Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition

The 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ^[1] Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of its time. The articles are still of value and interest to modern scholars as cultural artifacts of the 19th and early 20th centuries; however they contain a number of issues for the modern student and should not be used as a sole primary source. The eleventh edition is no longer restricted by copyright and has become available online, both in its original text and where parts of it have been carefully incorporated into other online encyclopedias and works. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1764x1118, 107 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1764x1118, 107 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica ... -1... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... 1913 advertisement for the 11th edition, with the slogan When in doubt — look it up in the Encyclopædia Britannica The Encyclopædia Britannica (properly spelt with æ, the ae-ligature) was first published in 1768–1771 as The Britannica was an important early English-language general encyclopedia, and is still... A cultural artifact is an man-made object which gives information about the culture of its creator and users. ... Copyright symbol. ...

Background

The Eleventh Edition was edited by Hugh Chisholm. Some articles were written by the best-known scholars of the age, such as Edmund Gosse, J.B. Bury, Algernon Charles Swinburne, John Muir, Prince Peter Kropotkin, T.H. Huxley, and William Michael Rossetti, and others well known to that era. Many others were carried over from the Ninth Edition, some with minimal updating, some of the book-length articles divided into smaller parts for easier reference, yet others heavily abridged. The best known authors generally contributed only a single article or part of an article, however. The majority of the work was done by a mix of journalists, British Museum staff, and academics. Among these lesser-known contributors were some who would later achieve greatness, such as Ernest Rutherford and Bertrand Russell. Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924),journalist and editor of the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. ... Edmund William Gosse (September 21, 1849 - May 16, 1928) was an English poet, author and critic, the son of Philip Henry Gosse. ... John Bagnell Bury (16 October 1861 – 1 June 1927) was an eminent British historian, classical scholar, and philologist. ... Algernon Charles Swinburne (April 5, 1837 _ April 10, 1909) was a Victorian era English poet. ... John Muir (April 21, 1838 – December 24, 1914) was a Scottish-American polymath: environmentalist, naturalist, explorer, writer, inventor, engineer and geologist. ... Peter Kropotkin Prince Peter Alexeevich Kropotkin (In Russian Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин) (December 9, 1842 - February 8, 1921) was one of Russias foremost anarchists and one of the first advocates of what he called anarchist communism: the model of society he advocated for most of his life was that of a communalist society... Thomas Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley F.R.S. (May 4, 1825 - June 29, 1895) was a British biologist, known as Darwins Bulldog for his defence of Charles Darwins theory of evolution. ... William Michael Rossetti (1829-1919) was an English writer and critic. ... The main entrance to the British Museum The British Museum in London is the United Kingdoms - and one of the worlds - largest and most important museums of human history and culture. ... Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM, FRS (August 30, 1871 - October 19, 1937), called father of nuclear physics, pioneered the orbital theory of the atom notably in his discovery of rutherford scattering off the nucleus with his gold foil experiment. ... Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was an influential British logician, philosopher, and mathematician, working mostly in the 20th century. ...

The encyclopedia's articles are still of value and interest to modern readers and scholars, especially as a cultural artifact: the British Empire was at its very height, the paradigm of imperialism was unchallenged, much of the world was still ruled by monarchs, and the horrors of the modern world wars were still in the future. As a literary text, the encyclopedia holds value as a voice of early 20th century prose, particularly certain passages. The encyclopedia abounds in the use of pathetic fallacy and other dated literary devices which often confound a modern reader, yet portions have some appeal to the modern literary reader. A cultural artifact is an man-made object which gives information about the culture of its creator and users. ... The British Empire was, at one time, the foremost global power, and the most extensive empire in the history of the world. ... Since the late 1800s, the word paradigm (IPA: ) has referred to a thought pattern in any scientific discipline or other epistemological context. ... Imperialism is a policy of extending control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial conquest or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries. ... Look up monarch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A monarch (see sovereign) is a type of ruler or head of state. ... There have been two World Wars, now more commonly known as World War I or First World War (from 1914 to 1918), and World War II or Second World War (from 1939 to 1945). ... The pathetic fallacy is a term from literary criticism used to denote the description of inanimate natural objects in a manner that endows them with human emotions, thoughts, sensations and feelings. ... Novels and short stories do not simply come from nowhere. ...

