Sunday at Home

Sunday at Home was a weekly magazine published in London by the Religious Tract Society beginning in 1854. It was one of the most successful examples of the "Sunday reading" genre of periodicals: inexpensive magazines intended to provide wholesome religious (or religiously-inspired) entertainment for families to read on Sundays, especially as a substitute for "pernicious" secular penny weeklies such as The London Journal or The Family Herald.[3]

Sunday at Home; a family magazine for Sabbath reading [1]
Cover of the first issue of Sunday at Home
PublisherReligious Tract Society
First issueMay 1854[2]
Final issue1940[2]

It was initially edited by James Macaulay, and later by W. Stevens.[4] Macaulay and Stevens also edited The Leisure Hour, a similar periodical which debuted two years earlier and was also published by the Religious Tract Society, though Sunday at Home was more overtly religious and had a more strongly Sabbatarian viewpoint.[4] Like The Leisure Hour, a typical issue of Sunday at Home led with a serialized piece of religious fiction, and included at least one large illustration.[4]

In addition to the penny weekly format, the magazine was issued in monthly parts at a price of five pence[4] (raised to 6p in 1863), and annual volumes ranging in price from around 5 to 10 shillings.[3]

An example of a page with colour illustrations from an 1883 issue. The text of the Bible verse John 11:25 is illuminated with lilies and other decoration.

In 1862, the magazine began including colour illustrations, apparently the first penny weekly to do so.[3]

In 1865, the magazine had an annual circulation of 130,000 copies, which increased steadily up to 1875.[2]

Citations
  1. Fyfe, Aileen (2006). "A short history of the Religious Tract Society" (PDF). From the Dairyman's Daughter to Worrals of the WAAF: the Religious Tract Society, Lutterworth Press and Children's Literature. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press.
  2. Scott, Rosemary (1992). Poetry and piety: the role of verse in mid-Victorian Sunday reading (PDF) (PhD). The Open University.
  3. Scott, Rosemary (1992). "The Sunday Periodical: "Sunday at Home"". Victorian Periodicals Review. 25 (4).
  4. Olsen, Stephanie (2014). Juvenile Nation: Youth, Emotions and the Making of the Modern British Citizen, 1880–1914. A&C Black. pp. 22–25. ISBN 9781472511416.
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