''Orr's Circle of the Sciences'' was a scientific encyclopedia of the 1850s, published in London by William Somerville Orr.

William S. Orr & Co.

William S. Orr & Co. was a publisher in

Paternoster Row Paternoster Row is a street in the City of London that was a centre of the London publishing trade, with booksellers operating from the street. Paternoster Row was described as "almost synonymous" with the book trade. It was part of an area call ...

, London. It put out the '' British Cyclopædia'' in ten volumes of the 1830s. It also was in business selling engravings (for example the Kenny Meadows illustrations to

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

), and maps, such as a mid-century ''Cab Fare and Guide Map of London'' (c. 1853). The firm was a general commercial publisher, with a specialist area of natural history, and also published periodicals. It was innovative in its use of

wood engraving Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and prints using relatively l ...

, in its 1838 edition of ''

Paul et Virginie ''Paul et Virginie'' (; sometimes known in English as ''Paul and Virginia'') is a novel by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, first published in 1788. The novel's title characters are friends since birth who fall in love. The story is s ...

''. In

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

, it published

Christoph von Schmid Christoph von Schmid (15 August 1768 Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria – 3 September 1854 Augsburg) was a writer of children's stories and an educator. His stories were very popular and translated into many languages. His best known work in the English-s ...

's ''Basket of Flowers'' in an English translation of 1848, in partnership with J. B. Müller of

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

William Somerville Orr

Orr himself was a publishers' agent from the 1830s, and was a close associate of

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

and William Chambers. He printed a London edition of '' Chambers's Edinburgh Journal'' by mid-1832. The arrangement used

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...

plates, and brought the circulation up to 50,000. By 1845 the circulation was declining from its peak, and Orr wrote to Chambers explaining that the market was changing. In 1846 Chambers terminated the arrangement with Orr. ''Punch'' magazine, set up in 1841, brought in Orr to help with distribution to booksellers and news agents. Orr died in 1873.

''Orr's Circle of the Sciences''

''Orr's Circle of the Sciences'' was announced first as a part publication, a series in weekly parts, price 2d. beginning 5 January 1854. The series editor was John Stevenson Bushnan, who also wrote the introductory section of the first volume. John Stevenson Bushnan, ''The principles of animal and vegetable physiology: a popular treatise on the functions and phenomena of organic life: to which is prefixed a general view of the great departments of human knowledge'' (1854), p. iii
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Notes

External links

Orr's Circle of the Sciences at archive.orgOrr's Circle of the Sciences, vol II. The Mathematical Sciences. at Internet Archive
{{Authority control 1850s books Encyclopedias of science Science books 19th-century encyclopedias British encyclopedias English-language encyclopedias