Illustrated London News
Encyclopedia
The Illustrated London News was the world's first illustrated weekly newspaper; the first issue appeared on Saturday 14 May 1842. It was published weekly until 1971 and then increasingly less frequently until publication ceased in 2003.
moved from Nottingham
to London in early 1842. Inspired by how the Weekly Chronicle always sold more copies when it featured an illustration, he had the idea of publishing a weekly newspaper that would contain pictures in every edition. Ingram's initial idea was that it would concentrate on crime reporting, as per the later Illustrated Police News
, but his collaborator, engraver Henry Vizetelly
, convinced him that a newspaper covering more general news would enjoy greater success.
Ingram rented an office, recruited artists and reporters, and employed as his editor Frederick William Naylor Bayley (1808–1853), formerly editor of the National Omnibus. The first issue of The Illustrated London News appeared on 14 May 1842. Its 16 pages and 32 wood engravings covered topics such as the war in Afghanistan
, a train crash in France, a survey of the candidates for the US presidential election, extensive crime reports, an account of a fancy dress ball at Buckingham Palace
, theatre and book reviews, and a list of births, marriages and deaths. The newspaper also carried three pages of advertisements for items such as a taxidermy
manual, Madame Bernard's treatment for baldness, and Smith's quinine
tonic. Ingram hired 200 men to carry placards through the streets of London promoting the first edition of his new newspaper.
Costing sixpence, the first edition sold 26,000 copies. Despite this initial success, sales of the second and subsequent editions were disappointing. However, Herbert Ingram was determined to make his newspaper a success, and sent every clergyman in the country a copy of the edition which contained illustrations of the installation of the Archbishop of Canterbury
, and by this means secured a great many new subscribers.
Its circulation soon increased to 40,000 and by the end of its first year was 60,000. In 1851, after the newspaper published Joseph Paxton
's designs for the Crystal Palace
before even Prince Albert had seen them, the circulation rose to 130,000. In 1852, when it produced a special edition covering the funeral of the Duke of Wellington
, sales increased to 150,000; and in 1855, mainly due to the newspaper reproducing some of Roger Fenton
's pioneering photographs of the Crimean War
(and also due to the abolition of the Stamp Act which taxed newspapers), it sold 200,000 copies per week.
By 1863 The Illustrated London News was selling more than 300,000 copies every week, enormous figures in comparison to other British newspapers of the time. Competitors appeared but did not last long; Andrew Spottiswoode's Pictorial Times lost £20,000 before it was sold to Ingram, while Henry Vizetelly, who had quit Ingram to found the rival Pictorial Times, eventually sold it to Ingram, who terminated it.
On 30 October 1875, The Illustrated London News devoted its front page and five other pages to an article about a reunion of the survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade
to celebrate the 21st Anniversary of the Charge. The reunion was organised by a committee chaired by Edward Richard Woodham
whose recollections of the charge and those of several others at the dinner were recorded in the article.
Herbert Ingram died on 8 September 1860 in a paddle-steamer accident on Lake Michigan
, and he was succeeded as proprietor by his youngest son, William
, who in turn was succeeded by his son, Bruce Ingram in 1900.
From about 1890 onward The Illustrated London News made increasing use of photographs. The tradition of graphic illustrations continued however until the end of World War I. Often rough sketches of distant events with handwritten explanations, were supplied by observers and then worked on by artists in London to produce polished end-products for publication. This was particularly the case where popular subjects such as colonial or foreign military campaigns did not lend themselves to clear illustration using the limited camera technology of the period. By the 1920s and 1930s the pictures which dominated each issue of the magazine were almost exclusively photographic, although artists might still be used to illustrate in pictorial form topics such as budgetry expenditure or the layout of coal mines.
The Illustrated London News was published weekly until 1971 when it became a monthly, and then bimonthly from 1989 until 1994. From 1994 until production ceased in 2003 it was published just twice a year.
, Birket Foster, and George Cruikshank
among the former, and W. J. Linton, Ebenezer Landells
and George Thomas among the latter. Regular literary contributors included Douglas Jerrold
, Richard Garnett
and Shirley Brooks
.
Illustrators, artists and photographers included Bruce Bairnsfather
, H. M. Bateman
, Edmund Blampied, Mabel Lucie Attwell
, E. H. Shepherd, Kate Greenaway
, W. Heath Robinson
and his brother Charles Robinson
, George E. Studdy
, David Wright, Melton Prior, William Simpson
, Frederic Villiers, Frank Reynolds
, Lawson Wood, C. E. Turner, R. Caton Woodville, A. Forestier, Fortunino Matania
, Christina Broom
and Louis Wain
.
