© 2017 Dawn Michelle Smith
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© 2017 Dawn Michelle Smith PRINT NETWORKS AND YOUTH INFORMATION CULTURE: YOUNG PEOPLE, AMATEUR PUBLISHING, AND CHILDREN’S PERIODICALS, 1867–1890 BY DAWN MICHELLE SMITH DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Library and Information Science in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Kathleen McDowell, Chair Professor Alistair Black, Director of Research Associate Professor Emerita Christine Jenkins Professor Karen Sánchez-Eppler, Amherst College ABSTRACT Thousands of young people throughout the 1870s and 1880s participated in the production of amateur newspapers and actively developed print networks to facilitate communication and the circulation of information among geographically dispersed peers, most of whom they had never met and would never meet in person. These young readers were not content merely to inhabit, as individual readers, the spaces created for them by professional publishers, editors, and authors in an expanding children’s market in the late nineteenth century, nor did they limit their interactions to those expected and encouraged by editors in the pages of children’s magazines and weekly story papers. These young amateur journalists sought to establish and expand peer social and information networks through and beyond the boundaries of the spaces created for them in children’s periodicals. This dissertation examines how these amateur print networks were established and maintained, as well as their multifaceted relationships with children’s magazines and weekly story papers. It also explores these social and information networks, along with amateur practices regarding documentation, dissemination, collection, and preservation, as indicators of a late nineteenth century youth information culture. ii To my parents, who set me on this path. To my younger brother, who earned a PhD first and made quitting unthinkable. To Richard, who endured the consecutive production of two dissertations — his, then mine — which is at least one more than anyone should ever have to endure. And to Hazel, who entered the world near the beginning of this process — such small, exquisite chaos. Finally, to Molly, who left the world near the end of this process — you are missed. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the members of my committee for supporting this project from its earliest stages and encouraging me throughout the process of writing this dissertation. In particular, I would like to thank my chair, Dr. Kate McDowell, for making me believe that she never had a doubt even when I had many. I would also like to thank the School of Information Sciences (though it will always be the Graduate School of Library and Information Science to me), for its unwavering and generous support. In particular, I want to thank Dr. Linda Smith for her responsiveness and quiet magnanimity in all things. Without the support of the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) in the form of a Kate B. and Hall J. Peterson Fellowship, this dissertation research would have taken much longer to complete. The fellowship not only allowed me to do the bulk of my research at the AAS with the help of its knowledgeable and helpful curators and staff, but it also gave me the opportunity to work in residence with scholars who inspired and encouraged me daily. Dennis Laurie, Reference Specialist for Newspapers at the AAS, saved me countless hours of searching for needles in a very large haystack by generously sharing his knowledge of the vast amateur newspaper collection, and for that I am so grateful. I would also like to thank Laura Wasowicz, Curator of Children’s Literature at the AAS, and the participants of the AAS 2015 Summer Seminar in the History of the Book, “Reading Children,” led by Dr. Patricia Crain and Dr. Martin Brückner, for a week of focused exploration and challenging discussion around the question of what it meant to be a child reader before 1900. That discussion helped me to make connections that had previously eluded me and helped me to refine arguments made in this dissertation. iv While the bulk of the research for this dissertation took place at the AAS, I am grateful for the assistance of librarians, curators, and staff at various other institutions. I would not have been able to write the introductory section to this dissertation (section 1.1) about the Lake Forest (Illinois) Gem without the assistance of Arthur H. Miller, retired Archivist and Librarian for Special Collections at Donnelley and Lee Library, Lake Forest College. He made images of the Lake Forest Gem available online. Anne Woodrum, Special Collections Librarian at Brandeis University, sent me images of pages of Munro’s Girls and Boys of America, which contributed to my understanding of connections between amateurdom and weekly story papers in this period. Though I was unable to make a research trip for the dissertation to the Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University, I also am grateful for the assistance of Andrea Immel, Curator, and Ian Dooley, Curatorial Assistant, who rapidly responded to my query about their collection of American story papers. Within the week, Dooley made a list of the titles in the collection available through the library catalog, which was extremely helpful. I am also grateful to the staff in Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University for on-site access to story papers in the American Popular Culture collections. Finally, I would like to thank various staff at the University Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for helping me to locate and access materials not only while I lived near campus but also after I moved out of state. In addition to the institutional support I have received, I have received support, encouragement, and inspiration from advisors, colleagues, and friends. First, I would like to thank Dr. Christine Pawley for encouraging me to pursue my PhD several years before I actually began this journey; Dr. Jennifer Burek Pierce for her advice, support, and encouragement leading up to and throughout this process; and the many talented and inspiring librarians, youth services staff, faculty, and students I have worked with who have taught me so much about libraries, v librarianship, and children’s literature. I also want to acknowledge the support I received from friends at various points throughout this process, including listening to me talk through ideas, writing with me, helping me remain accountable, reading drafts, offering advice, giving me pep talks, giving me a place to stay or work, babysitting, posting encouraging words, and/or making me laugh when I really needed to: Karen Wickett, Cass Mabbott, Caroline Nappo, Chris D’Arpa, Alaine Martaus, Tim Boerner, Loretta Gaffney, Aiko Takazawa, Claudia Șerbănuță, Karla Lucht, Miriam Sweeney, Safiya Noble, Sarah Roberts, Sunah Suh, Peter Organisciak, Shawna Organisciak, Jill Gengler, Cherie Weible, Kathleen Kern, April Spisak, Tom Dousa, Lenese Colson, Laura-Edythe Coleman, Abby Phillips, Nicole Alemanne, Casey Yu, Julia Skinner, Adam Worrall, Karen Card, Mariah Steele, and Rebecca Noel. Finally, I could not have done this without the support of my family, from my sister-in-law, parents, and parents-in-law rearranging schedules to babysit when deadlines loomed; to my spouse preparing dinner most nights and taking our child on numerous weekend adventures so I could make slow, steady progress; to my child cheering me on every morning and always reminding me to play. I am a tortoise in a family of hares, and I am grateful that we arrived at the finish line together. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: PRINT NETWORKS AND YOUTH INFORMATION CULTURE: AN INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW...............................................................................1 CHAPTER 2: AMATEUR JOURNALISM AND YOUTH IN THE UNITED STATES, 1867–1890: CULTURE, CONNECTION, COMMUNICATION, INFORMATION ............43 CHAPTER 3: BEYOND INTERACTIVITY: OLIVER OPTIC’S MAGAZINE AND NETWORKED READERS ...........................................................................................76 CHAPTER 4: NETWORKED READERS AS NETWORKED PRODUCERS: THE CASE OF AMATEUR JOURNALISM .......................................................................117 CHAPTER 5: THE AMATEUR ECONOMY ......................................................................169 CHAPTER 6: TELEGRAPHING CLASS IN THE ERA OF ST. NICHOLAS.....................203 CHAPTER 7: PRINT NETWORKS AND YOUTH INFORMATION CULTURE: SOME CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................................232 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................261 APPENDIX: WORKS CONSULTED AT THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY...............................................................................................................................286 vii CHAPTER 1: PRINT NETWORKS AND YOUTH INFORMATION CULTURE: AN INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 1.1 “A Very Nice Little Paper”: The Lake Forest (Illinois) Gem, 1867 The inaugural issue of the Lake Forest (Illinois) Gem appeared June 1, 1867.1 This four- page, two-column, monthly newspaper, edited by Wells C. Lake and William J. Fabian, claims to be the “first printed periodical of this city,” a claim repeated in William Arpee’s 1963 history of Lake Forest, Illinois. According to Arpee, “[The editors]