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Members of  The London Vegetarian Society in 1891. (1)

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Vegetarianism defined – circa 1890

~ …….. growing slowly but surely to be a great factor in raising and purifying its age.

It points towards PERFECT HEALTH.

It points towards GENTLENESS, KINDNESS, HUMANENESS.

It points towards SELF-CONQUEST.

It gathers up the seeds that have been scattered by sages ever since the world began, and the jewels that are to be found in every religion, and points to that Ideal Future when LIFE and PEACE shall be twin sisters throughout the whole world. ~

Author unknown – George Bernard Shaw, Ernest Bell,  Henry S. Salt, Florence I. Nicholson, Frances L. Boult,  Edward Maitland, May Yates, Josiah Oldfield, Charles W. Forward, Eustace Miles – these were some of London’s prominent humanitarians, animal rights activists, anti-vivisectionists, vegans & vegetarians in the 1890s.

Remember that the terms ‘vegan’ & ‘veganism’ were not used before 1944. In 1890s London & elsewhere the ‘vegans’ called themselves vegetarians.

‘perfectly consistent diet’ = an 1886 term for veganism – Henry S. Salt

‘thorough-going vegetarians’ = an 1892 term for vegans – Ernest Bell

Discussed in greater depth – here.

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A printed flyer promoting – The Vegetarian 

“… Full of the neophyte’s zeal for vegetarianism I decided to start a vegetarian club in my locality, Bayswater. I invited Sir Edwin Arnold, who lived there, to be Vice-President. Dr. Oldfield who was Editor of The Vegetarian became President. I myself became the Secretary.…” – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi – who was studying in London in 1890. (2)

Here we share two undated promotional flyers – circa 1890/5.  The original copies are in our Ernest Bell Library. (3)

The first flyer was produced with the goal of increasing the weekly sales of  The Vegetarian – an early publication of  The London Vegetarian Society.

It is just 12cm wide & it is very faded.

Josiah Oldfield was editing The Vegetarian at this time – it was a weekly publication. (4)

Charles W. Forward was editing The Vegetarian Review – this was a quarterly publication. (5)

With very slight  ‘tweaking’ it could be used in 2014 for promoting any modern vegan publication.

We really enjoy seeing really great examples of marketing; especially when they were done for humanitarian / vegetarian / vegan etc. publications & projects.

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Flyer Front

Transcribed

The Vegetarian

1d Weekly

[STORIES.  PICTURES.  MEDICAL ADVICE   ARTICLES ON ALL SUBJECTS]

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Is the one paper which is growing slowly but surely to be a great factor in raising and purifying its age.

It points towards PERFECT HEALTH.

It points towards GENTLENESS, KINDNESS, HUMANENESS.

It points towards SELF-CONQUEST.

It gathers up the seeds that have been scattered by sages ever since the world began, and the jewels that are to be found in every religion, and points to that Ideal Future when LIFE and PEACE shall be twin sisters throughout the whole world.

Specimen copy post free on receipt of stamped wrapper. 

Parcel of specimen copies will be sent at half price, to all who distribute judiciously. 

ORDER FROM YOUR LOCAL NEWSAGENT,

or send 6s 6d (one year’s subscription, post free), or 3s 4d (half year’s subscription, post free), to the Manager, The Vegetarian, Memorial Hall, Farringdon-street, E.C.

Cookery Books, 1d , 3d, 6d and 1s.

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Flyer Reverse

Capital Fun

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Call in at every Newsagent’s shop you pass and say,

“A ‘Vegetarian,’ Please,”

and when the boy behind the counter says,

“We don’t keep it, Sir,”

you can reply,

“What! Not keep ‘THE VEGETARIAN!!’

The great paper of the day. Full of Stories, Medical Advice, Jokes and News. The paper which tells you how to Marry, live well, and save money out of your wages. Why I’m astonished!!!”

Then walk out of the shop indignantly, and then the boy will subside quite overcome.

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How did this flyer survive?

It was lovingly placed between the pages of a battered, faded, water stained, fragmentary December 1895 copy of  The Vegetarian Review – front cover below this.

It was inserted along with this next flyer – below – which offered cash ‘prizes’ to people who sold subscriptions for, or submitted stories to, or sent in illustrations  etc. to both The Vegetarian & The Vegetarian Review.

 

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Notes

(1) The photo –

Back row (L-R): Rev. James Clark, E. Dolby Shelton, W. Chudley, William Harrison, Peter Foxcroft.

Middle row (L-R): Miss May Yates, G. Cosens Prior, Mrs. William Harrison and Mrs. Peter Foxcroft.

Front row (from far left): T.T. Mozumdar, Josiah Oldfield (bearded) and M. K. Gandhi

(From: The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review of September 1936.) & also visible on –  http://www.ordergoldenage.co.uk/page8.html

(2) Additional information about the early days of the various London Vegetarian Societies – http://www.ivu.org/history/vfu/lva.html –

M. K. Gandhi – … There was a Vegetarian Society in England with a weekly journal of its own. I subscribed to the weekly, joined the Society and very shortly found myself on the Executive Committee … [Louis Fischer in his 1950 biography ‘The Life of Mahatma Ghandi’ says that Gandhi was on the Executive Committee of the ‘Vegetarian Society of England’, but no such society has ever existed. The above is clearly a reference to the LVS as will be seen below. ] 

… Full of the neophyte’s zeal for vegetarianism I decided to start a vegetarian club in my locality, Bayswater. I invited Sir Edwin Arnold, who lived there, to be Vice-President. Dr. Oldfield who was Editor of The Vegetarian became President. I myself became the Secretary. The Club went for a while, but came to an end in the course of a few months …

Sir Edwin Arnold – http://www.ivu.org/history/europe19b/arnold.html – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Arnold

(3) The Ernest Bell Library – https://www.happycow.net/blog/?p=5665

(4) Dr Oldfield = Josiah Oldfield – http://www.ordergoldenage.co.uk/page30.html – http://www.ivu.org/history/europe19b/oldfield.html

Josiah Oldfield – also one of our sites – ……well overdue for a make-over / rewrite – http://www.ordergoldenage.co.uk/page30.html

(5) Charles W. Forward – his books – http://classify.oclc.org/classify2/ClassifyDemo?search-author-txt=%22Forward%2C+Charles+W.+(Charles+Walter)%22

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How do we secure these items?

The Ernest Bell Library is in touch with more than 300 specialist dealers around the world.

……so we have at least 300 pairs of eyes continuously looking for examples of quirky ephemeral material such as these!

Books & metal items often survive fairly well.

Magazines, posters, booklets & leaflets rarely survive.

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