Some years ago, in about 1990, I put together a list of materials that I thought of philosophical interest, found in 19th century American periodicals. My interest was stimulated by a remark by Noah Porter, who was president at Yale in the latter part of that century. The remark called attention to contributions "...on speculative subjects..." which, he claimed, "...have been very numerous..." in a number of named periodicals. I knew very little about these periodicals, and would not have expected to find much of philosophical interest in them. I was wrong.

My work with these periodicals is described in the Introduction that I wrote at least 13 years ago, and I find little reason to change it. I have asked that that Introduction be retyped, because I did such a poor job of proofreading it, but simply changed a bit of grammar, and corrected an error or two. This material is now online, as a convenient (I hope) pdf. file.The reader (if any) will note that the project began as part of a larger work--a biography I had hoped to write in three volumes--on former Baylor president William Carey Crane. I completed one volume, and have done a bit more online, but, for various reasons (including my advancing age), that project will probably never be completed....or, at least, not by me. It's a worthwhile project, for all that, and I hope someone will complete it.

But, as time has passed, I have become increasingly interested in 19th century American periodicals. So I thought it might be useful to put the results of my earlier work online, as a convenient pdf. file. Permit only a few additional remarks. First, working with 19th century materials has become easier than it once was, because so much is now available online----and this will only become more true as time goes on, because more is coming online with each passing day. My hope is that this work of mine will make this valuable resource yet more convenient to access.

Perhaps now I should simply get down to cases and list some 19th century journals that are conveniently available:

• The Princeton Review is available (1830-1882!!) through the University of Michigan M. O. A. site.
• The American Whig Review is available (1845-1852) through the Cornell University M. O. A. site.
• The North American Review is available, in different formats, at the Cornell University M. O. A. site, and (from 1815-1990!!) through PCI Full Text.
• The Presbyterian Review, for 1880-1889, is available through the Princeton Theological Seminary Library.
• The Southern Quarterly Review is also available (1842-1857) through the University of Michigan M. O. A. site.
• It is a work in progress, but the PCA Historical Center has a Digitization Project, which includes putting the Southern Presbyterian Review online. A number of important articles are already available, and you can download the Table of Contents for the entire run of the journal, from 1847-1885.
• The Journal of Speculative Philosophy (1867-1893) is not online, but you can read all about it through the Thoemmes Press website, and also peruse tables of contents for the entire run.
• Americans also read the Edinburgh Review, which is available through PCI Full Text, from 1802-1929!!.

A number of good 19th century periodicals need to be online. The Christian Examiner had some very good things in it, as did the Methodist Quarterly Review and the Christian Review.

Enjoy!!

EHD