The American Cyclopædia: a Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge

Abstract

IT was not to be expected that so eminently practical a nation as the United States would be long behind the stereotyped peoples of Europe in so indispensable an article as an encyclopædia. It is indeed many years since such a work was published in the States, and that so recently completed by the enterprising firm of Appleton is really a new edition of what some of our readers may remember as “The New American Cyclopaedia.” On the very surface the present issue is a vast improvement on the old, with its black funereal covers and unpleasant type. Indeed, the present edition may be regarded as really a new work, brought up to date in all departments. Ten years had elapsed between the completion of the old edition and the commencement of the new, and between 1863 and 1873, advances of vast importance had been made in nearly all departments of science. That Messrs. Appleton made competent provision to take account of these advances is evident from the list of men whose services they were able to obtain in bringing out the new edition. Besides the editors-in-chief, Messrs. Ripley and Dana, and four “associate editors,” there was a large staff or “revisers,” and a “corps” of contributors containing most of the well-known scientific workers of the States. The organisation of the work of the new edition appears to have been excellent, and from a description of the extensive premises devoted to the staff, it seems to have been a British Museum in miniature, with greatly improved arrangements.

The American Cyclopædia: a Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge.

Edited by George Ripley Charles A. Dana. 17 vols. (New York and London: Appleton and Co., 1873–1878.)