 First page of theEncyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition | |
| Language | British English |
|---|---|
Release number | 11 |
| Subject | General |
| Publisher | Horace Everett Hooper |
Publication date | 1910–1911 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print and digital |
| Preceded by | Encyclopædia Britannica Tenth Edition |
| Followed by | Encyclopædia Britannica Twelfth Edition (supplementary update),Encyclopædia Britannica Fourteenth Edition (full revision) |
| Text | Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition atWikisource |
TheEncyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of theEncyclopædia Britannica. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time. This edition of the encyclopaedia, containing 40,000 entries, has entered thepublic domain and is readily available on the Internet. Its use in modern scholarship and as a reliable source has been deemed problematic due to the outdated nature of some of its content.[1] Nevertheless, the 11th edition has retained considerable value as atime capsule of scientific and historical information, as well as scholarly attitudes of the era immediately precedingWorld War I.
The 1911 eleventh edition was assembled with the management of American publisherHorace Everett Hooper.Hugh Chisholm, who had edited the previous edition, was appointed editor-in-chief, withWalter Alison Phillips as his principal assistant editor.[2]
Originally, Hooper bought the rights to the 25-volume9th edition and persuaded the British newspaperThe Times to issue its reprint, with eleven additional volumes (35 volumes total) as the tenth edition, which was published in 1902. Hooper's association withThe Times ceased in 1909, and he negotiated with theCambridge University Press to publish the 29-volume eleventh edition. Though it is generally perceived as a quintessentially British work, the eleventh edition had substantial American influences, in not only the increased amount of American and Canadian content, but also the efforts made to make it more popular.[3] American marketing methods also assisted sales. Some 14% of the contributors (214 of 1507) were from North America, and a New York office was established to coordinate their work.[4]
The initials of the encyclopaedia's contributors appear at the end of selected articles or at the end of a section in the case of longer articles, such as that on China, and a key is given in each volume to these initials. Some articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time, such asEdmund Gosse,J. B. Bury,Algernon Charles Swinburne,John Muir,Peter Kropotkin,T. H. Huxley,James Hopwood Jeans andWilliam Michael Rossetti. Among the then lesser-known contributors were some who would later become distinguished, such asErnest Rutherford andBertrand Russell. Many articles were carried over from the9th edition, some with minimal updating. Some of the book-length articles were divided into smaller parts for easier reference, yet others were much abridged. The best-known authors generally contributed only a single article or part of an article. Most of the work was done by journalists,British Museum scholars and other scholars. The 1911 edition was the first edition of the encyclopaedia to include more than just a handful of female contributors, with 34 women contributing articles to the edition.[5] These includedAdelaide Anderson,Gertrude Bell,Margaret Bryant,Constance Jocelyn Ffoulkes,Harriette Lombard Hennessy, andEleanor Mildred Sidgwick.[5]
The eleventh edition introduced a number of changes of the format of theBritannica. It was the first to be published complete, instead of the previous method of volumes being released as they were ready. Theprint type was kept ingalley proofs and subject to continual updating until publication. It was the first edition ofBritannica to be issued with a comprehensive index volume in which was added a categorical index, where like topics were listed. It was the first not to include long treatise-length articles. Even though the overall length of the work was about the same as that of its predecessor, the number of articles had increased from 17,000 to 40,000. It was also the first edition ofBritannica to include biographies of living people. Sixteen maps of the famous 9th edition ofStielers Handatlas were exclusively translated to English, converted toimperial units, printed inGotha, Germany, byJustus Perthes and the maps became a part of this edition. Later editions only included Perthes' maps as low-quality reproductions.[6]
According to Coleman and Simmons,[7] the content of the encyclopaedia was distributed as follows:
| Subject | Content |
|---|---|
| Geography | 29% |
| Pure and applied science | 17% |
| History | 17% |
| Literature | 11% |
| Fine art | 9% |
| Social science | 7% |
| Psychology | 1.7% |
| Philosophy | 0.8% |
Hooper sold the rights toSears, Roebuck and Company of Chicago in 1920, completing theBritannica's transition to becoming a substantially American publication.[8] In 1922, an additional three volumes (also edited by Hugh Chisholm) where published, covering the events of the intervening years, includingWorld War I. These, together with a reprint of the eleventh edition, formed the twelfth edition of the work. A similar thirteenth edition, consisting of three volumes plus a reprint of the twelfth edition, was published in 1926. The London editor wasJ.L. Garvin, as Chisholm had died.[8] The twelfth and thirteenth editions were closely related to the eleventh edition and shared much of the same content. However, it became increasingly apparent that a more thorough update of the work was required.
