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Poole's Index to Periodical Literature is the first and only systematic article level index to the subject matter of 19th century periodicals. Originally published in six volumes between 1882 and 1908, the Index began in 1848 as the project of Yale student, William Frederick Poole. Poole observed that libraries hold collections of periodicals which receive little use because their content is not known. Through the application of subject indexing, Poole was able to dramatically increase access to periodical literature, greatly facilitating the research process. In 1876, Poole was approached by the American Library Association, and persuaded to produce a new edition of his index, with the assistance William Fletcher, Librarian of Amherst College, and the library community in North America and the UK. When the final volume was released in 1908, the Index had covered 482,000 articles and 378,000 subjects in 12,241 volumes of 479 British and American periodicals for the years 1802-1906.

Periodical publishing in the 19th century was both voluminous and multifarious. Any and all aspects of contemporary thought were represented through this burgeoning medium, from which many eminent novelists and journalists emerged.

The scholarly importance of this material created an imperative to provide indexes through which it could be accessed. Poole's own subject index was created in response to this need. However, until 1965 and Wellesley, there was no author index. The primary objective of Wellesley was to assist scholars in assessing the significance of periodical articles by delivering accurate information on provenance. This was a monumental undertaking, given that the vast majority of articles published in Victorian periodicals were anonymous or pseudonymous.

Wellesley then, is an index to the authorship of articles, and a bibliography of articles written by each contributor, and using each pseudonym. Citations of evidence are provided to support attributions of authorship, along with brief biographical and vocational details. 45 important monthly and quarterly titles are included, covering the period from the beginning of the Westminster Review in 1824 to the end of the century. The exception to this is the Edinburgh Review, which is indexed from first issue, in 1802. Wellesley does not index poetry.