''Chambers's Encyclopaedia'' was founded in 1859
[Chambers, W. & R]
"Concluding Notice"
in ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia''. London: W. & R. Chambers, 1868, Vol. 10, pp. v–viii. by
William
William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...
and
Robert Chambers of
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
and became one of the most important English language encyclopaedias of the 19th and 20th centuries, developing a reputation for accuracy and scholarliness that was reflected in other works produced by the
Chambers publishing company. The encyclopaedia is no longer produced.
''Chambers's Information for the People''
Before publishing an encyclopedia, Chambers produced a smaller publication, ''Chambers's Information for the People''. This began as a serial publication in 1835. Like the ''
Penny Cyclopaedia'', and others of the time it was meant to be a cheap reference work that was targeted at the middle and working classes. Hence, it focused only on subjects that would be of interest to the common man and pertinent to his self education. It also eschewed the bulky format that and "found it necessary to disregard all common idea as to what constitutes dignity in the externals of books". The undertaking was a success, selling seventy thousand issues in its first year. The original edition consisted of 48 numbered "treatises", plus an unnumbered introductory treatise "An Account of the Earth, Physical and Political." Improved two volume editions were published in 1842 and 1848. A third improved edition appeared in 1857., shortly before the Chambers Brothers publication of the first edition of their major encyclopedia in 1860. Further new, two volume editions were published in 1875 and 1884, both of which are denominated the ''Fifth edition''.
Congruently with this a second series of editions were published in Philadelphia by a succession of publishers including
J. B. Lippincott. The 1848 edition is stated to be the first American edition, while the 1856 ed. is claimed to be the 15th. Further American editions were published up to 1867.
First edition
The first edition, entitled ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People'', was partly based on a translation into English of the 10th edition of the
German-language
German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It is a ...
''Konversations-Lexikon'', which would become the
Brockhaus Enzyklopädie.
["Chambers’s Encyclopaedia". ''Encyclopædia Britannica Online'', 2013. Retrieved on 2013-08-30 from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/105004/Chamberss-Encyclopaedia.]
The publishers found it necessary, however, to supplement the core text with a significant amount of additional material,
[ including more than 4000 illustrations not present in Brockhaus. Andrew Findlater was the acting editor and spent ten years on the project.][
The work appeared between 1859 and 1868 in 520 weekly parts at three-halfpence each][ and totalled ten octavo volumes, with 8,320 pages, and over 27,000 articles from over 100 authors.][ Over 250 authors were traced by Professor Cooney in 1999. Volume 10 included a supplement of 409 pages at the back for new and revised content. A revised edition appeared in 1874. The index of matters not having special articles contained about 1,500 headings. The articles were generally considered excellent, especially on Jewish literature, folk-lore, and practical science. As in Brockhaus, however, the scope of the work did not allow extended treatment.
]
Later editions
An entirely new edition was published 1888–1892 in ten volumes edited by David Patrick. In this edition, the majority of the articles were rewritten and the articles on American matters were written mainly by Americans and an edition published there by Messrs. Lippincott of Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
so that Lippincott and Chambers could claim relevant copyright in their respective countries. This second edition had about 800 fewer illustrations than the first edition, although other visual features, such as tables and fold-out maps increased.
Further new editions followed in the 1890s, 1901, 1908, the 1920s and 1935. This last edition was also issued as a special ''British Universities Encyclopedia''. Each of these kept the 10 volume format. Patrick wrote the preface for the 1901 and 1908 editions and was listed as the editor in the 1920s and 1935 editions, despite having died in 1914. These were actually edited by William Geddie (1877–1967).[
In the United States a version of Chambers was published in 1880 as the ''Library of Universal Knowledge''. This began the process of creating the '' New International Encyclopedia'' family of encyclopedias.][Walsh p.22]
Newnes era
In 1944 the licence to ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia'' was acquired by George Newnes, Ltd., which had been publishing one-volume reference works for about a decade. In 1950, ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia. New Edition'' was published in fifteen volumes with great fanfare. While being international in scope, it has been described by ''Encyclopædia Britannica
The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...
'' as British in orientation and conservative in approach with largely British contributors.[ Managing editor Margret D. Law called it a completely new work with an historic name and noted in the preface that the encyclopaedia "...is primarily a British production and therefore no doubt reflects to some extent the intellectual atmosphere of post-war Britain. This implies belief in international co-operation rather than nationalistic isolationism, and in ]freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...
, and worship
Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity or God. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recognition of a God. An act of worship may be performed individually, in an informal or formal group, ...
, information
Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpretation (perhaps Interpretation (log ...
and association rather than in any totalitarian conception".[Law, M.D. "Preface" in ''Chambers’s Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 1, pp. vii–x.] The publication was celebrated at a luncheon at Grocers' Hall attended by over one hundred contributors and chaired by Sir Frank Newnes. It was announced that the encyclopaedia, which had taken six years to prepare, had cost £500,000 and included the work of over 2,300 authors. Lord Jowitt, the Lord Chancellor
The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...
, gave the toast and described the endeavour as "outstanding proof" of British scholarship, while Mrs Law commented that she believed the work to be the first major encyclopaedia to be published in Britain since before the First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
.
Subsequent reports from the publishers, Newnes, confirmed that the work was a great success, with sales requiring regular reprinting; this allowed for considerable revision of the work. By the 1961 revised edition, several million words had been revised or replaced and over half the total pages had been reset or changed in some way.[ The encyclopaedia was regarded as such a scholarly achievement that Mrs Law was made an OBE for her efforts. She retired in 1963.
Unlike other encyclopedias of the time, ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia'' forwent annual revision and attempted to publish new editions at roughly five-year intervals. A new edition was published in 1955 and another at the turn of the next decade.][
]
Pergamon era
The Encyclopaedia was acquired by Pergamon Press in 1966, the same year as the next edition was published. Despite its publication date, information within the set was not up to date beyond 1963. A revised printing was made in 1973 and the encyclopedia went out of print in 1979.
The final edition included 12,600 pages, 28,000 articles, and 14.5 million words. The articles averaged slightly more than 500 words, or half a page, each. There were 4,500 illustrations, mostly in black and white and 416 maps. 3,000 contributors were listed in the final volume and all but the briefest articles were signed. There were 10,000 cross references and an index of 225,000 entries.[Kister p.36]
See also
* '' Chambers Dictionary''
* Chambers Harrap
* Robert Chambers
* William Chambers
References
Attribution
* Democratising knowledge and visualising progress: illustrations from Chambers's Encyclopaedia, 1859–1892
Further reading
*
* Roberto, R. (2019) Democratising knowledge and visualising progress: illustrations from Chambers's Encyclopaedia, 1859–1892. PhD thesis, University of Readin
* Roberto, R. (2018) `Illustrating Animals and Visualizing Natural History in Chambers's Encyclopaedias.' IN Comforting Creatures / 57e Congrès de la SAES : (Re)Construction(s
External links
* ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People, Illustrated, with Maps and Numerous Wood Engravings'' (First ed. 1860-1868) on Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
: Volum
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(All are B&W scans)
* ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People, Illustrated'' (1871) on Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
and HathiTrust
HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digit ...
: Volum
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(Volume I-IX are color scans, Volume X is B&W scan)
* ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge, New Edition'' (1901) on Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
: Volum
I
II
III
IV
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(All are color scans)
Democratising Knowledge: Illustrations in Chambers's Encyclopaedia (archived 2018)
from National Museums Scotland Discover how the Scottish publishing firm of W. & R. Chambers pioneered the use of images in encyclopaedias and dictionaries, embedded within the body of the text.
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English-language encyclopedias
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