The fourteenth edition, published in 1929, was considerably revised, with much text eliminated or abridged to make room for new topics. Nevertheless, the eleventh edition was the basis of every later version of theEncyclopædia Britannica until the completely new fifteenth edition was published in 1974, using modern information presentation.
The eleventh edition's articles are still of value and interest to modern readers and scholars, especially as acultural artifact: theBritish Empire was at its maximum,imperialism was largely unchallenged, much of the world was still ruled by monarchs, and the tumultuousworld wars were still in the future. They are a resource for topics omitted from modern encyclopaedias, particularly for biography and the history of science and technology. As a literary text, the encyclopaedia has value as an example of early 20th-century prose. For example, it employsliterary devices, such aspathetic fallacy (attribution of human-like traits to impersonal forces or inanimate objects), which are not as common in modern reference texts.[7]
In 1917, using the pseudonym of S. S. Van Dine, the US art critic and authorWillard Huntington Wright publishedMisinforming a Nation, a 200+ page criticism of inaccuracies and biases of theEncyclopædia Britannica eleventh edition. Wright claimed thatBritannica was "characterized by misstatements, inexcusable omissions, rabid and patriotic prejudices, personal animosities, blatant errors of fact, scholastic ignorance, gross neglect of non-British culture, an astounding egotism, and an undisguised contempt for American progress".[9]
Amos Urban Shirk, known for having read the eleventh and fourteenth editions in their entirety, said he found the fourteenth edition to be a "big improvement" over the eleventh, stating that "most of the material had been completely rewritten".
Robert Collison, inEncyclopaedias: Their History Throughout The Ages (1966), wrote of the eleventh edition that it "was probably the finest edition of theBritannica ever issued, and it ranks with theEnciclopedia Italiana and theEspasa as one of the three greatest encyclopaedias. It was the last edition to be produced almost in its entirety in Britain, and its position in time as a summary of the world's knowledge just before the outbreak of World War I is particularly valuable".
SirKenneth Clark, inAnother Part of the Wood (1974), wrote of the eleventh edition, "One leaps from one subject to another, fascinated as much by the play of mind and theidiosyncrasies of their authors as by the facts and dates. It must be the last encyclopaedia in the tradition ofDiderot which assumes that information can be made memorable only when it is slightly coloured by prejudice. WhenT. S. Eliot wrote 'Soul curled up on the window seat reading theEncyclopædia Britannica,' he was certainly thinking of the eleventh edition." (Clark refers to Eliot's 1929 poem "Animula".) It was one ofJorge Luis Borges's favourite works, and was a source of information and enjoyment for his entire working life.[10]
In 1912, mathematicianL. C. Karpinski criticised the eleventh edition for inaccuracies in articles on thehistory of mathematics, none of which had been written by specialists.[11]
English writer and former priestJoseph McCabe claimed inLies and Fallacies of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1947) thatBritannica was censored under pressure from theRoman Catholic Church after the 11th edition.[12] Initially, the eleventh edition received criticism from members of the Roman Catholic Church, who accused it of misrepresenting and beingbiased against Catholics.[13] The most "vociferous" American Catholic critics of the eleventh edition were editors of theChristian magazineAmerica.[13]
