British Women's Periodicals Collection

Magazine covers

The British Women's Periodicals Collection, made up of some 35,000 issues of British women's magazines published from 1893 to 1977, was purchased with financial assistance from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in 1984.

The majority of titles were published by the Amalgamated Press and publishers which it absorbed, and many copies are, in fact, copies from the publishers' own archives. Most titles in the collection are very rare.

Because these magazines were aimed at a mass market audience, the British Women's Periodicals Collection offers a unique opportunity to examine the interests and concerns of British women during the time period covered. The collection's content is primarily "popular" fiction written for a female audience, but magazines for children and youth are also well represented. Cooking, crafts, advice columns, fashion, health, and inspirational topics are also featured. Of particular interest are the advertisements, which illustrate contemporary attitudes in a vivid manner.

A detailed list of material in the British Women's Periodicals Collection is available in the Doris Lewis Rare Book Room.

Special Collections

British Women's Periodicals Collection