The volumes in the State Library are neither perfect nor consecutively bound. A set of The Lowell Offering, complete to 1847, was sent by the mayor of Lowell to the mayor of Paris, “all neatly bound and lettered.”
There are odd volumes, no doubt, in libraries or in private collections, but they are not complete enough to give an adequate idea of the magazine; and unless such a book as this were written, an historical record of what is now considered a most interesting phase in the history of early factory labor would not be preserved. I may add to this, that the Lowell Public Library contains the first five volumes, which are The Lowell Offering proper. In closing this brief sketch of The Lowell Offering, it may be well to quote Mr. Thomas’s letter, written to the Vox Populi, Lowell, in answer to a request for information with regard to his connection with the magazine.
Dear Sir,—Your letter of December 9th, 1872, solicits me to furnish, in some detail, the facts, as I now remember them, respecting the origin and early history of The Lowell Offering, the writers for it, etc.
It would seem, by your epistle, that you have seen, and perhaps own, the second and later series of the unique publication, but that you question whether a copy of the first four numbers is in existence—indicating, I judge, that you have sought for them in vain.
I am happy to inform you that your apprehension of total loss is “ruled out” by my possession of two complete sets of those first four numbers, lacking only the printed cover of Number One. You will not be surprised that my sons, to whom they belong, are unwilling to part with these memorials of their father’s brief residence in Lowell; but I hope that your earnest antiquarian call will awaken a response among the hidden or forgotten things of some one of your many readers.
Meanwhile I will endeavor to make a compact statement of what you desire, with no more of personality than is necessary to an intelligible narrative.
Number 1 of The Lowell Offering was published in October, 1840. No. 2 was issued in December following. No. 3 appeared in February, 1841, and No. 4 in March. Printed by A. Watson, 15 Central Street. Each number consisted of sixteen pages small quarto, double columns, in small pica solid, and was sold at retail for six and one-fourth cents. I have forgotten how many copies were printed. The third and fourth pages of a plain cover were devoted to advertisements of less than an average of one inch brevier, and in this way we managed to ‘make both ends meet.’
In No. 2 appeared the following note, the words in brackets being here inserted in the way of explanation.
“A social meeting, denominated Improvement Circle, was established in this city about a twelve-month since [by the Rev. A. C. Thomas, pastor of the Second Universalist Church]. At the sessions of this Circle, which have been holden one evening in a fortnight, communications (previously received by the gentleman in charge) have been read, the names of the writers not being announced. The largest range of subject has been allowed: fiction and fact, poetry and prose, science and letters, religion and morals; and in composition the style has been humorous or otherwise, according to the various taste or talent of the writers. The reading of these articles has constituted the sole entertainment of the meetings of the Circle. The interest thus excited has given a remarkable impulse to the intellectual energies of our population.
“At a social meeting for divine worship connected with one of our societies (First Universalist Church, the Rev. T. B. Thayer, pastor), communications, chiefly of a religious character, have been read, during several years past. The alternate weekly session of this Conference was appropriated mainly to communications, and denominated Improvement Circle, soon after the institution of the one above mentioned, and the interest has thereby been greatly increased.