1913 advertisement for the 11th edition

The 11th edition was a notable reorganization and rewriting of the Encyclopædia Britannica, which was first published in three volumes in 1768. The 11th edition formed the basis for every edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica up until 1974, when the completely new 15th edition, based on modern information presentation, was published. This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons, a repository of free content hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. ... This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons, a repository of free content hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. ... 1913 advertisement for the 11th edition, with the slogan When in doubt — look it up in the Encyclopædia Britannica The Encyclopædia Britannica (properly spelt with æ, the ae-ligature) was first published in 1768–1771 as The Britannica was an important early English-language general encyclopedia, and is still... 1768 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1974 calendar). ...

Sir Kenneth Clark, in Another Part of the Wood, wrote of the 11th edition: Baron Clark of Saltwood Kenneth McKenzie Clark, Baron Clark of Saltwood (also, Sir Kenneth Clark) (July 13, 1903 – May 21, 1983) was a British author, museum director, broadcaster, and the most famous art historian of his generation. ...

One leaps from one subject to another, fascinated as much by the play of mind and the idiosyncrasies of their authors as by the facts and dates. It must be the last encyclopædia in the tradition of Diderot which assumes that information can be made memorable only when it is slightly coloured by prejudice. When T.S. Eliot wrote "Soul curled up on the window seat reading the Encyclopædia Britannica" he was certainly thinking of the eleventh edition. Portrait of Diderot by Louis-Michel van Loo, 1767 Denis Diderot (October 5, 1713 – July 31, 1784) was a French philosopher and writer. ... Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888 - January 4, 1965), was a major Modernist Anglo-American poet, dramatist, and literary critic. ...

The 1911 edition for the first time saw a number of female contributors. Thirty-four women contributed articles to the edition.

1911 Britannica in the 21st century

The 1911 edition is no longer restricted by copyright, and it is available in several more modern forms. While it was indeed a reliable source for its time, for modern readers some articles are now less so for a number of reasons including systemic nationalism, polemic authors, hagiography treatments and factual inaccuracy: Copyright symbol. ... // Nationalism is an ideology which holds that the nation, ethnicity or national identity is a fundamental unit of human social life, and makes certain cultural and political claims based upon that belief; in particular, the claim that the nation is the only legitimate basis for the state, and that each... Look up Polemic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Polemic is the art or practice of inciting disputation or causing controversy, for example in religious, philosophical, or political matters. ... Hagiography is the study of saints. ...

• Articles about sensitive topics are today considered biased - for example, such as the First French Empire.
• Some articles are polemic, such as the Stockholm Bloodbath, where the author clearly supports one faction against the other.
• Articles about nobility were often hagiographies, such as in the case of Umberto I of Italy being in favour of a king widely perceived as a tyrant by his people.
• Many articles are now just simply factually outdated, such as science, technology, and medicine, or about geographic places, for example mentioning rail connections and ferry stops in towns that today no longer employ such transport.
• Even where the facts might still be accurate, new information, theories and perspectives developed since 1911 have substantially changed the way the same facts might be interpreted. For example, in some respects the modern interpretation of history is very different than that reflected in the eleventh edition.

Because the 1911 edition is now in the public domain it has become a commonly quoted source. The Encyclopædia Britannica of 1911 has been used in many modern projects, such as Wikipedia and the Gutenberg Encyclopedia. By the 1930s the 11th edition was showing its age; Amos Urban Shirk, who read both the entire 11th and 14th edition in the 1930s, said he found the 14th edition a "big improvement" over the 11th, stating that "most of the material had been completely rewritten". In probability and statistics, if a bias exists it means that the processes involved are not totally random, or one outcome is favoured over others. ... The First French Empire, commonly known as the French Empire or the Napoleonic Empire, covers the period of the domination of France and much of continental Europe by Napoleon I of France. ... Stockholm Bloodbath - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The Lords and Barons prove their Nobility by hanging their Banners and exposing their Coats-of-arms at the Windows of the Lodge of the Heralds. ... Umberto I or Humbert I of Italy (Umberto Ranieri Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Ferdinando Eugenio of Savoy), (14 March 1844 – 29 July 1900) was the King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his death. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Science For the scientific journal named Science, see Science (journal). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Medicine is the branch of health science and the sector of public life concerned with maintaining human health or restoring it through the treatment of disease and injury. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Wikipedia logo. ... Amos Urban Shirk (1890? – October 20, 1956) was an American businessman, author and prodigious reader of encyclopedias. ...

