Representations of science in the nineteenth century periodical press

Abstract

Public interest in science is often thought to have been much greater in the nineteenth century than at the present time. However, little attention has been paid to the media used to disseminate science to different audiences in nineteenth century Britain. In particular, the vast bulk of general periodicals which fill our library shelves continues to be largely impenetrable. Yet readers encountered a great quantity and an extensive variety of scientific, technical, and medical information in the pages of such general periodicals as Punch, the Boy's Own Paper, and Dickens's Household Words. This article describes the work of the 'Science in the nineteenth-century periodical' (SciPer) project at the universities of Leeds and Sheffield, which seeks to identify and analyse the representation of science in the non-specialist periodical press. The project has prepared an electronic index of the science content of a range of periodicals, chosen to reflect the increasing range of reading audiences addressed in the nineteenth century. In addition to detailing the methodology employed, this article includes examples of the project's findings, showing how both science and scientists were presented in such journals as the Comic Annual and the Review of Reviews.