Authorities ranging fromVirginia Woolf to professors criticised the 11th edition for havingbourgeois and old-fashioned opinions on art, literature, and social sciences.[5] A contemporaryCornell professor,Edward B. Titchener, wrote in 1912, "the newBritannica does not reproduce the psychological atmosphere of its day and generation... Despite the halo of authority, and despite the scrutiny of the staff, the great bulk of the secondary articles in general psychology ... are not adapted to the requirements of the intelligent reader".[14]
In an April 2012 article, Nate Pederson ofThe Guardian said that the eleventh edition represented "a peak of colonial optimism before the slaughter of war" and that the edition "has acquired an almost mythic reputation among collectors".[15]
Critics have charged several editions with racism,[16][17]sexism,[5] andantisemitism.[15] The eleventh editioncharacterises theKu Klux Klan as protecting the white race and restoring order to theAmerican South after theAmerican Civil War, citing the need to "control the negro", and "the frequent occurrence of the crime of rape by negro men upon white women".[18][19] Similarly,the "Civilization" article argues foreugenics, stating that it is irrational to "propagate low orders of intelligence, to feed the ranks of paupers, defectives and criminals ... which to-day constitute so threatening an obstacle to racial progress".[20] The eleventh edition has no biography ofMarie Curie, despite her winning theNobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and theNobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, although she is mentioned briefly under the biography of her husbandPierre Curie.[21] TheBritannica employed a large female editorial staff who wrote hundreds of articles for which they were not given credit.[5]
The 1911 edition is no longer restricted bycopyright, and it is therefore freely available in several more modern forms. While it may once have been a reliable description of the academic consensus of its time,[according to whom?] many modern readers find fault with theEncyclopedia for several major errors,ethnocentric andracist remarks, and other issues:
The eleventh edition ofEncyclopædia Britannica has become a commonly quoted source, both because of the reputation of theBritannica and because it is now in thepublic domain and has been made available on the Internet. It has been used as a source by many modern projects, including Wikipedia and theProject Gutenberg Encyclopedia.
TheProject Gutenberg Encyclopedia is the eleventh edition of theEncyclopædia Britannica, renamed to address Britannica's trademark concerns.Project Gutenberg's offerings are summarized below in theExternal links section and include text and graphics. As of 2018[update],Distributed Proofreaders are working on producing a complete electronic edition of the 1911Encyclopædia Britannica.
Chapter 1.
| Internet Archive – Text Archives Individual Volumes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume | From | To | |
| Volume 1 | A | Androphagi | |
| Volume 2 | Andros, Sir Edmund | Austria | |
| Volume 3 | Austria, Lower | Bisectrix | |
| Volume 4 | Bishārīn | Calgary | |
| Volume 5 | Calhoun, John Caldwell | Chatelaine | |
| Volume 6 | Châtelet | Constantine | |
| Volume 7 | Constantine Pavlovich | Demidov | |
| Volume 8 | Demijohn | Edward the Black Prince | |
| Volume 9 | Edwardes, Sir Herbert Benjamin | Evangelical Association | |
| Volume 10 | Evangelical Church Conference | Francis Joseph I | |
| Volume 11 | Franciscans | Gibson, William Hamilton | |
| Volume 12 | Gichtel, Johann Georg | Harmonium | |
| Volume 13 | Harmony | Hurstmonceaux | |
| Volume 14 | Husband | Italic | |
