New American Cyclopaedia 1858 vol 4 title page

The ''New American Cyclopædia'' was an

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

created and published by D. Appleton & Company of New York in 16 volumes, which initially appeared between 1858 and 1863. Its primary editors were

George Ripley George Ripley may refer to: * George Ripley (alchemist) (died 1490), English author and alchemist *George Ripley (transcendentalist) George Ripley (October 3, 1802 – July 4, 1880) was an American social reformer, Unitarian minister, and journ ...

and

Charles Anderson Dana Charles Anderson Dana (August 8, 1819 – October 17, 1897) was an American journalist, author, and senior government official. He was a top aide to Horace Greeley as the managing editor of the powerful Republican newspaper '' New-York Tribun ...

. The ''New American Cyclopædia'' was revised and republished as the ''American Cyclopædia'' in 1873. Includes photograph of title page.

Overview

The ''New American Cyclopædia'' was a general encyclopedia with a special focus on subjects related to the United States. As it was created over the years spanning the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, the focus and tone of articles could change drastically; for example,

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...

, the future president of the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

, was treated at length as a United States Army soldier and US government politician in pre-war editions. As was traditional, the entire set was re-issued with the publication in 1863 of the 16th volume. The whole ''Cyclopædia'' was again re-issued in 1864.

Contributors

A notable contributor was

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

, then a European correspondent for the ''

New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...

'', who, appeared as the writer, while most of those articles were written by

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' which belonged in Engels' domain in the division of labor between the two friends. Because of his deep knowledge of all things military, Engels had earned the nickname "General". Marx wrote a highly unsympathetic biographical article on

Simon Bolivar Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

. Other prominent contributors to the first edition included * Charles Allen *

Samuel G. Arnold Samuel Greene Arnold Jr. (April 12, 1821February 14, 1880) was an attorney and politician from Rhode Island. A Republican, he was most notable for his service as lieutenant governor and as a United States senator. Early life Born in Providence ...

Alexander Dallas Bache Alexander Dallas Bache (July 19, 1806 – February 17, 1867) was an American physicist, scientist, and surveyor who erected coastal fortifications and conducted a detailed survey to map the mideastern United States coastline. Originally an army ...

William Bross William J. Bross (November 4, 1813 – January 27, 1890) was an American politician and publisher originally from the New Jersey–New York–Pennsylvania tri-state area. He was also elected as the 16th Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. He en ...

George Bancroft George Bancroft (October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891) was an American historian, statesman and Democratic politician who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state of Massachusetts and at the national and internati ...

* Benjamin Fordyce Barker * John R. Bartlett *

Gunning S. Bedford Gunning S. Bedford (1806 - 5 September 1870) was a medical writer, teacher and founder of the United States' first obstetrical clinic for those too poor to pay a doctor's fee. Dr. Bedford graduated in 1825 at Mount Saint Mary's University (then Mo ...

* Jeremiah S. Black * George S. Blake *

Lorin Blodget Lorin Blodget (May 23, 1823 in Busti, Chautauqua County, New York – 1901), American physicist and writer. Blodget was born near Jamestown and attended the Jamestown Academy. He later attended a college now called Hobart College in Geneva, N ...

Edmund Blunt Edmund March Blunt (June 20, 1770 – January 4, 1862) was an American navigator, author, and publisher of nautical magazines. He established a nautical book and chart publishing firm that became the largest publishing firm in the early 19th ce ...

Dion Boucicault Dionysius Lardner "Dion" Boucicault (né Boursiquot; 26 December 1820 – 18 September 1890) was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the ...

* Orestes Brownson *

B. Gratz Brown Benjamin Gratz Brown (May 28, 1826December 13, 1885) was an American politician. He was a U.S. Senator, the 20th Governor of Missouri, and the Liberal Republican and Democratic Party vice presidential candidate in the presidential election of ...

*Rev.

George Bush George Bush most commonly refers to: * George H. W. Bush (1924–2018), 41st president of the United States and father of the 43rd president * George W. Bush (born 1946), 43rd president of the United States and son of the 41st president Georg ...

* Charles P. Daly *

James D. Dana James Dwight Dana Royal Society of London, FRS FRSE (February 12, 1813 – April 14, 1895) was an American geologist, mineralogist, volcanologist, and zoologist. He made pioneering studies of mountain-building, volcano, volcanic activity, and the ...

Richard Henry Dana Jr. Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 – January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of a colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir ''Two Years Before the Mast''. ...

