Topics included history, religion, language, and science.

William was soon joined as joint editor by his brother Robert, who wrote many of the articles for the early issues, and within a few years the journal had a circulation of 84,000.

In 1854 the title was changed to Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art,[4] and changed again to Chambers's Journal at the end of 1897.

The journal was produced in Edinburgh until the late 1850s, by which time the author James Payn had taken over as editor, and production was moved to London.

Among its long-standing contributors was Camilla Dufour Crosland up to her death in 1895.