Sketch (1893-1959) was conceived as a lighter alternative to the Illustrated London News. Its focus was on celebrity, culture, metropolitan life, the royal family, and society gossip. Founder and editor Clement Shorter was particularly committed to the use of photography in journalism, preferring it to more traditional techniques such as wood engravings. Sarah Bernhardt was one of the most popular actresses of the day, and she was acutely conscious of the power of the press. These images showcase her many different personae, both on and off the stage. Prominent contributors to the Sketch included Max Beerbohm, Walter de la Mare, and Agatha Christie, who wrote almost 50 stories for the publication.]]> Clement Shorter, editor]]> Periodical]]> Frankenstein to the 3rd edition, first illustrated edition of 1831.]]> Drawn by Theodore von Holst and engraved by William Chevalier]]> Book]]> The New Monthly Magazine (1814-1884) was an early production of Henry Colburn, one of the century’s most important publishers. Each issue included an engraved portrait of a well-known figure. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge thought the drawing from which this engraving was made ‘the most striking likeness ever taken’ of him. This issue includes ‘Anecdotes of Lord Byron’ by a still unidentified writer, who offers some colourful details (Byron ‘never went to sleep without a pair of pistols and a dagger by his side’). Readers were also treated to the first printing of ‘The Vampyre’, supposedly written by Lord Byron but in fact the work of his doctor and friend, John William Polidori.

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Edited by Alaric Alexander Watts]]> Periodicals]]>
Forget Me Not and Friendship’s Offering, they were published in November, just in time for Christmas. The poet and humourist Thomas Hood edited the 1830 Gem. Its frontispiece (inspired by one of the stories included) and title page suggest the ornate style typical of these publications. By the early 1860s, the proliferation of other journals and gift books brought the era of the annual to a close.]]> Edited by Thomas Hood]]> Periodical]]> Elizabeth Barrett was already a famous poet when she secretly married Robert Browning in 1846 and moved with him to Italy. In the following years, she produced some of her finest works, including Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) and the long poem Aurora Leigh (1856). She was an early contributor to Thackeray’s Cornhill Magazine, which was a rival to Dickens’s All the Year Round. Barrett Browning’s ‘A Musical Instrument’, a meditation on the suffering that produces art, appears here with a striking wood engraving after Frederic Leighton. Leighton, later president of the Royal Academy, designed Barrett Browning’s tomb in Florence.

