| Description | Incomplete sequence of student magazine that began as a revival of the University of Birmingham Magazine, launched in October 1904 as the official organ of the Guild of Undergraduates. The content of the magazine in the years before the First World War is primarily literary, but there are also detailed reports from student societies and clubs and news items from university departments. Issues from 1904 contain articles about the expansion of the Guild of Undergraduates, and the construction of a Guild Club house in Great Charles Street, next to the Medical Department. Other regular features include news about staff appointments and resignations, cartoons of staff and students drawn by D. G. Lillie, G. B. Hill and E. A. Allcut, correspondence and poetry written by students, student gossip, and reports of Guild of Undergraduates and Union meetings. Before 1909 there are regular articles on the construction of the new University buildings at Bournbrook, often with detailed descriptions of the buildings themselves. Most issues also contain photographs of individual staff and individual and group photographs of students. More occasional items include articles about women's suffrage in 1908 and coverage of the debate as to whether the University should become completely mixed outside lectures; articles on Socialism; the visit of the Engineering society and Motor Club to the first British aviation meeting at Blackpool in October 1909; and reviews of plays by student societies and the women's department of the Day Training College. Society news includes reports of the Officers Training Corps, and there is a photograph of members of this group in the November 1913 issue.
Issues of Mermaid during the First World War contain coverage of the conflict interspersed with the usual content. During the first year of the war the conflict does not impinge on the content to a large extent. There is much greater coverage in subsequent years with articles on British foreign and domestic policy during and after the conflict; University Women's Relief Work; a series of articles in 1915 on women's involvement in the war effort, including agricultural work in Worcestershire, and whether to continue campaign for female suffrage; reports by individual students on various kinds of war work they were involved in, including refugee work in France; extracts from letters sent by soldiers on active service in France and Italy; and a monthly roll of honour giving details about students killed in action, with obituaries for some individuals; There are no photographs in these issues.
From 1919 onwards Mermaid contains reports from student societies; poetry and correspondence; articles on University developments, including staff arrivals and departures; and transcripts of addresses by Warden of the Guild, and the University Principal. Issues from 1920 onwards are much thinner; there are fewer society reports, perhaps partly because some societies had suspended operations for the duration of the First World War. Other regular features include play reviews; articles on aspects of arts and science; and reports of sports teams. From 1922-1923 there are photographs of Carnival floats, and from 1924 there are reports of social activities at Chancellor's Hall, the new hall of residence for men students. Mermaid had a brief phase as the University Gazette between 1924 and 1930. During this period articles were set out in column format, with a list of contents on the inside pages. Otherwise, the content of the magazine followed the same pattern as in previous years. There are still regular reports from societies and sports teams which include some photographs, particularly of athletics events, but there are also group photographs of sports teams from the late 1920s onwards, and results and fixtures, with names of competitors. The business of Guild committees is also reported, with extracts from meetings, and some photographs of Guild officers. There was a regular feature entitled Chancellor's Hall supplement from 1929, reporting social events taking place at this hall of residence, and less regular news items about University House. Other items consist of reports about the activities of Carnival and the Debating Society; theatre reviews; news about lectures and addresses by Principal and Warden of Guild; staff appointments and departures; obituaries; correspondence and poetry; and occasional items of national or international news. During the General Strike of 1926, a special typescript strike issue was produced. From the autumn of 1927 the tone and content of the publication changed, in an attempt by the editorial board to make Mermaid more like a magazine, with short stories and more general articles of interest on aspects of the arts and sciences in addition to previous content. Issues from this period also contain articles about the construction of the new Union building at Edgbaston including plans and sketches, and articles about the new Hospitals Centre.
