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Colin Macfarquhar, a printer, and Andrew Bell, an engraver, decided to create an encyclopedia
that would serve the new era of scholarship and enlightenment.
They formed a "Society of Gentlemen" to publish their new reference work and hired
a scholar William Smellie to edit it.
It would be arranged alphabetically,
"compiled upon a new plan in which the different Sciences and Arts are digested into distinct
Treatises or Systems," and its chief virtue was to be, in the editor’s word, "utility."
The first edition of the Britannica was published one section at a time over a three-year period.
The three-volume set was completed in 1771, and the printing quickly sold out.
Encouraged by the success of the first edition, the publishers issued the second edition
in 10 volumes (1777-84). The third edition, completed in 1797 and the first to include articles by
outside contributors, comprised 18 volumes; the fourth, completed in 1809, boasted 20.
Contributions from the leading scholars of the day began with a set of six volumes
published in 1815-24 as a supplement to the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions.
Contributors included Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, James Mill, and Thomas Young,
whose pioneering efforts to penetrate the mystery of the Egyptian hieroglyphics on the
Rosetta Stone first saw light of day under the Britannica imprint.
The ninth edition, published in 1875-89, is often remembered as the "scholar's edition."
It embodied as no other publication of the day, the transformation of scholarship wrought by
scientific discovery and new critical methods. In its pages Thomas Henry Huxley propounded
Darwin's theory of evolution and W. Robertson Smith, editor of the encyclopedia, applied
the "higher criticism" to biblical literature.
The poet A.C. Swinburne wrote on John Keats, Prince Pyotr Kropotkin on anarchism,
and James G. Frazer contributed articles on totemism and taboo.
Twentieth Century.
The eleventh edition (1910-11) was produced in cooperation with Cambridge University, and though by
then ownership of the Britannica had passed to two Americans, Horace Hooper and Walter Jackson,
the strength and confidence of much of its writing marked the high point of Edwardian optimism and
perhaps of the British Empire itself. The addition of three and later six supplemental volumes
resulted in the 12th (1921-22) and 13th (1926) editions.
Contributors to those editions included Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Leon Trotsky,
Harry Houdini, H.L. Mencken, and W.E.B. Du Bois. The article "Mass Production" was signed by Henry Ford
but is believed actually to have been written by his personal publicist.
By the time the thoroughly revised 14th edition appeared in 1929, the principal operations of the
company had moved to the United States. Other important changes took place.
Whereas previously the editorial staff would be disbanded after the completion of a new
edition, the company now maintained a permanent editorial department whose job was to keep
pace with the rapid growth of knowledge. The encyclopedia began to undergo continuous revision,
and starting in 1936 a new printing was published each year, incorporating the latest
changes and updates. In 1938, the first edition of the Britannica Book of the Year appeared.
The yearbook is still published today.
In 1943 William Benton, a founder of the advertising agency Benton and Bowles
and later a U.S. senator, became chairman of the board and publisher. Under his leadership
the company expanded by purchasing Compton's Encyclopedia,
the dictionary publisher G. & C. Merriam (later Merriam-Webster, Inc.),
and other properties. Britannica also extended its publishing activities abroad during this period.
Benton led the company until his death, in 1973. The publishing landmarks of his era were
Great Books of the Western World, a 54-volume collection published in 1952
(a second, revised edition, in 60 volumes, was issued in 1990); and the innovative fifteenth
edition of the Britannica, in 30 volumes, in 1974.
A major revision was published in 1985, bringing the size of the set to 32 volumes.
By the 1990s Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., had produced or was at work on encyclopedias and
other educational materials in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Italy, France, Spain, Latin America,
Turkey, Hungary, Poland, and elsewhere.
Britannica was an early leader in electronic publishing and new media. In 1981,
under an agreement with Mead Data Central, the first digital version of the Encyclopædia Britannica
was created for the Lexis-Nexis service. Britannica also created the first multimedia CD-ROM encyclopedia,
Compton's MultiMedia Encyclopedia, in 1989.
In 1994 the company developed Britannica Online, the first encyclopedia for the Internet,
which made the entire text of the Encyclopædia Britannica available worldwide.
That year the first version of the Britannica on CD-ROM was also published.
Encyclopædia Britannica Today.
The daring ingenuity of those publishing decisions, combined with Britannica's long tradition
of excellence, continue to shape the company's vision for the digital age. 1997 saw the creation
of the Britannica Internet Guide, a directory of the Web's best sites chosen by Britannica
editors for their quality and usefulness.
In 1999 the company released the first version of the Britannica.com Web site,
in one of the most publicised product launches in Internet history.
While Britannica takes a leading role in electronic publishing it is also expanding its
line of printed products. In the fall of 2001 the company published a new and thoroughly
revised printing of the 32-volume Encyclopædia Britannica, now the oldest continuously
published reference work in the English language.
More printed products are planned for 2002 and 2003, including a number of
one- and two-volume reference works at a range of prices.
The media of publication have changed, but Britannica’s basic mission has not.
It’s the same today as it’s been since 1768:
to be the worldwide leader in reference, education, and learning.
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