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Edited by William Makepeace Thackeray]]> Periodicals]]>
North and South, a serial of life in industrial Manchester, appeared over 20 weeks in Dickens’s Household Words from September 1854 to January 1855. Dickens and Gaskell frequently clashed over editorial matters, so much so that both swore never to work together again. However, Dickens realized Gaskell’s talent and popularity, and lured her back to serial publication with generous remuneration and promises of greater creative freedom.]]> Elizabeth Gaskell]]> Periodical]]> Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine was founded by the bookseller John Bell as a monthly magazine for women. Noted for its vibrant fashion plates, the journal also published serial fiction and articles on politics, science, and the theatre. Notable writers including Jane Porter and Mary Shelley contributed work, but readers were also encouraged to submit articles of their own for publication.]]> Founder John Bell]]> Periodical]]> Morning Herald established Melbourne Punch in 1855. Its first appearance was on 2 August 1855. In 1924 it was acquired by the Herald and Weekly Times, and in 1929 merged with Table Talk. It thus disappeared.]]> Frederick Sinnett and Edgar Ray, founders]]> Periodical]]> Westminster Review (1824-1914) was known primarily for its social and political engagement. It was neither popular nor successful in its early years. By the 1850s, the Westminster had become a respected journal, noted for its intellectualism. The writer George Eliot was assistant editor from 1851 to 1854, although she had in reality done most of the editorial work herself. ‘Silly Novels by Lady Novelists’ was one of her last essays for the Westminster, and it sought to expose the ridiculous nature of many works for and by women, a concern to which she was to return in her fiction.]]> George Eliot]]> Periodical]]> Punch began. The first was the fortnightly Taranaki Punch (1860–61), followed by the weeklies Canterbury Punch (1865), Otago Punch (1866–67) and Auckland Punch (1868–69). Their cartoons sent up local politicians and contributed to the creation of stock colonial types, such as the raffish but enterprising pastoralist. The Dunedin-produced weekly New Zealand Punch published a few issues in 1888. National Punch was a periodical that started on 25 October, 1873, and finished on 17 January 1874; 12 issues in all. Published by George McCullagh Reed (1831/2-1898) and Henry Brett (1843-1927), and printed at Evening Star Office. Cost 6d per copy; 5s per quarter. According to references in the Star, the publishers had no input into the content of this short-lived satricial magazine.]]> George McCullagh Reed (1831/2-1898) and Henry Brett (1843-1927), publishers]]> Periodical]]> Captain was notable for having a separate ‘athletics editor’, renowned cricketer C.B. Fry, and it sought to disseminate notions of ‘gentlemanliness’ across classes.]]> George Newnes]]> Periodical]]> Captain: A Magazine for Boys and Old Boys (1899-1924) was known for its school serials (hence its sub-title), and included works by P.G. Wodehouse, including his famous Mike stories. Published by George Newnes (whose many periodicals included Tit-Bits and the Strand), the magazine promoted athleticism and notions of ‘fair play’, and it appeared monthly, priced at six-pence. Its editor was credited as ‘the old Fag’, pointing to his credentials as one who understood public school life.]]> George Newnes]]> Periodical]]> Magazine of Science (1840-1849)was another attempt to reach a working-class audience, this time with a focus on science and industry. Its editor, George William Francis, later served as director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden. The 27 April 1839 cover presents a remarkable meeting of two modes of visual representation. Henry Fox Talbot had recently made public his experiments in ‘photogenic drawing’ – one of the earliest photographic processes. Francis copied Fox Talbot’s procedure, then presented his own works to his wood engravers, who produced woodcuts that imitated the new technology. In this way, readers unable to see Fox Talbot’s creations in person could at least have a sense of their characteristics.]]> George William Francis, editor]]> Periodical]]> Magazine of Science, and School of Arts (1840-1849) declared on its frontispiece that it ‘intended to illustrate the most useful, novel and interesting parts of natural history and experimental philosophy, artistical processes, ornamental manufactures, and the arts of life’. While it included some wood engravings, much of the journal was text. Articles included features on lathes, oil paintings, sculptors’ instruments, and insect coloration. It was superseded in 1850 by the Magazine of Science and Artists and Artists, Architects, and Builders Journal.]]> George William Francis, editor]]> Periodical]]> Yellow Book (1894-1897) was an important outlet for those writers and artists who identified with the Decadent Movement, ‘an aesthetic ideology of excess and artificiality’. The first four volumes were illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley, whose mesmerizingly grotesque drawings became one of the journal’s hallmarks. Appearing quarterly, the Yellow Book was lengthy, with each volume weighing in at around 300 pages. The cost was high at five shillings. The content was designed to be beautiful, daring, and shocking to bourgeois sensibilities. Contributors included Henry James, George Gissing, and H.G. Wells. Beardsley was dismissed following Oscar Wilde’s prosecution for ‘indecency’ in 1895. It is believed that the journal failed in April 1897 because of anxieties surrounding the Wilde trials.]]> Henry Harland, editor ]]> Periodical]]> ILN, 6 January 1855.]]> Henry Ingram, founder]]> Periodical]]> Illustrated London News (1842-2003) transformed the reporting of current affairs, politics, and world events. It was the world’s first illustrated weekly newspaper, visibly different from its competitors. The ILN initially featured a large number of wood engravings; photographic reproductions began to appear in the 1890s.]]> Henry Ingram, founder]]> Periodical]]> Henry Ingram, founder]]> Periodical]]> ILN’s reputation was confirmed by its reports and photographs from the Crimean War in 1855, when sales reached more than 200,000 copies a week. This issue carries folk milling about on board ship.]]> Henry Ingram, founder]]> Periodicals]]> ILN. This is part of a supplement on the Duke, his life and death.]]> Henry Ingram, founder]]> Periodical]]> Illustrated London News appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. It was timed to report on the young Queen Victoria's first masquerade ball. It cost sixpence, and the first issue sold 26,000 copies.]]> Herbert Ingram, founder]]> Periodical]]> Vanity Fair was well-known for its chromolithographic caricatures of prominent figures. James Tissot’s image of Charles Darwin appeared in 1871, the year in which The Descent of Man was published. The accompanying article describes Darwin as ‘one of the most accomplished naturalists now in existence’, noting that ‘any theoretical structure that he builds upon his researches must be regarded with great respect’. While Tissot captures Darwin’s physical infirmities (note the pile of cushions, which signify his ongoing ill health), he does so gently, contrasting his subject’s physical frailty with the intense intelligence to be seen in his eyes.

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James Tissot, artist]]> Periodical]]>
The Crimean War began in 1853, when Tsar Nicholas II invaded the Ottoman-controlled territories of Moldavia and Wallachia. The Ottomans won early victories at Kalafat and Oltenitza (see the article opposite, ‘Heartsease for the Czar’), and Britain and France joined the fray on the side of the Ottomans. John Leech’s image captures a moment when the British public believed that Nicholas’s belligerence was about to backfire on him. The reality was less simple: though the Russians eventually sued for peace in 1856, the British suffered some 40,000 casualties, and the Charge of the Light Brigade ensured that the Crimean War long stood as a symbol of British bungling.

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John Leech]]> Periodical]]>
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland illustrations) portrays a terrified Bright tiptoeing past the working-class giant he has awakened. The 1867 Reform Act gave the vote to (male) skilled city workers, but excluded agricultural labourers.]]> John Tenniel]]> Periodical]]> On 6 May 1882, the newly-appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and his Under Secretary, Thomas Henry Burke, were stabbed to death in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. The Irish politician Charles Stewart Parnell, released from jail four days previously, denounced the murders, which were committed by a militant separatist group. But Punch represents Parnell as Victor Frankenstein, cowering before his murderous creation, a simian-like Irish caricature. The broadsheet at the monster’s feet reads ‘Capt Moonlight’, a reference to Parnell’s 1881 statement, ‘Ah, if I am arrested Captain Moonlight will take my place’. Although Parnell remained a key figure in Irish politics, the murders were a profound setback to Irish Home Rule.

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John Tenniel]]> Periodical]]>