Do you have any information about the history of OU Literary Magazines?
Answer
Literary Magazines, a short OU history
· The vol. 1, no.1, 1884 of Ottawa University Campus edited by T. Frank Hamblin, a professor at Ottawa University it was stated “ we are believers in the external fitness of things and to some extent to the survival of the fittest. However we believe that if this paper shall prove itself worthy of support, it will be accorded a place”(p.5). The OU Campus included a Literary Miscellany of pieces which ranged from “ A Chinese statesman on American politics” to literary book reviews like the “The Mill on the Floss” written by George Eliot in the 1860’s.
· In the OU Campus of January 1, 1889, there are literary pieces like "Review of Evangeline" written as a lengthy review of one of the characters in an HW Longfellow poem. OU Newspaper had run a regular column called Literary Notes in which editors discussed new novels and scholarly publications such as Latin Grammar which was published in 1888 and created long-winded literary articles were published about political, social and religious topics; literary pieces continued in
· In the 1901, the typical OU Campus was still firmly both a literary magazine and newspaper. It started out with a poem and several literary pieces before it actually provided some actual college news in the form of the Editorial, followed by Athletics and then columns like the College and Personal, City and Conservatory, the Societies and the Intercollegiate
· By the 1910, the OU Campus started to modernize what types of articles were included in the newspaper, moving away from the literary angle and became a true newspaper that no longer included literary pieces or poetry
· Literary pieces and poetry were now included in the student yearbooks which started in 1901, this literary bent petering out in the prior to the 1920’s
· Literary pieces and poetry would have been written by members of the Philalathean and Olympian Societies at the college for the purpose of using these pieces for debate, oration and public speaking endeavors; since the students in the Academy (High School) at Ottawa University were not allowed to join the collegiate organizations they formed their own literary society called the Adelphian Literary Society
· Along with the OU Campus, the Alumni Newsletter; Ottawa University began to circulate many other newsletters
· Here is a list of the OU publications that we have copies of in the Archives which start in the 1940’s. There are publications that you know of that are probably unlisted here because a copy did not survive.
· There are also copies of some of the literary publications that came out in the 1960’s available for perusal e.g. Ottawa University Literary Supplement 1963-66
https://myottawa.ottawa.edu/ICS/Resources/Myers_Library_Online/Archives_and_Collections/Ottawa_University_Literary_Magazines.jnzand and we will continue to add some of the literary magazines that we have in our possession from 68, 69 and the 1990’s.