1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
 First page of theEncyclopædia Britannica,Eleventh Edition | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Language | British English |
Release number | 11 |
| Subject | General |
| Publisher | Horace Everett Hooper |
Publication date | 1910-11 |
| Media type | Print and Digital |
| Preceded by | Encyclopædia Britannica Tenth Edition |
| Followed by | Encyclepædia Britannica Twelfth Edition |
| Text | Encyclopædia BritannicaEleventh EditionatWikisource |
TheEncyclopædia BritannicaEleventh Edition(1910–1911) is one of the most famouseditionsof theEncyclopædia Britannica.Some of its articles were written by the best-knownscholarsof the time. The articles are still of value and interest to modern scholars as examples for the knowledge of the 19th and early 20th centuries. They contain, however, a number ofproblematicareas for the modern scholar using them as a source. The eleventh edition is no longer restricted bycopyrightand is availableonline,both in its original text and in part in other online encyclopaedias and works.
Background
[change|change source]The 1911 eleventh edition wasassembledunder the leadership of American publisherHorace Everett Hooper,and edited byHugh Chisholm.American marketing methods assisted sales. Some 11% of the contributors were American, and aNew Yorkoffice was established to run that side of the enterprise.
Some articles were written by the best-known scholars of the day, such asEdmund Gosse,J. B. Bury,Algernon Charles Swinburne,John Muir,Prince Peter Kropotkin,T. H. Huxley,G. K. Chesterton,Edmund HusserlandWilliam Michael Rossetti,and others well known to thatera.
The eleventh edition introduced a number of changes to 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. The content of the encyclopaedia was made up 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% |
The eleventh edition has become a commonly quoted source because of the reputation of theBritannicaat that time and because it is now in thepublic domainand has been made available on the Internet. TheEncyclopædia Britannicaof 1911 has been used as a source for many modern projects, such asWikipediaand theGutenberg Encyclopedia.
Gutenberg Encyclopedia
[change|change source]TheProject Gutenberg Encyclopediais actually the eleventh edition of theEncyclopædia Britannica,renamed to address Britannica's trademark concerns.
| Section | From | To | Links | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 1: | A | – | Androphagi | [1] |
| Volume 2.1.1: | Andros, Sir Edmund | – | Anise | [2] |
| Volume 4.3: | Bréquigny | – | Bulgaria | [3] |
| Volume 4.4: | Bulgaria | – | Calgary | [4] |
Other websites
[change|change source]
Free, public-domain resources
[change|change source]- Full-page scansintiffformat, at Tim Starling's Wikisource page. Probably requires theAlternaTiff plugin.In particular, see:
- InVolume 1,the "Prefatory Note" and "Editorial Introduction," which discuss the history and objectives of the edition. (These, and the different Prefatory Note from the Handy Volume edition of 1915, are also included in theWikisource 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.)
- Thearticle on Encyclopaedia
- Project Gutenberg Volume I
- The Project Gutenberg Volume II
Articles about the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
[change|change source]- 'Information... Slightly Coloured by Prejudice', by Lawrence Biemiller,The Chronicle of Higher Education,Notes From Academe, Volume 52, Issue 47, Page A40.(No longer available on-line).
- "Music and art in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica"by Charles T. Downey (Ionarts, 25 August 2006)