The Busy Bee was a handmade "little magazine" created between 1877 and 1886. It is largely composed of handwritten articles, including poetry, prose, fiction, and non-fiction, though it also includes illustrations, magazine cuttings, and photographs.
The project was organised by Selina Mary Moor (1860-1944) who, every "quarter", would solicit submissions from a coterie of family, friends, and friends-of-friends. Though most of the people in this group were amateurs in that they were not trained and did not identify as either authors or artists, among this circle was the prolific Victorian author Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901).
Other contributors include Moor's cousins, the sisters Rose Armatrude Frances Grimston (1859-1927) and Florence Maria "Effie" Grimston (1857-1920). Effie lived at Culver House in Devon, and it was here that the The Busy Bee volumes were recently found in an attic. We are grateful to Rose and Effie's descendant, Charles Eden, who has loaned these objects to the University of Exeter for further investigation.