era. She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret, which has also been dramatised and filmed several times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Edward Norris</span> English fiction writer

William Edward Norris was a London-born English fiction and writer. His first story, Heap of Money, appeared in 1877, and was followed by a long series of novels and stories, many of which first appeared in the Temple Bar and Cornhill magazines.

<i>The Yellow Book</i> 1894–1897 British literary periodical

The Yellow Book was a British quarterly literary periodical that was published in London from 1894 to 1897. It was published at The Bodley Head Publishing House by Elkin Mathews and John Lane, and later by John Lane alone, and edited by the American Henry Harland. The periodical was priced at 5 shillings and lent its name to the "Yellow Nineties", referring to the decade of its operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Leslie</span> English-American engraver, illustrator, and publisher

Frank Leslie was an English-born American engraver, illustrator, and publisher of family periodicals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Hepworth Dixon</span> English historian and traveller, 1821–1879

William Hepworth Dixon was an English historian and traveller from Manchester. He was active in organizing London's Great Exhibition of 1851.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Kingsford</span> English physician, activist, and feminist

Anna Kingsford was an English anti-vivisectionist, Theosophist, a proponent of vegetarianism and a women's rights campaigner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ella D'Arcy</span>

Ella D'Arcy was a short fiction writer in the late 19th and early 20th century.

<i>Womans Home Companion</i> American monthly magazine

Woman's Home Companion was an American monthly magazine, published from 1873 to 1957. It was highly successful, climbing to a circulation peak of more than four million during the 1930s and 1940s. The magazine, headquartered in Springfield, Ohio, was discontinued in 1957.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ella Hepworth Dixon</span> English author and editor (1857–1932)

Ella Hepworth Dixon was an English author and editor who wrote under the pen name Margaret Wynman. Her best-known work is the New Woman novel The Story of a Modern Woman, which has been reprinted in the 21st century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. N. Williamson</span> British writer and journalist (1859–1920)

Charles Norris Williamson (1859–1920) was a British writer, motoring journalist and founder of the Black and White Magazine who was perhaps best known for his collaboration with his wife, Alice Muriel Williamson, in a number of novels and travelogues.

<i>The Womans World</i> Defunct Victorian women magazine

The Woman's World was a Victorian women's magazine published by Cassell between 1886 and 1890, edited by Oscar Wilde between 1887 and 1889, and by Ella Hepworth Dixon from 1888..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Angela Dickens</span> Grandchild of Victorian-era novelist Charles Dickens

Mary Angela Dickens was an English novelist and journalist of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, and the oldest grandchild of the novelist Charles Dickens. She died on the 136th anniversary of her grandfather's birth.

<i>The Gentlewoman</i> Defunct British women weekly magazine

The Gentlewoman was a weekly illustrated paper for women founded in 1890 and published in London.

<i>The Ladys Realm</i> British womens magazine

The Lady's Realm was a British women's magazine published from 1896 until 1914, possibly until 1915. It primarily targeted upper-class readers as well as an aspirational middle-class audience, featuring photographs, poems, fiction, and columns by popular authors such as Marie Corelli, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Jack London, and H. G. Wells. The London Season was regularly covered, with visuals of significant society figures and débutantes appearing. Fashion trends in Paris and London were frequently discussed as well, particularly by its fashion editor Marian Pritchard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Cecelia Black</span>

Helen Cecelia Black was an English journalist, best known for the series of interviews with women writers published in book form in 1893 as Notable Women Authors of the Day.

Eliza Anna Farman Pratt (1837–1907) was an American writer of children's literature, best known for editing Wide Awake magazine for 16 years, starting in 1875.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ada Ballin</span> English author, journalist, editor, and lecturer

Ada Sarah Ballin was an English author, journalist, editor, and lecturer. She was the editor and proprietor of the magazines Baby, Womanhood and Playtime, and published articles and books on health, child care, and dress reform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Hoppner Coode</span> English illustrator

Helen Hoppner Coode was an English illustrator, watercolourist and short story writer. She was the first known female contributor to Punch Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucie Armstrong</span> English-Irish journalist and writer

Lucie Armstrong, also known as Lucie Heaton Armstrong, was an English-Irish journalist and writer on etiquette.