The new series of Mermaid from 1930 aimed to have a clearer editorial policy. Early issues include articles about the opening of the Guild building as well as regular features consisting of short stories; dialogues; poetry; society reports; sports teams reports; faculty gossip; correspondence; Debating Society reports; film reviews; and the Chancellor's Hall supplement. Other regular features include articles about Carnival and photographs of athletes competing in events on the sports fields below the Aston Webb complex. The November 1934 issue contains coverage of the visit by the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, to lay the foundation stone for the Hospitals Centre, together with photographs, and there are also articles during the 1930s about the new medical school building. Matters of national and international significance are also covered, with articles about the New Deal and Nazi Germany in 1936, and on pacifism. From 1936 Mermaid becomes more of a journal in scope and content, following the launch of Guild News. The magazine is almost entirely literary in content by 1939. During 1940 there are a number of articles about universities in wartime, and by October 1940 the magazine is printed on plain paper covers. During this period Mermaid includes articles by Henry Reed and Walter Allen. Norman Painting was editor of the magazine in 1945 and 1946. Henry Reed was still contributing to the magazine in the late 1940s, and there is an article by Walter Allen in the June 1950 issue on the influence of Mermaid during the 1930s, when he, Henry Reed, and other non-university writers were contributing. Content during the 1950s and early 1960s consists of short stories; articles; poems; reviews; and illustrations including drawings, woodcuts, and photographs. The magazine was being published once a term at this time. This format continues until 1963 when the magazine started including articles on contemporary politics and culture, and issues contained many more photographs, particularly after the adoption of a larger 'magazine' format. Topical articles during the 1960s include reports on apartheid; That Was The Week That Was; religion at the University; travel; folk music; post-war civic improvements in Birmingham; the trend for students to live together; and sexually transmitted infections. Articles in Summer 1968 focus on the concept of the university, with reports on admission, student grants, student participation, and student accommodation, with a summary comment piece by Stuart Hall. Others involved in this issue included Catherine Hall, Michael Green, and other members of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. The Spring 1969 issue contains articles on the 1968 occupation of the Great Hall and other university buildings, and on the newly formed Guild Television, and the Autumn 1969 issue includes articles about life in the Vale halls of residence and levels of student participation in and influence over hall organisation. There is also an article about University administrators and the repercussions from the publication of The Student Role and the 1968 occupation. Issues dating from the early 1970s contain reports on the work of Community Action, accompanied by documentary photographs taken in Balsall Heath in Spring 1970, and an article about community relations in Handsworth, focusing on the work of All Faiths For One Race (AFFOR), Westminster Endeavour for Learning and Development (WELD), and a group of former students at Birmingham who were involved in Community Action work and ran an Action Centre at 40 Hall Road, in Spring 1973. Other items published during this period include reports on the women's liberation movement, the Black Panthers and civil rights in America, and an interview with Germaine Greer. The 'Bones of Mermaid' issue published in autumn 1971 is centred on staff-student relationships and contains articles about the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, academic freedom, a crisis in German department, and the state of medical training at the university.
Each issue includes a contents page. Volumes are bound until 1938, and between 1947 and 1956. There are also incomplete sets of loose issues with their original paper covers for the period from 1904 to 1956. After this date all issues are held as loose copies with paper covers. |
| Administrative History | Mermaid originated in Mason College Magazine which became the University of Birmingham Magazine in 1900. It appears that no magazines were published between June 1903 when the last issue of the University of Birmingham Magazine was produced, and October 1904, when it was decided to revive the magazine. See UB/GUILD/D/2/4 for correspondence relating to the formation of Mermaid. The first issue of the relaunched student magazine as Mermaid was published in October 1904. The 1906 student handbook records that Mermaid took the place of the magazine formerly under the control of the, now dissolved, Students' Representative Council. Magazine business was conducted by an editorial board under control of the Guild of Undergraduates, and it was issued six times a year. The first version of Mermaid folded in 1924, and it was replaced with The University Gazette, journal of the Guild of Undergraduates, which was supposed to be more of a news sheet than a literary magazine, although some poetry and literary items were included in most issues, and occasionally special literary numbers were published. By 1926-1927 the content of this publication had returned to a more magazine-like format. In 1930 the magazine was re-launched and its name reverted to Mermaid. Responsibility for its publication was by now dealt with by the Guild Publications Committee. Guild News was launched in 1936, enabling Mermaid to become a predominantly literary and cultural magazine, as opposed to reporting news events.
During the Second World War, Mermaid was published intermittently. It was only issued once during the 1942-1943 academic session, and once during 1943-44. Some Mermaid articles were printed in Guild News. Mermaid was still being published three times a year at the start of the 1950s, but by 1959 it was only being published once a term. It was issued more frequently during the early 1970s, but appears to have folded sometime later in the decade before a brief revival in 1977. It was defunct by the 1980s |