Barnardo's Ups and Downs Magazine

The Ups and Downs magazine was published in Toronto, Ontario, from August 1895 until December 1949 by
the Canadian branch of Dr. Barnardo’s organization. The number of issues per volume varied greatly, from 12
issues in Volume 1 in 1895/96 and 13 issues in Volume 2 in 1896/97 to the more regular 4 issues per year
until 1936, when 2 issues per year were printed. Soon after that, in 1939, there was just 1 issue per year until
1949.

As far as is known, no organization owns all the copies, but BIFHSGO has located and indexed 146 of the 173
issues that are believed to have been printed. As of November 2013, two additional issues have also been
identified but have not been copied nor indexed. This leaves 27 issues between January 1906 and the
summer of 1921 that have not been found and therefore not copied nor indexed. Unfortunately, this covers
World War I, when many home children went to war.

The annual cost of the magazine was 25 cents, and it was very popular with the children. On average, each
issue had between 28 and 36 pages, although earlier issues had fewer pages and some later issues had as
many as 80. The magazines usually included both boys and girls sections with many photos, a feature that
encouraged many of the children to become avid readers of its pages. After 1924, when Barnardo’s took over
the Macpherson homes, a Marchmont Home section was added to the magazine to cater to children who
came to Canada via Annie Macpherson’s operations. Over the period of the magazine, about 30,000 children
arrived in Canada through the Barnardo's and Macpherson's organizations. 

You can read a number of past issues of Ups and Downs online on the British Home Children in Canada
website. The BIFHSGO database has about 61,000 line items, mostly names. There is, therefore, a reasonable
chance that any given child is mentioned.

If you find a name in the BIFHSGO database that interests you and the issue is not available online, you can
obtain a scanned copy of the article from Library and Archives Canada. Details for accessing these articles are
provided on the Library and Archives Canada website at Home Children Records. First, make sure to search
the Library and Archives Canada database to find the page number, which is not always included in this
BIFHSGO index.

Our Ups and Downs database was started originally by Brian Rolfe, in Ottawa, with help from Gail Collins, in
St. Catharines, Ontario, and her crew of helpers. After Brian’s untimely death, his son Thomas gave BIFHSGO
volunteers his films and hard copies, which enabled them to finalize the indexing and produce the index in its
present form