|
Summary:
|
From Pat Deveney's journal database:
Age of Progress, The.
Devoted to the Development and Propagation of Truth, the Enfranchisement and Cultivation of the Human Mind.
The Development of Spiritual Truth Is the Achievement of Human Freedom
Other titles: Albro's Magazine
1854-1858 Weekly
Buffalo, NY. Publisher: Buffalo Harmonial Association. Editor: Stephen Albro, editor and publisher. Succeeded by: The Spiritual Age
Corporate author: Buffalo Harmonial Association
1/1, September 23, 1854-1858. 4-8 pp., $2.00 a year. This began as a journal devoted primarily to opposition to Catholicism, Irish immigration (it advocated the "prevention of the exportation of paupers to this country, by European nations"), liquor and slavery, but proclaimed in its prospectus that it was "open to free discussion of the Spiritual Philosophy.”" That interest came to dominate over time as the journal moved from discussion pro and con of spiritualism to open advocacy, reciting that it was published under the auspices of the Buffalo Harmonial Association. Albro was converted to spiritualism when he witnessed the appearance of the Fox Sisters in Buffalo in February 1851. His journal reported both on local mediums of note and on every prominent spiritualist, like the Davenport Brothers (about whom Albro had his doubts), J.B. Conklin, C. Hammond, P.B. Randolph, Cora Hatch, et al., who visited Buffalo. It also published accounts of F. Hockley's Crowned Angel, the Patriarchal Order, and Jonathan Koons' spirit rooms. The first issue carried "The Rosicrucian," a short story about a mysterious member of the brotherhood but, although R.S. Clymer later reprinted it and may have believed that it was by P.B. Randolph, the story was reprinted by Albro from the Portfolio of Amusement and Instruction of 1827. The journal early on accepted that "Spiritualism and spiritualists teach that the sexes should unite themselves in obedience to the law of conjugal affinity" -- free love -- but prudently taught that, at least for this generation, this freedom should be restricted to the unmarried. A note in the Spiritual Offering, August 11, 1883, 3,mentions that this journal was "the first spiritual paper published in the United States," but is in error. NSAC, Lily Dale (2/1 (whole # 53), October 13, 1855, through 2/52, October 4, 1856 (# 104).); Buffalo & Erie County Library; Emory University.
|