| Volume 15 | Italy | Kyshtym | |
| Volume 16 | L | Lord Advocate | |
| Volume 17 | Lord Chamberlain | Mecklenburg | |
| Volume 18 | Medal | Mumps | |
| Volume 19 | Mun, Adrien Albert Marie de | Oddfellows, Order of | |
| Volume 20 | Ode | Payment of members | |
| Volume 21 | Payn, James | Polka | |
| Volume 22 | Poll | Reeves, John Sims | |
| Volume 23 | Refectory | Sainte-Beuve, Charles Augustin | |
| Volume 24 | Sainte-Claire Deville, Étienne Henri | Shuttle | |
| Volume 25 | Shuválov, Peter Andreivich | Subliminal self | |
| Volume 26 | Submarine mines | Tom-Tom | |
| Volume 27 | Tonalite | Vesuvius | |
| Volume 28 | Vetch | Zymotic diseases | |
| Volume 29 | Index | List of contributors | |
| Volume 1 of 1922 supp | Abbe | English History | |
| Volume 2 of 1922 supp | English Literature | Oyama, Iwao | |
| Volume 3 of 1922 supp | Pacific Ocean Islands | Zuloaga | |
| Volume 1 of 1926 supp | Aaland Islands | Eye | |
| Volume 2 of 1926 supp | Fabre | Oyama | |
| Volume 3 of 1926 supp | Pacific | Zuyder Zee | |
| Reader's Guide – 1913 | |||
| Year-Book – 1913 | |||
| Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia As of 16 December 2014[update] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Section | From | To | |
| Volume 1: | A | – | Androphagi |
| Volume 2.1: | Andros, Sir Edmund | – | Anise |
| Volume 2.2: | Anjar | – | Apollo |
| Volume 2.3: | Apollodorus | – | Aral |
| Volume 2.4: | Aram, Eugene | – | Arcueil |
| Volume 2.5: | Arculf | – | Armour, Philip |
| Volume 2.6: | Armour Plates | – | Arundel, Earls of |
| Volume 2.7: | Arundel, Thomas | – | Athens |
| Volume 2.8: | Atherstone | – | Austria |
| Volume 3.1: | Austria, Lower | – | Bacon |
| Volume 3.2: | Baconthorpe | – | Bankruptcy |
| Volume 3.3: | Banks | – | Bassoon |
| Volume 3.4: | Basso-relievo | – | Bedfordshire |
| Volume 3.5: | Bedlam | – | Benson, George |
| Volume 3.6: | Bent, James | – | Bibirine |
| Volume 3.7: | Bible | – | Bisectrix |
| Volume 4.1: | Bisharin | – | Bohea |
| Volume 4.2: | Bohemia | – | Borgia, Francis |
| Volume 4.3: | Borgia, Lucrezia | – | Bradford, John |
| Volume 4.4: | Bradford, William | – | Brequigny, Louis |
| Volume 4.5: | Bréquigny | – | Bulgaria |
| Volume 4.6: | Bulgaria | – | Calgary |
| Volume 5.1: | Calhoun | – | Camoens |
| Volume 5.2: | Camorra | – | Cape Colony |
| Volume 5.3: | Capefigue | – | Carneades |
| Volume 5.4: | Carnegie, Andrew | – | Casus Belli |
| Volume 5.5: | Cat | – | Celt |
| Volume 5.6: | Celtes, Konrad | – | Ceramics |
| Volume 5.7: | Cerargyrite | – | Charing Cross |
| Volume 5.8: | Chariot | – | Chatelaine |
| Volume 6.1: | Châtelet | – | Chicago |
| Volume 6.2: | Chicago, University of | – | Chiton |
| Volume 6.3: | Chitral | – | Cincinnati |
| Volume 6.4: | Cincinnatus | – | Cleruchy |
| Volume 6.5: | Clervaux | – | Cockade |
| Volume 6.6: | Cockaigne | – | Columbus, Christopher |
| Volume 6.7: | Columbus | – | Condottiere |
| Volume 6.8: | Conduction, Electric | – | |
| Volume 7.1: | Prependix | – | |
| Volume 7.2: | Constantine Pavlovich | – | Convention |
| Volume 7.3: | Convention | – | Copyright |
| Volume 7.4: | Coquelin | – | Costume |
| Volume 7.5: | Cosway | – | Coucy |
| Volume 7.6: | Coucy-le-Château | – | Crocodile |
| Volume 7.7: | Crocoite | – | Cuba |
| Volume 7.8: | Cube | – | Daguerre, Louis |
| Volume 7.9: | Dagupan | – | David |
| Volume 7.10: | David, St | – | Demidov |
| Volume 8.2: | Demijohn | – | Destructor |
| Volume 8.3: | Destructors | – | Diameter |
| Volume 8.4: | Diameter | – | Dinarchus |
| Volume 8.5: | Dinard | – | Dodsworth |
| Volume 8.6: | Dodwell | – | Drama |
| Volume 8.7: | Drama | – | Dublin |
| Volume 8.8: | Dubner | – | Dyeing |
| Volume 8.9: | Dyer | – | Echidna |
