A connected effort? American editors pursue mathematical journal publication, 1804-1878

The existing list of American periodicals that include mathematical content prior to the 1876 founding of The American Journal of Mathematics suggests a series of discrete attempts to start a specialized mathematical journal. This paper argues that a handful of mathematical practitioners in fact participated in far more sustained and contiguous efforts to start and sustain an elevated level of specialized mathematical periodical publication in the United States in the first three quarters of the nineteenth century.