* Charles H. Davis *

Adolph Douai Karl Daniel Adolf Douai (1819 – 1888), known to his peers as "Adolf", was a German Texan teacher as well as a socialist and abolitionist newspaper editor. Douai was driven from Texas in 1856 due to his published opposition of slavery, living out ...

John William Draper John William Draper (May 5, 1811 – January 4, 1882) was an English-born American scientist, philosopher, physician, chemist, historian and photographer. He is credited with producing the first clear photograph of a female face (1839–40) and ...

* Lyman C. Draper *

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

Edward Everett Edward Everett (April 11, 1794 – January 15, 1865) was an American politician, Unitarian pastor, educator, diplomat, and orator from Massachusetts. Everett, as a Whig, served as U.S. representative, U.S. senator, the 15th governor of Mass ...

Horace Greeley Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and newspaper editor, editor of the ''New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressm ...

George Washington Greene George Washington Greene (April 8, 1811 – February 2, 1883) was an American historian. He was also the grandson of Major-General Nathanael Greene, a hero of the American Revolutionary War. Biography Greene was born in East Greenwich, Rho ...

Joseph Henry Joseph Henry (December 17, 1797– May 13, 1878) was an American scientist who served as the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He was the secretary for the National Institute for the Promotion of Science, a precursor of the Smith ...

* Henry W. Herbert *Rev. Thomas Hill *

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (; August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Grouped among the fireside poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most fa ...

James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that ri ...

* Charles Nordhoff *

Henry Steel Olcott Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (2 August 1832 – 17 February 1907) was an American military officer, journalist, lawyer, Freemason and the co-founder and first president of the Theosophical Society. Olcott was the first well-known American of Euro ...

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...

Theophilus Parsons Theophilus Parsons (February 24, 1750October 30, 1813) was an American jurist. Life Born in Newbury, Massachusetts to a clergyman father, Parsons was one of the early students at the Dummer Academy (now The Governor's Academy) before matricu ...

Rafael Pombo José Rafael de Pombo y Rebolledo (November 7, 1833 – May 5, 1912) was a Colombian poet born in Bogotá. Trained as a mathematician and an engineer in a military school, Rafael Pombo served in the army and he traveled to the United States of Ame ...

Hermann Raster Hermann Raster (May 6, 1827 – July 24, 1891) was an American editor, abolitionist, writer, and anti-temperance political boss who served as chief editor and part-owner of the ''Illinois Staats-Zeitung'', a widely circulated newspaper in the G ...

William H. Seward William Henry Seward (May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872) was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States Senator. A determined oppon ...

* Charles Sprague *

Henry B. Stanton Henry Brewster Stanton (June 27, 1805 – January 14, 1887) was an American Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, social reformer, Lawyer, attorney, journalist and politician. His writing was published in the ''New York Tribune, ...

*Miss Rose Terry *Rev.

Thomas Thayer Thomas Baldwin Thayer (September 10, 1812 in Boston, Massachusetts – February 12, 1886 in Roxbury, Massachusetts) was the leading Universalist theologian in the late nineteenth century.Howe, Charles A. ''The Larger Faith: A Short History of Am ...

Alexander Thayer Alexander Wheelock Thayer (October 22, 1817 – July 15, 1897) was an American librarian and journalist who became the author of the first scholarly biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, still after many updatings regarded as a standard work of refer ...

* William Sydney Thayer * John Reuben Thompson *

Richard Grant White Richard Grant White (May 23, 1822 – April 8, 1885) was one of the foremost literary and musical critics of his day. He was also a prominent Shakespearean scholar, journalist, social critic, and lawyer, who was born and died in New York City.''A ...

Sidney Willard Sidney Willard (September 19, 1780 – December 6, 1856) was an American academic and politician who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, on the Massachusetts Governor's Council and as the second Mayor of Cambridge, Massachuset ...

* E. L. Youmans

Annual yearbook

An associated yearbook, '' Appletons' Annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year'', was published from 1861 to 1875 and on to 1902.

Publication history

The cyclopaedia was revived under the title ''American Cyclopædia'' in 1873–6. A final edition was issued in 1883–4, which added supplements to each volume of the 1873 edition. Two analytical indexes were published separately in 1878 and 1884.Walsh, S. Padraig, 1922- ''Anglo-American general encyclopedias: a historical bibliography, 1703-1967'' New York : Bowker, pp.2-3, 110

References

External links

*Links t
digitized volumes
of the ''American Cyclopædia'' American cyclopaedia frontispiece

* {{Authority control English-language encyclopedias American encyclopedias D. Appleton & Company books 19th-century encyclopedias 1857 books