{{Short description|British christian weekly magazine (1854 - 1940)}} {{Infobox magazine |title = Sunday at Home; a family magazine for Sabbath reading <ref name="Short"/> |image_file = File:Sunday at Home no 1 cover.tif |image_size = |image_caption= Cover of the first issue of ''Sunday at Home'' |editor = |firstdate = May 1854<ref name="Scott-thesis"/> |finaldate = 1940<ref name="Scott-thesis"/> |based = |publisher=Religious Tract Society }}
'''''Sunday at Home''''' was a weekly magazine published in London by the Religious Tract Society beginning in 1854. It was one of the most successful examples of the "Sunday reading" genre of periodicals: inexpensive magazines intended to provide wholesome religious (or religiously inspired) entertainment for families to read on Sundays, especially as a substitute for "pernicious" secular penny weeklies such as ''The London Journal'' or ''The Family Herald''.<ref name="Scott"/>
It was initially edited by James Macaulay, and later by W. Stevens.<ref name="Youth"/> Macaulay and Stevens also edited ''The Leisure Hour'', a similar periodical which debuted two years earlier and was also published by the Religious Tract Society, though ''Sunday at Home'' was more overtly religious and had a more strongly Sabbatarian viewpoint.<ref name="Youth"/> Like ''The Leisure Hour'', a typical issue of ''Sunday at Home'' led with a serialized piece of religious fiction, and included at least one large illustration.<ref name="Youth"/>
In addition to the penny weekly format, the magazine was issued in monthly parts at a price of five pence<ref name="Youth"/> (raised to 6p in 1863), and annual volumes ranging in price from around 5 to 10 shillings.<ref name="Scott"/>
[[File:Sunday at Home John 11-25.jpg|thumb|left|An example of a page with colour illustrations from an 1883 issue. The text of the Bible verse John 11:25 is illuminated with lilies and other decoration.]] In 1862, the magazine began including colour illustrations, apparently the first penny weekly to do so.<ref name="Scott"/>
In 1865, the magazine had an annual circulation of 130,000 copies, which increased steadily up to 1875.<ref name="Scott-thesis"/>
==Citations== <references>
<ref name="Scott">{{cite journal|title=The Sunday Periodical: "Sunday at Home"|journal=Victorian Periodicals Review|volume=25|number=4|last=Scott|first=Rosemary|year=1992|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20082622}}</ref> <ref name="Youth">{{cite book|title=Juvenile Nation: Youth, Emotions and the Making of the Modern British Citizen, 1880–1914|last=Olsen|first=Stephanie|year=2014|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9781472511416|pages=22–25}}</ref> <ref name="Short">{{cite book|last=Fyfe|first=Aileen|chapter=A short history of the Religious Tract Society|title=From the Dairyman's Daughter to Worrals of the WAAF: the Religious Tract Society, Lutterworth Press and Children's Literature|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge: Lutterworth Press|chapter-url=https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/8124/RTS_history_f.pdf}}</ref> <ref name="Scott-thesis">{{cite thesis|type=PhD|last=Scott|first=Rosemary|year=1992|title=Poetry and piety: the role of verse in mid-Victorian Sunday reading|publisher=The Open University|url=https://oro.open.ac.uk/54563/1/303397.pdf}}</ref>
</references>
==External links== {{Commons category|The Sunday at Home}} * [https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=sundayathome Links to archives of full issues of ''Sunday at Home''] via the Online Books Page
Category:Defunct Christian magazines published in the United Kingdom Category:Magazines established in 1854 Category:1854 establishments in the United Kingdom