TheNew American Cyclopædia was anencyclopedia created and published byD. Appleton & Company of New York in 16 volumes, which initially appeared between 1858 and 1863. Its primary editors wereGeorge Ripley andCharles Anderson Dana.

TheNew American Cyclopædia was revised and republished as theAmerican Cyclopædia in 1873.^[1]

TheNew American Cyclopædia was a general encyclopedia with a special focus on subjects related to the United States. As it was created over the years spanning theAmerican Civil War, the focus and tone of articles could change drastically; for example,Jefferson Davis, the future president of theConfederate States of America, was treated at length as aUnited States Army soldier andUS government politician in pre-war editions.^[2]

As was traditional, the entire set was re-issued with the publication in 1863 of the 16th volume. The wholeCyclopædia was again re-issued in 1864.

A notable contributor wasKarl Marx, then aEuropean correspondent for theNew York Tribune, who, appeared as the writer, while most of those articles were written byFriedrich Engels, especially the articles on military affairs,^[3] which belonged in Engels' domain in the division of labor between the two friends. Because of his deep knowledge of all things military, Engels had earned the nickname "General".^[3] Marx wrote a highly unsympathetic biographical article onSimon Bolivar.^[3][4]

Other prominent contributors to the first edition included^[5]

An associated yearbook,Appletons' Annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year, was published from 1861 to 1875 and on to 1902.^[6]

The cyclopaedia was revived under the titleAmerican Cyclopædia in 1873–6. A final edition was issued in 1883–4, which added supplements to each volume of the 1873 edition. Two analytical indexes were published separately in 1878 and 1884.^[7]

• Lists of encyclopedias

• Carl Burnham (July 2004)."The New American Cyclopedia, 1857 – 1866: A Time Capsule of the 19th century".Rare Book Monthly. Retrieved2018-01-28.

• Links todigitized volumes of theAmerican Cyclopædia

EnglishWikisource has original text related to this article:

The American Cyclopædia

Wikimedia Commons has media related toThe American Cyclopaedia.

• George Ripley;Charles A. Dana, eds. (1879).The American Cyclopaedia (2nd ed.). New York:D. Appleton and Company.

• Encyclopedias in English
• American encyclopedias
• D. Appleton & Company books
• 19th-century encyclopedias
• 1857 books

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Wikisource templates with missing id
• Commons category link is on Wikidata