Gutenberg Encyclopedia

The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia is actually the 11th Edition of the EB, renamed to address Britannica's trademark concerns. As of February 2006, Project Gutenberg only holds an electronic version of Volume 1 and the first portion of Volume 2. Distributed Proofreaders is currently working on producing a complete electronic edition of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which will be available from Project Gutenberg when finished. Proofreading has been completed with these volumes, and the final post processing and assembly is currently underway for volumes 2 through 5, and formal proofreading on volume 6. 2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Project Gutenberg (often abbreviated as PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive, and distribute cultural works. ... Distributed Proofreaders (commonly abbreviated as DP or PGDP) is a project to support the development of e-texts for Project Gutenberg. ...

Distributed Proofreaders (commonly abbreviated as DP or PGDP) is a project to support the development of e-texts for Project Gutenberg. ...

References

1. ↑ "Among all my reference books, there is one standout, a star, a work that retains its dusty luster and a fierce band of loyal adherents almost a century after it was published.The magic of the Britannica 11 (Accessed February 7, 2005)

• All There is to Know (1994), edited by Alexander Coleman and Charles Simmons. Subtitled: "Readings from the Illustrious Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica". ISBN 0-671-76747-X
• Gillian Thomas (1992). A Position to Command Respect: Women and the Eleventh Britannica New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0810825678.

February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV in Roman) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ...

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica

Free, public-domain resources: Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikisource – The Free Library – is a Wikimedia project to build a free, wiki library of primary source texts, along with translations of source-texts into any language and other supporting materials. ...

• Full-page scans in tiff format, at Tim Starling's Wikisource page. Probably requires the AlternaTiff plugin. In particular, see:
  • In Volume 1, the "Prefatory Note" and "Editorial Introduction," which discuss the history and objectives of the edition. (These, and the different Prefatory Note from the Handy Volume edition of 1915, are also included in the Wikisource 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.)
  • The article on Encyclopaedia
• Project Gutenberg Volume I
• The Project Gutenberg Volume II

Versions of this public domain work claiming copyright: This article is about TIFF, the computer image format. ...

• LoveToKnow Free Online Encyclopedia World Wide Web edition. This appears to be a raw, unproofread OCR-scanned version, without the illustrations: it contains very many errors, many of them quite serious, as for example when the beginning of one article is spliced to the end of another with the intervening material missing, or tabular material is garbled across the columns, or again anything in a foreign language. A footnote reads: Although linking to this site is encouraged, reproducing Contents on another site or redistributing Contents is forbidden. Taking Contents from this site and editing it and posting it on another site is forbidden and will result in swift legal action. This implies that the content is not public domain. Determining actual copyright status may require legal advice.

• Online 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. World Wide Web, OCR-scanned version of the encyclopedia, that has scanning errors. This source is VERY unreliable. Long articles (such as "Telescope") may contain only the first quarter of the original information! At the bottom of a page the following footnote can be seen Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2005 - Net Industries, worldwide. Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part. Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

Wikimedia projects: This NeXTcube used by Berners-Lee at CERN became the first Web server. ... Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, involves computer software designed to translate images of typewritten text (usually captured by a scanner) into machine-editable text, or to translate pictures of characters into a standard encoding scheme representing them in (ASCII or Unicode). ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Wikimedia Foundation Inc. ...

• A proposed 1911 Encyclopedia in Wiki format
• Wikisource Project for 1911 Wikipedia