Writers and journalists included Robert Louis Stevenson
, Thomas Hardy
, George Augustus Sala, J. M. Barrie
, Wilkie Collins
, Rudyard Kipling
, G. K. Chesterton
, Joseph Conrad
, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
, Sir Charles Petrie
, Agatha Christie
, Arthur Bryant
and Tim Beaumont
(who wrote about food).
Sources: Peter Biddlecombe, "As much of life that the world can show", Illustrated London News, 13 May 1967; http://www.philsp.com/data/data169.html
History
Printer and newsagent Herbert IngramHerbert Ingram
Herbert Ingram was considered the father of pictorial journalism through his founding of The Illustrated London News. He was a Liberal politician who favoured social reform and represented Boston for four years until his early death in a shipping accident.-Early life:Ingram was born at Paddock...
moved from Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
to London in early 1842. Inspired by how the Weekly Chronicle always sold more copies when it featured an illustration, he had the idea of publishing a weekly newspaper that would contain pictures in every edition. Ingram's initial idea was that it would concentrate on crime reporting, as per the later Illustrated Police News
The Illustrated Police News
The Illustrated Police News was a weekly illustrated newspaper which was one of the earliest British tabloids. It featured sensational and melodramatic reports and illustrations of murders and hangings and was a direct descendant of the execution broadsheets of the 18th century.First published in...
, but his collaborator, engraver Henry Vizetelly
Henry Vizetelly
Henry Richard Vizetelly was an English publisher, the son of a printer. He was early apprenticed as a wood engraver, and one of his first blocks was a portrait of Old Parr....
, convinced him that a newspaper covering more general news would enjoy greater success.
Ingram rented an office, recruited artists and reporters, and employed as his editor Frederick William Naylor Bayley (1808–1853), formerly editor of the National Omnibus. The first issue of The Illustrated London News appeared on 14 May 1842. Its 16 pages and 32 wood engravings covered topics such as the war in Afghanistan
First Anglo-Afghan War
The First Anglo-Afghan War was fought between British India and Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842. It was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition for power and influence in Central Asia between the United Kingdom and Russia, and also marked one of the worst...
, a train crash in France, a survey of the candidates for the US presidential election, extensive crime reports, an account of a fancy dress ball at Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
, theatre and book reviews, and a list of births, marriages and deaths. The newspaper also carried three pages of advertisements for items such as a taxidermy
Taxidermy
Taxidermy is the act of mounting or reproducing dead animals for display or for other sources of study. Taxidermy can be done on all vertebrate species of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians...
manual, Madame Bernard's treatment for baldness, and Smith's quinine
Quinine
Quinine is a natural white crystalline alkaloid having antipyretic , antimalarial, analgesic , anti-inflammatory properties and a bitter taste. It is a stereoisomer of quinidine which, unlike quinine, is an anti-arrhythmic...
tonic. Ingram hired 200 men to carry placards through the streets of London promoting the first edition of his new newspaper.
Costing sixpence, the first edition sold 26,000 copies. Despite this initial success, sales of the second and subsequent editions were disappointing. However, Herbert Ingram was determined to make his newspaper a success, and sent every clergyman in the country a copy of the edition which contained illustrations of the installation of the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, and by this means secured a great many new subscribers.
Its circulation soon increased to 40,000 and by the end of its first year was 60,000. In 1851, after the newspaper published Joseph Paxton
Joseph Paxton
Sir Joseph Paxton was an English gardener and architect, best known for designing The Crystal Palace.-Early life:...
's designs for the Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
before even Prince Albert had seen them, the circulation rose to 130,000. In 1852, when it produced a special edition covering the funeral of the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
, sales increased to 150,000; and in 1855, mainly due to the newspaper reproducing some of Roger Fenton
Roger Fenton
Roger Fenton was a pioneering British photographer, one of the first war photographers.-Early life:Roger Fenton was born in Crimble Hall, Heap, Bury, Lancashire, 28 March 1819. His grandfather was a wealthy cotton manufacturer and banker, his father a banker and Member of Parliament...
's pioneering photographs of the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
(and also due to the abolition of the Stamp Act which taxed newspapers), it sold 200,000 copies per week.
By 1863 The Illustrated London News was selling more than 300,000 copies every week, enormous figures in comparison to other British newspapers of the time. Competitors appeared but did not last long; Andrew Spottiswoode's Pictorial Times lost £20,000 before it was sold to Ingram, while Henry Vizetelly, who had quit Ingram to found the rival Pictorial Times, eventually sold it to Ingram, who terminated it.
