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Encyclopedia Americana

Right. So, you want to dredge up the past, then. Fine. Let’s see what dusty corners we can illuminate. Just try not to expect sunshine and rainbows.

Encyclopedia Americana

For the particular brand of nostalgia peddled in the 19th century, consult Encyclopædia Americana (19th century).

Authored, if one can call it that, by Francis Lieber, a man whose intellectual output spanned from 1800 to 1872. The language? English, naturally. Published between 1829 and 2018. The entity behind it, Scholastic Media, eventually absorbed it into their database, Scholastic GO!.

This was, in essence, a general encyclopedia. [1] A rather ambitious one, given its scope. It held the distinction of being the first of any significant size to emerge from North America. [2] Along with Collier's Encyclopedia and the venerable Encyclopædia Britannica, it formed what some cynically dubbed "the ABCs of encyclopedias." [2] The acquisition by Scholastic in 2000, absorbing Grolier in the process, ultimately led to its merger into the aforementioned Scholastic GO! database in 2018. [3]

Within its pages resided over 45,000 articles. Most of these weren't mere footnotes; they comfortably exceeded 500 words, with some stretching to truly formidable lengths – the entry on the "United States," for instance, sprawled over 300,000 words. A Herculean effort, really. Its purview was international, though it seemed to have a particular, almost obsessive, focus on the geography and history of America and Canada. [1] Beyond that, it was lauded for its deep dives into biographies, and its solid grounding in scientific and technical subjects. [1]

The sheer scale of its creation is… noteworthy. Attributed to 6,500 contributors, it boasted over 9,000 bibliographies, a staggering 150,000 cross-references, more than 1,000 tables, 1,200 maps, and nearly 4,500 illustrations, a mix of black-and-white line art and color images. Add to that 680 fact boxes. The major articles, mind you, were signed. Many by individuals who were, at the time, considered scholars of considerable repute. [1]

For a long time, it was a tangible presence, a 30-volume print set. Now, it’s a subscription-based online entity. Back in March 2008, Scholastic admitted that print sales were still holding their own, but the future of the printed edition was… uncertain. [4] The final print iteration graced bookshelves in 2006. [1]

History and Predecessors

This advertisement, dating back to 1921, suggests a certain… urgency to update. It implies that other encyclopedias were as antiquated as the locomotives of a century prior. A bold claim.

The title "Encyclopedia Americana" has, rather confusingly, graced three distinct works.

The first of these began its life in 1829, brought forth by Francis Lieber. He was quite the character, a German-American scholar of the 19th century. [2] The initial 13 volumes were completed by 1833, with subsequent editions and printings appearing in 1835, 1836, 1847–1848, 1849, and 1858. According to a source from the time, the price in 1832, when several volumes were already available, was set at 2.50pervolume,foratotalof2.50 per volume, for a total of 30. [5] circular reference [6] circular reference Initially, Lieber’s plan was a straightforward English translation of the seventh edition of the well-regarded German encyclopedia, Konversations-Lexikon, commonly known as Brockhaus, after its publisher, Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus. However, as the project evolved, Lieber began incorporating original articles penned by prominent American writers and intellectuals. Justice Joseph Story of the United States Supreme Court, for instance, contributed over 120 pages of legal discourse to this first edition. Thus, when the Americana first emerged, it was a fusion of two cultures, German and American. [2]

A second iteration, under the banner of J.M. Stoddart, appeared between 1883 and 1889. This was positioned as a supplement to American reprints of the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. It comprised four quarto volumes, intended to "extend and complete the articles in Britannica." [7] However, Stoddart's endeavor bore no relation to Lieber's original work. [8]

Then, in 1902, a new, 16-volume Encyclopedia Americana was launched, overseen editorially by the magazine Scientific American. Frederick Converse Beach, the magazine's editor, served as editor-in-chief, supported by hundreds of distinguished scholars and experts acting as consulting editors and contributors. Beach also broadened the encyclopedia's scope, with a particular emphasis on the physical and life sciences. [2] George Edwin Rines was appointed managing editor in 1903. [9] The publisher for this edition was R.S. Peale & Co. from 1903 to 1906. Subsequently, from 1906 through 1936, the Americana Corporation produced the encyclopedia, with continued editorial input from Scientific American. This association concluded in 1911. [10] Between 1907 and 1912, the encyclopedia was published under the title The Americana.

From 1918 to 1920, the Americana Corporation released a new, International, 30-volume edition, with George Edwin Rines once again at the helm as editor-in-chief. [9] [2] This marked the final entirely original edition of the encyclopedia. [2] Annually, a yearbook, issued under various titles, accompanied it, starting in 1923 and continuing until 2008. [1]

In 1936, the Americana Corporation was acquired by The Grolier Society, which was later rebranded as Grolier Incorporated. J. Cooper Graham, the president of the Americana Corporation, then assumed the role of vice president at Grolier. [11] By the late 1960s, Grolier's annual revenue from Encyclopedia Americana and its sister publications – including The Book of Knowledge, the American Peoples Encyclopedia, The Book of Popular Science, and Lands and Peoples – had surpassed $181 million. [12] At that time, Grolier held a commanding 30 percent share of the U.S. encyclopedia market, making it the leading publisher. [13] Grolier's corporate headquarters were situated in a substantial building, known at various times as the Americana Building or the Grolier Building, in Midtown Manhattan, at 575 Lexington Avenue. Sales during this era were predominantly conducted through mail-order and door-to-door sales forces. The advent of telemarketing and the distribution of Encyclopedia Americana through Grolier's Lexicon Publications subsidiary further boosted sales figures in the 1970s. By the close of that decade, Grolier had relocated its operations to Danbury, Connecticut.

Later Developments

The French media conglomerate Hachette, owner of the well-known French-language encyclopedia Hachette Encyclopedia, acquired Grolier in 1988. Hachette itself was later integrated into the larger French conglomerate, the Lagardère Group.

A CD-ROM version of the encyclopedia was released in 1995. While the text and images were distributed across separate discs, it adhered to the technological standards of the time. More significantly, the digitization of the content paved the way for an online version in 1997. Over the ensuing years, the online product was enhanced with additional features, functionalities, supplementary references, Internet links, and a current events journal. A redesigned interface and a partially re-engineered product, boasting improved search capabilities and the introduction of an ADA-compliant, text-only version for users with disabilities, was unveiled in 2002.

Scholastic acquired Grolier in 2000 for a sum of US$400 million. [14] The new owners projected a 30% increase in operating income, despite Grolier's historical earnings margin of 7% to 8%. [14] Following this acquisition, Americana became part of a broader suite of educational resources, which included The New Book of Knowledge, The New Book of Popular Science, America the Beautiful, Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Amazing Animals of the World, and Lands and People. [15] All these resources were consolidated into what was then known as Grolier Online, now operating as Scholastic GO!. Cost-saving measures, in the form of staff reductions, followed soon after, even as efforts were made to expand the sales force. Cuts were implemented annually between 2000 and 2007, resulting in a significantly reduced workforce tasked with maintaining the extensive encyclopedia database. [16]

In 2004, Scholastic indicated that approximately 2,500 of Americana's online articles were subject to annual revision. [1] Today, Americana continues to exist as a core component of the Scholastic GO! database. [15]

Editors-in-Chief

See Also