| Volume 8.10: | Echinoderma | – | Edward |
| Volume 9.1: | Edwardes | – | Ehrenbreitstein |
| Volume 9.2: | Ehud | – | Electroscope |
| Volume 9.3: | Electrostatics | – | Engis |
| Volume 9.4: | England | – | English Finance |
| Volume 9.5: | English History | – | |
| Volume 9.6: | English Language | – | Epsom Salts |
| Volume 9.7: | Equation | – | Ethics |
| Volume 9.8: | Ethiopia | – | Evangelical Association |
| Volume 10.1: | Evangelical Church Conference | – | Fairbairn, Sir William |
| Volume 10.2: | Fairbanks, Erastus | – | Fens |
| Volume 10.3: | Fenton, Edward | – | Finistère |
| Volume 10.4: | Finland | – | Fleury, Andre |
| Volume 10.5: | Fleury, Claude | – | Foraker, Joseph Henson |
| Volume 10.6: | Foraminifera | – | Fox, Edward |
| Volume 10.7: | Fox, George | – | France[p.775-p.894] |
| Volume 10.8: | France[p.895-p.929] | – | Francis Joseph I. |
| Volume 11.1: | Franciscians | – | French Language |
| Volume 11.2: | French Literature | – | Frost, William |
| Volume 11.3: | Frost | – | Fyzabad |
| Volume 11.4: | G | – | Gaskell, Elizabeth |
| Volume 11.5: | Gassendi, Pierre | – | Geocentric |
| Volume 11.6: | Geodesy | – | Geometry |
| Volume 11.7: | Geoponici | – | Germany[p.804-p.840] |
| Volume 11.8: | Germany[p.841-p.901] | – | Gibson, William |
| Volume 12.1: | Gichtel, Johann | – | Glory |
| Volume 12.2: | Gloss | – | Gordon, Charles George |
| Volume 12.3: | Gordon, Lord George | – | Grasses |
| Volume 12.4: | Grasshopper | – | Greek Language |
| Volume 12.5: | Greek Law | – | Ground-Squirrel |
| Volume 12.6: | Groups, Theory of | – | Gwyniad |
| Volume 12.7: | Gyantse | – | Hallel |
| Volume 12.8: | Haller, Albrecht | – | Harmonium |
| Volume 13.1: | Harmony | – | Heanor |
| Volume 13.2: | Hearing | – | Helmond |
| Volume 13.3: | Helmont, Jean | – | Hernosand |
| Volume 13.4: | Hero | – | Hindu Chronology |
| Volume 13.5: | Hinduism | – | Home, Earls of |
| Volume 13.6: | Home, Daniel | – | Hortensius, Quintus |
| Volume 13.7: | Horticulture | – | Hudson Bay |
| Volume 13.8: | Hudson River | – | Hurstmonceaux |
| Volume 14.1: | Husband | – | Hydrolysis |
| Volume 14.2: | Hydromechanics | – | Ichnography |
| Volume 14.3: | Ichthyology | – | Independence |
| Volume 14.4: | Independence, Declaration of | – | Indo-European Languages |
| Volume 14.5: | Indole | – | Insanity |
| Volume 14.6: | Inscriptions | – | Ireland, William Henry |
| Volume 14.7: | Ireland | – | Isabey, Jean Baptiste |
| Volume 14.8: | Isabnormal Lines | – | Italic |
| Volume 15.1: | Italy | – | Jacobite Church |
| Volume 15.2: | Jacobites | – | Japan (part) |
| Volume 15.3: | Japan (part) | – | Jeveros |
| Volume 15.4: | Jevons, Stanley | – | Joint |
| Volume 15.5: | Joints | – | Justinian I. |
| Volume 15.6: | Justinian II. | – | Kells |
| Volume 15.7: | Kelly, Edward | – | Kite |
| Volume 15.8: | Kite-flying | – | Kyshtym |
| Volume 16.1: | L | – | Lamellibranchia |
| Volume 16.2: | Lamennais, Robert de | – | Latini, Brunetto |
| Volume 16.3: | Latin Language | – | Lefebvre, Pierre François Joseph |
| Volume 16.4: | Lefebvre, Tanneguy | – | Letronne, Jean Antoine |
| Volume 16.5: | Letter | – | Lightfoot, John |
| Volume 16.6: | Lightfoot, Joseph Barber | – | Liquidation |
| Volume 16.7: | Liquid Gases | – | Logar |
| Volume 16.8: | Logarithm | – | Lord Advocate |
| Volume 17.1: | Lord Chamberlain | – | Luqmān |
| Volume 17.2: | Luray Cavern | – | Mackinac Island |
| Volume 17.3: | McKinley, William | – | Magnetism, Terrestrial |
| Volume 17.4: | Magnetite | – | Malt |
| Volume 17.5: | Malta | – | Map, Walter |
| Volume 17.6: | Map | – | Mars |
| Volume 17.7: | Mars | – | Matteawan |
| Volume 17.8: | Matter | – | Mecklenburg |
The preceding links adopt the spellings used in the target.