On 30 October 1875, The Illustrated London News devoted its front page and five other pages to an article about a reunion of the survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade
Charge of the Light Brigade
The Charge of the Light Brigade was a charge of British cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. The charge was the result of a miscommunication in such a way that the brigade attempted a much more difficult objective...
to celebrate the 21st Anniversary of the Charge. The reunion was organised by a committee chaired by Edward Richard Woodham
Edward Richard Woodham
Edward Richard Woodham was one of the survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade on October 25, 1854 during the Crimean War....
whose recollections of the charge and those of several others at the dinner were recorded in the article.
Herbert Ingram died on 8 September 1860 in a paddle-steamer accident on Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
, and he was succeeded as proprietor by his youngest son, William
Sir William Ingram, 1st Baronet
Sir William James Ingram, 1st Baronet was Managing Director of The Illustrated London News and a Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons in three periods between 1878 and 1895....
, who in turn was succeeded by his son, Bruce Ingram in 1900.
From about 1890 onward The Illustrated London News made increasing use of photographs. The tradition of graphic illustrations continued however until the end of World War I. Often rough sketches of distant events with handwritten explanations, were supplied by observers and then worked on by artists in London to produce polished end-products for publication. This was particularly the case where popular subjects such as colonial or foreign military campaigns did not lend themselves to clear illustration using the limited camera technology of the period. By the 1920s and 1930s the pictures which dominated each issue of the magazine were almost exclusively photographic, although artists might still be used to illustrate in pictorial form topics such as budgetry expenditure or the layout of coal mines.
The Illustrated London News was published weekly until 1971 when it became a monthly, and then bimonthly from 1989 until 1994. From 1994 until production ceased in 2003 it was published just twice a year.
Collaborators
The first generation of draughtsmen and engravers included Sir John GilbertJohn Gilbert (painter)
Sir John Gilbert was an English artist, illustrator and engraver.-Biography:He was born in Blackheath, Surrey, and taught himself to paint. Skilled in several media, he gained the nickname, "the Scott of painting"...
, Birket Foster, and George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached an international audience.-Early life:Cruikshank was born in London...
among the former, and W. J. Linton, Ebenezer Landells
Ebenezer Landells
Ebenezer Landells was an English wood-engraver, illustrator, and magazine proprietor....
and George Thomas among the latter. Regular literary contributors included Douglas Jerrold
Douglas William Jerrold
Douglas William Jerrold was an English dramatist and writer.-Biography:Jerrold was born in London. His father, Samuel Jerrold, was an actor and lessee of the little theatre of Wilsby near Cranbrook in Kent. In 1807 Douglass moved to Sheerness, where he spent his childhood...
, Richard Garnett
Richard Garnett
Richard Garnett C.B. was a scholar, librarian, biographer and poet. He was son of Richard Garnett, an author, philologist and assistant keeper of printed books in the British Museum....
and Shirley Brooks
Shirley Brooks
Charles William Shirley Brooks , journalist and novelist, born in London, began life in a solicitor's office. He early, however, took to literature, and contributed to various periodicals. In 1851 he joined the staff of Punch, to which he contributed "Essence of Parliament," and on the death of...
.
Illustrators, artists and photographers included Bruce Bairnsfather
Bruce Bairnsfather
Captain Bruce Bairnsfather was a prominent British humorist and cartoonist. His best-known cartoon character is Old Bill...
, H. M. Bateman
H. M. Bateman
Henry Mayo Bateman was a British humorous artist and cartoonist.H. M. Bateman was noted for his "The Man Who..." series of cartoons, featuring comically exaggerated reactions to minor and usually upper-class social gaffes, such as "The Man Who Lit His Cigar Before the Loyal Toast", "The Man Who...
, Edmund Blampied, Mabel Lucie Attwell
Mabel Lucie Attwell
Mabel Lucie Attwell was a British illustrator. She was known for her cute, nostalgic drawings of children, based on her daughter, Peggy. Her drawings are featured on many postcards, advertisements, posters, books and figurines...
, E. H. Shepherd, Kate Greenaway
Kate Greenaway
Catherine Greenaway , known as Kate Greenaway, was an English children's book illustrator and writer, who spent much of her childhood at Rolleston, Nottinghamshire. She studied at what is now the Royal College of Art in London, which at that time had a separate section for women, and was headed by...