References

  1. 1 2 Beegan, Gerry (2019). "Women of the World: The Lady's Pictorial and Its Sister Papers". In Easley, Alexis; Glll, Clare; Rodgers, Beth (eds.). Women, Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1830s–1900s. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 232–255. ISBN   9781474433907.
  2. ↑ Langlois, Pamela Francis Stent. The Feminine Press in England and France, 1850-1914. Ph. D., University of Massachusetts, 1979. https://doi.org/10.7275/xc98-e618
  3. 1 2 3 Fehlbaum, Valerie (2009). "Lady's Pictorial (1880–1921)". In Brake, Laurel; Demoor, Marysa (eds.). Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. Academia Press. ISBN   9789038213408.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Journals and Journalists of To-day: XXXIII. Mr. Gibbons and the 'Lady's Pictorial". The Sketch (London). 9 (105): 23. 30 January 1895 – via HathiTrust.
  5. ↑ Fisk, Arthur T. (July 1895). "The Evolution of the Christmas Annuals". The Windsor Magazine. 2: 706–707. hdl:2027/nyp.33433096051556 – via HathiTrust.
  6. ↑ "Lady's Pictorial". Newspaper Press Directory: 71. 1895. hdl:2027/mdp.39015085486150 – via HathiTrust.
  7. ↑ Mitchell, Sally (Spring 2009). "Ephemeral Journalism and Its Uses: Lucie Cobbe Heaton Armstrong (1851–1907)". Victorian Periodicals Review. 42 (1): 83. doi:10.1353/vpr.0.0063. JSTOR   27760209 – via JSTOR.
  8. ↑ Kingsford, Anna (1886). Health, Beauty and the Toilet: Letters to Ladies from a Lady Doctor. London: Frederick Warne and Co.
  9. ↑ Kingsford, Anna (1889). Health, Beauty and the Toilet: Letters to Ladies from a Lady Doctor (3rd ed.). London: Frederick Warne and Co.
  10. ↑ Vester, Katharina (Fall 2010). "Regime Change: Gender, Class, and the Invention of Dieting in Post-Bellum America". Journal of Social History. 44 (1): 49 – via JSTOR.
  11. ↑ Fenwick Miller, Florence (2 March 1888). "[Obituary for Anna Kingsford]". Lady’s Pictorial.
  12. ↑ VanArsdel, Rosemary T. (Winter 2001). "Anna B. Kingsford, M.D.: Catholic Convert, Yea or Nay?". Victorian Review. 27 (1): 63 – via JSTOR.
  13. ↑ "Lady Journalists," Lady's Pictorial, 11 November 1893: 734; 25 November 1893: 823; 9 December 1893: 928-9; 10 February 1894: 176-1.
  14. ↑ Fehlbaum, Valerie (2013). "Stepping Out: 'At Home' or 'From our Own Correspondent'?: The Lady Writer or the Woman Journalist?". In Gómez Reus, Teresa; Gifford, Terry (eds.). Women in Transit through Literary Liminal Spaces. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 69. ISBN   9781137330468.
  15. ↑ Banks, Elizabeth L. (1902). The Autobiography of a "Newspaper Girl. London: Methuen. pp. 98–103.
  16. ↑ Turner, Joanna (December 2023). "Some Corrections to the Periodical Publishing History of Marie Corelli (1854–1924)". Notes and Queries. 70 (4): 305–306.
  17. ↑ https://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_periodical.php?jid=51
  18. ↑ Mitchell, Rebecca N. (December 2020). "An Unpublished Letter by Oscar Wilde" (PDF). Notes and Queries. 67 (4): 559–560. doi:10.1093/notesj/gjaa164.
  19. ↑ "Death of Mr Alfred Gibbons". The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. 53 (1384): 125. 24 March 1900.
  20. ↑ "Death of Mr. Alfred Gibbons". The Penny Illustrated Paper: 204. 31 March 1900.
  21. ↑ Hayward, Matthew (2018). "'But Who Was Gerty?' Intertextuality and the Advertising Language of 'Nausicaa'". European Joyce Studies. 26: 89–106 – via JSTOR.
  22. ↑ Dixon, Ella Hepworth (1930). "As I Knew Them": Sketches of People I Have Met Along the Way. London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd. p. 162.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.