The Daisy Basket was a British quarterly children's magazine published by the Vegetarian Society in Manchester from January 1893 to October 1894. It was the magazine of the Daisy Society, the children's branch of the Vegetarian Society, and was edited by Joseph Knight, who wrote as "Uncle Joseph".
The magazine was the first regularly issued British vegetarian children's periodical. It contained editorials, poems, stories, lectures, book notices, letters, competitions, and reprinted material on vegetarianism and animal welfare.
Background The Daisy Society was founded by the Vegetarian Society in 1883 as a branch for young vegetarians under 14 years of age. Its name was suggested in 1884 by W. M. Wright and officially adopted in 1885. The society aimed to encourage children to think about vegetarianism and understand why it should be practised.
Before The Daisy Basket, the Vegetarian Society had issued a children's publication called Daisy Leaves, which appeared only occasionally. In January 1893, the society launched The Daisy Basket as a quarterly magazine for the Daisy Society and other young readers. The first issue was published as a double number priced at two pence; later issues cost one penny.
Publication history
The Daisy Basket was published quarterly from January 1893 to October 1894, with eight issues in total. It was published by the Vegetarian Society in Manchester. During the magazine's run, the society's address changed from 75 Princess Street to 9 Peter Street.
Joseph Knight, secretary of the Vegetarian Society in Manchester, edited the magazine under the name "Uncle Joseph". In this role, he addressed readers directly and presented himself as an adult guide within the vegetarian movement.
A reader suggested that the magazine should be issued monthly, but the editors stated that this would require more subscribers. In January 1894, they informed readers that the magazine would remain quarterly.
The magazine later received support from a fund left to the Vegetarian Society by Matilda Cooper of Hastings, described in its pages as devoted to reducing animal suffering. The bequest paid for three issues, but did not secure the magazine's continuation. In October 1894, the editors announced that The Daisy Basket would continue in "another form".
Contents and themes The opening editorial stated that the magazine was intended to support "the Vegetarian cause" and to persuade people to stop eating meat, for their own benefit and for the sake of animals. It addressed members of the Daisy Society and other children, and encouraged non-members to join the society.
The magazine's contents included editorials, poems, short stories, lectures, writing competitions, letters to the editor, book notices, a "Chatty Corner", and "Jottings". It published original stories, including "Francis' Rabbit" by Joseph Knight, "The Cat's Cradle" by Edmund J. Ballie, and "The GVR" by Mary S. Owen. It also reprinted material from periodicals including The Young Abstainer, The Humanitarian, and Sunbeam, and from works by writers such as Edward Byron Nicholson, Benjamin Ward Richardson, and Edith Carrington.
Animal welfare was a recurring subject. The magazine criticised the killing of animals for food, the collection of insects and butterflies, bird-nesting, bird trapping, and the use of birds' feathers in women's hats. It also associated vegetarianism with kindness to animals, religious duty, and personal moral discipline.
Religious arguments appeared regularly in the magazine. Its first issue stated that the "spirit of the Bible", as well as science, supported vegetarianism. In one address, Thomas Owen, a vice-president of the Vegetarian Society, argued that the food given to Adam and Eve in Genesis was the same kind chiefly used by vegetarians. His wife, Mary Sarah Owen, also wrote for the magazine.
Reception and analysis Marzena Kubisz describes The Daisy Basket as the first regularly published British vegetarian magazine for children, and places it within the late Victorian vegetarian movement's efforts to reach younger readers. She writes that the magazine gave vegetarian children a public forum in which they could read, write, compete, and identify themselves as part of a wider vegetarian community.
Kubisz also interprets the magazine through Michel Foucault's concept of "technologies of the self", arguing that its letters, contests, editorials, and moral instruction trained children in the habits and self-understanding of vegetarian conduct.
Legacy After the end of The Daisy Basket, young vegetarian readers did not receive another regular vegetarian children's periodical until the launch of The Children's Garden (1900–1905). John Edmundson describes Daisy Leaves and The Daisy Basket as predecessors of The Children's Realm (1906–1914).
See also Bibliography of veganism and vegetarianism History of vegetarianism Vegetarianism in the Victorian era Vegetarianism in the United Kingdom Animal welfare in the United Kingdom
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