July 1: a great day in periodical publishing

. Colophon used in bound volumes by Fraser’s magazine from July 1855 Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country first appeared in 1830. It became renowned for its combative attitude on many issues of the day, introduced the world to ‘Father Prout’ – the pen name of Irish journalist Francis Mahony – and gave a early proving ground to William Makepeace Thackeray. Typically for monthly magazines of the era, the pages of Fraser’s were contiguously numbered from issue to issue so they could be bound into book-like volumes twice a year. The volume title pages issued every six months were unadorned until, for the second volume of 1855 starting in July, the colophon above was introduced. The typographic device shows the letter ‘P’, for John W. Parker & Son, the publishers by this time, of West Strand in London. The leaves of the living branch depicting the P look like acanthus – a classical symbol for rebirth or immortality. The scroll wrapped around the P is inscribed with ‘Per Aspera ad Ardua…