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University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--English English 2020 TRANSFORMATIVE SUBJECTS: AMERICAN CHILDREN’S PERIODICALS, 1855-1905 Emily R. DeHaven University of Kentucky, [email protected] Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2020.245 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation DeHaven, Emily R., "TRANSFORMATIVE SUBJECTS: AMERICAN CHILDREN’S PERIODICALS, 1855-1905" (2020). Theses and Dissertations--English. 115. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/115 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--English by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. Emily R. DeHaven, Student Dr. Marion Rust, Major Professor Dr. Michael Trask, Director of Graduate Studies TRANSFORMATIVE SUBJECTS: AMERICAN CHILDREN’S PERIODICALS, 1855-1905 ________________________________________ DISSERTATION ________________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Emily Renée DeHaven Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Marion Rust, Professor of English Lexington, Kentucky 2020 Copyright © Emily DeHaven 2020 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION TRANSFORMATIVE SUBJECTS: AMERICAN CHILDREN’S PERIODICALS, 1855-1905 Through this dissertation, I explore the ways that authors and editors use the form of children’s periodicals to discuss questions of childhood independence, the structure of the family, and the balance of power between children and adults with regards to literary texts. I examine the ways in which adults and children negotiate control over the periodicals and over the images of transformation present within those texts. Periodicals offer a unique opportunity for interaction between readers and editors. Magazines and newspapers encouraged readers to write into the magazine to offer their own insights and opinions. Readers of children’s magazines even had opportunities to contribute to the text itself. I pay close attention to the development of relationships both within the texts themselves as well as between the readers of the texts and the authors and editors creating those texts in order to deepen our understanding of these types of texts and the way they contribute to the field of children’s literature. KEYWORDS: Children’s Literature, Periodical Studies, Nineteenth-Century, Transformation Emily Renée DeHaven 03/24/2020 Date TRANSFORMATIVE SUBJECTS: AMERICAN CHILDREN’S PERIODICALS, 1855-1905 By Emily Renée DeHaven Marion Rust Director of Dissertation Michael Trask Director of Graduate Studies 03/24/2020 Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation benefited from the support and guidance of several people. First, I would like to thank my chair, Dr. Marion Rust, for her constant support and guidance throughout this process. She exemplifies a level of scholarship that I have sought to attain in myself. Her feedback, encouragement, and investment in this project were essential and enabled me to grow scholarly and complete this project. I would also like to thank my complete dissertation committee: Dr. Rynetta Davis, Dr. Jeannine Blackwell, and Dr. Nazera Sadiq Wright. Throughout the last few years, they have demonstrated scholarly excellence and offered their expertise and encouragement every step of the way along this process. I am deeply indebted to the entire committee. I would also like to thank the entire English department, but particularly Robin Rahija for administrative excellence and for helping to keep me on track when it came to deadlines and scheduling. And to my fellow graduate students, but particularly to Leslie Malland for being a ready ear and offering endless encouragement in moments where I needed it most. And to Jarna Shah, Valerie Stevens, and Gokce Tekeli, for helping to guide research when I ventured into unfamiliar fields of study and for modeling the dissertation process. I must also acknowledge the unwavering support received from my family and friends. In particular, my husband, Joseph DeHaven, for his unfailing support, love, and patience. And to my son, August DeHaven, for making this process a thousand times more difficult, but being so worth it. I am eternally grateful for you. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF FIGURES vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: TRANSFORMATIVE INTERACTIONS 1 Chapters 10 CHAPTER 2: NEGOTIATING CONTROL IN CHILDREN’S PRINT CULTURE 14 Babyland and the Parental Voice 26 Merry’s Museum and Children’s Correspondence 41 Conclusion 56 CHAPTER 3: “’TIS FAR BETTER, I THINK, TO STAY LIKE THIS”: THE LITERARY CHILD AND SELF-TRANSFORMATION 59 Play, Violence, and Responsibility 67 The Supernatural and Childhood Independence 73 Transformation and Family Exclusion 83 Motherhood and Children’s Stories 90 Children’s Independence 100 CHAPTER 4: “AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM”: ENCHANTED SLEEP AND THE CHILD’S IMAGE IN “LITTLE’S DANSIE’S ONE DAY AT SABBATH SCHOOL” 104 Gertrude Bustill Mossell and the Periodical 106 Fairy Tales and Black Girlhood 112 The Schoolroom and the Hospital 119 Dangers of Male Leadership 134 iv CODA: “A SPECIAL KIND OF WORLD” 145 BIBLIOGRAPHY 149 VITA 155 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1, Cover of Babyland, April 1884 1 Figure 2, “Drawing Lesson” featuring a cat 27 Figure 3, “Drawing Lesson” featuring a parrot 27 Figure 4, “A Pint of Peanuts” 31 Figure 5, A watercolored page of Babyland magazine 33 Figure 6, Ad for Kindergarten Magazine 38 Figure 7, Rebus written by “Dictator” 50 Figure 8, “Two Homes” Ad 88 Figure 9, “Pictures to Color and Draw” featuring Jack 98 Figure 10, Illustration from “The Beauty of the Family” 99 Figure 11, Schoolroom scene 120 Figure 12, Hospital scene 123 vi Chapter One: Introduction Transformative Interactions Figure 1: Cover of Babyland, April 1884 The cover of the April 1884 issue of a periodical called Babyland features an image from a story titled “Weighing Dollie”. The image features a young girl, Marjorie, using her mother’s hanging basket to “weigh” her baby doll, the way her mother does with her babies. Marjorie begins playing with the doll, trying to figure out how large she is, although she does not have a scale to use. Marjorie first becomes so irate that she can’t weigh her doll Rosemary that she shakes the doll, yells at her, and locks her in a dark closet. She then feels such guilt that she “took her out, and al-most hugged her neck off” (34). It is at this point that Marjorie realizes she can repurpose some of her mother’s 1 materials, transforming a basket into a scale for her doll. When she shows her brother, he resists the urge to laugh at her game and her lack of understanding of different weights. This story weaves together mothering, violence, and transformation into a story that ends with Marjorie’s older brother light-heartedly dismissing Marjorie’s silly games. The centerpiece of this story is the layers of transformation – of Marjorie into a mother, Rosemary the doll into a baby, and a hanging basket into a scale. The larger ideas – Marjorie’s ambivalence towards that mothering, her desire for independence, and the violent elements of childhood, are woven into those moments of transformation. Linked in with all of those themes is one other key element to this story, the child’s relationship with adult authority figures. Although the mother never makes a physical appearance within the story, her presence is an important element to this tale. Marjorie appropriates her mother’s materials, echoing her mother’s actions. The relationship between the child and the adult forms the basis for these stories, providing a background upon which all these themes were built. Inscribed into these stories are relationships between adult writers, publishers, parents, and child readers. Throughout these stories, children and adults negotiate for power and control over the stories as well as over the transformation of items and of the children themselves. I focus on stories written for children’s periodicals and on authors who wrote for a periodical audience. I argue that these texts, through the interactions with historical children and the depictions of literary children, use transformation as a vehicle to analyze the importance and danger of children’s independence amid changing cultural and historical arguments.

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