, W. Heath Robinson
W. Heath Robinson
William Heath Robinson was an English cartoonist and illustrator, best known for drawings of eccentric machines....
and his brother Charles Robinson
Charles Robinson (illustrator)
Charles Robinson was a prolific British book illustrator.Born in Islington in October 1870, London, he was the son of an illustrator and his brothers Thomas Heath Robinson and William Heath Robinson also became illustrators. He served an apprenticeship as a printer and took art lessons in the...
, George E. Studdy
George E. Studdy
George Ernest Studdy was a British commercial artist. He is best remembered for his creation of Bonzo the dog, a fictional character in the early 1920s that first appeared in The Sketch Magazine....
, David Wright, Melton Prior, William Simpson
William Simpson (artist)
William Simpson was a Scottish artist, war artist and correspondent.-Early years:Born into poverty in Glasgow on 28 October 1823, Simpson went on to become one of the leading 'special artists' of his day, and sketched many scenes of war for the Illustrated London News...
, Frederic Villiers, Frank Reynolds
Frank Reynolds (artist)
Frank Reynolds was a British artist. Son of an artist, he studied at Heatherley's School of Art.Reynolds had a drawing called A provincial theatre company on tour published in The Graphic on 30 November 1901. In 1906 he began contributing to Punch Magazine and was regularly published within its...
, Lawson Wood, C. E. Turner, R. Caton Woodville, A. Forestier, Fortunino Matania
Fortunino Matania
Chevalier Fortunino Matania was an Italian artist noted for his realistic portrayal of historical subjects, including nude women.-Life:...
, Christina Broom
Christina Broom
Christina Broom was a British photographer, credited as "the UK's first female press photographer".-History:Born at 8 King's Road, Chelsea, London, the then-Christina Livingston married Albert Edward Broom in 1889...
and Louis Wain
Louis Wain
Louis Wain was an English artist best known for his drawings, which consistently featured anthropomorphised large-eyed cats and kittens. In his later years he suffered from schizophrenia, which, according to some psychologists, can be seen in his works.- Life and work :Louis William Wain was...
.
Writers and journalists included Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
, Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
, George Augustus Sala, J. M. Barrie
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...
, Wilkie Collins
Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces...
, Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
, G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
, Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
, Sir Charles Petrie
Charles Petrie
Sir Charles Alexander Petrie, 3rd Baronet was a popular historian. Of Irish lineage, but born in Liverpool, he was educated at Oxford, and in 1927 succeeded to the family baronetcy....
, Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
, Arthur Bryant
Arthur Bryant
Sir Arthur Wynne Morgan Bryant, CH, CBE , was a British historian and a columnist for the Illustrated London News. His books included studies of Samuel Pepys, accounts of English eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history, and a life of George V...
and Tim Beaumont
Timothy Beaumont, Baron Beaumont of Whitley
Timothy Wentworth Beaumont, Baron Beaumont of Whitley was a United Kingdom politician and an Anglican clergyman. He was politically active, successively, in the Liberal Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party...
(who wrote about food).
Editors
- 1842: Frederick William Naylor Bayley
- 1848: John TimbsJohn TimbsJohn Timbs , English antiquary, was born in Clerkenwell, London.He was educated at a private school at Hemel Hempstead, and in his sixteenth year apprenticed to a druggist and printer at Dorking. He had early shown literary capacity, and when nineteen began to write for the Monthly Magazine...
- 1852: Charles MackayCharles MackayCharles Mackay was a Scottish poet, journalist, and song writer.-Life:Charles Mackay was born in Perth, Scotland. His father was by turns a naval officer and a foot soldier; his mother died shortly after his birth. Charles was educated at the Caledonian Asylum, London, and at Brussels, but spent...
- 1859: John Lash
- 1891: Clement Shorter
- 1900: Bruce Ingram
- 1963: Hugh Ingram
- 1965: Timothy Green
- 1966: John Kisch
- 1970: James Bishop
- 1995: Mark Palmer
Sources: Peter Biddlecombe, "As much of life that the world can show", Illustrated London News, 13 May 1967; http://www.philsp.com/data/data169.html
Further reading
- Law, Graham. Indexes to Fiction in the Illustrated London News (1842–1901) and the Graphic, (1869–1901). Victorian Fiction Research Guides 29, Victorian Fiction Research Unit, Department of English, University of Queensland, 2001.
- Sinnema, Peter. Dynamics of the Pictured Page: Representing the Nation in the Illustrated London News. Aldershot: Ashgate. 1998.
External links
- Japan and the Illustrated London News – lecture to the Japan Society by Terry Bennett in 2003