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Encyclopedia Americana

Encyclopedia Americana is a general encyclopedia[2] written in American English. It was the first major multivolume encyclopedia that was published in the United States.[2] With Collier's Encyclopedia and Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia Americana became one of the three major English-language general encyclopedias: The three were sometimes collectively called "the ABCs".[3] Following the acquisition of Grolier in 2000, the encyclopedia has been produced by Scholastic.

Encyclopedia Americana
AuthorFrancis Lieber (1800–1872)
LanguageEnglish
SubjectGeneral
Published1829–33[1]
Media type1

The encyclopedia has more than 45,000 articles, most of them more than 500 words and many running to considerable length (the "United States" article is over 300,000 words). Americana is international in scope and is known for its detailed coverage of American and Canadian geography and history.[2] Americana is also known for its strong coverage of biographies, and scientific and technical subjects.[2] Written by 6,500 contributors, the Encyclopedia Americana includes over 9,000 bibliographies, 150,000 cross-references, 1,000+ tables, 1,200 maps, and almost 4,500 black-and-white line art and color images. It also has 680 factboxes. Major articles are signed by their contributors, many being scholars pre-eminent in their field.[2]

Long available as a 30-volume print set, the Encyclopedia Americana is now marketed as an online encyclopedia requiring a subscription. In March 2008, Scholastic said that print sales remained good but that the company was still deciding on the future of the print edition.[4] The company’s final print edition was released in 2006.[2]

The online version of the Encyclopedia Americana, first introduced in 1996,[2] continues to be updated and sold. This work, like the print set from which it is derived, is designed for high school and first-year college students along with public library users. It is available to libraries as one of the options in the Grolier Online reference service, which also includes the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, intended for middle and high school students, and The New Book of Knowledge, an encyclopedia for elementary and middle school students. Grolier Online is not available to individual subscribers.

History and predecessors

 
This 1921 advertisement for the Encyclopedia Americana suggests that other encyclopedias are as out-of-date as the locomotives of 90 years earlier.

There have been three separate works using the title Encyclopedia Americana.

The first began publishing in the 1820s by the German exile Francis Lieber. The 13 volumes of the first edition were completed in 1833, and other editions and printings followed in 1835, 1836, 1847–1848, 1849 and 1858. Lieber's work was based upon and was in no small part a translation of the 7th edition of the well established Konversations-Lexikon of Brockhaus. Some material from this set was carried over into the modern version, as well as the Brockhaus short article method.[5][6]

A separate Encyclopedia Americana was published by J.M. Stoddart between 1883 and 1889, as a supplement to American reprintings of the 9th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. It was four quarto volumes meant to "extend and complete the articles in Britannica".[7] Stoddart's work, however, is not connected to the earlier work by Lieber.[8]

In 1902, a new version in 16 volumes was published under the title Encyclopedia Americana, under the editorial supervision of Scientific American magazine. The magazine's editor, Frederick Converse Beach, was editor-in-chief, and was said to be assisted by hundreds of eminent scholars and authorities who served as consulting editors or authors. The first publisher was R.S. Peale & Co; between 1903 and 1906 further editions were issued by the Americana Corp. and the Scientific American Compiling Department, with George Edwin Rines appointed managing editor in 1903.[9] The relationship with Scientific American was terminated in 1911.[10] From 1907 to 1912, the work was published as The Americana.

A major new edition appeared in 1918–20 in 30 volumes, with George Edwin Rines as editor-in-chief.[9] A yearbook, which has appeared under a variety of titles, was also published each year beginning in 1923 and continuing until 2008.[2]

The encyclopedia was purchased by Grolier in 1945. By the 1960s, sales of the Americana and its sister publications under GrolierThe Book of Knowledge, the American Peoples Encyclopedia, the Book of Popular Science, and Lands and Peoples—were strong enough to support the company's occupancy of a large building (variously named the Americana Building and the Grolier Building) in Midtown Manhattan, at 575 Lexington Avenue. Sales during this period were accomplished primarily through mail-order and door-to-door operations. Telemarketing and third-party distribution through their Lexicon division added to sales volumes in the 1970s. By the late 1970s, Grolier had moved its operations to Danbury, Connecticut.

Later developments

In 1988, Grolier was purchased by the French media company Hachette, which owned a well-known French-language encyclopedia, the Hachette Encyclopedia. Hachette was later absorbed by the French conglomerate the Lagardère Group.

A CD-ROM version of the encyclopedia was published in 1995. Although the text and images were stored on separate disks, it was in keeping with standards current at the time. More importantly, the work had been digitized, allowing for release of an online version in 1997. Over the next few years the product was augmented with additional features, functions, supplementary references, Internet links, and current events journal. A redesigned interface and partly reengineered product, featuring enhanced search capabilities and a first-ever ADA-compliant, text-only version for users with disabilities, was presented in 2002.

The acquisition of Grolier by Scholastic for US$400 million, took place in 2000. The new owners projected a 30% increase in operating income, although historically Grolier had experienced earnings of 7% to 8% on income.[11] Following the acquisition, Americana became part of a suite of educational resources.[2] Staff reductions as a means of controlling costs also followed soon thereafter, even while an effort was made to augment the sales force. Cuts occurred every year between 2000 and 2007, leaving a much-depleted work force to carry out the duties of maintaining a large encyclopedia database.[12]

In 2004, Scholastic stated that Americana’s 2,500 online articles are being revised annually.[2] Today, Americana lives on as an integral database within the Grolier Online product.

Editors-in-Chief

  • Frederick Converse Beach, 1902–1917. Engineer and editor of Scientific American magazine.
  • George Edwin Rines, 1917–1920. Author and editor.
  • A. H. McDannald, 1920–1948. Reporter (Baltimore News and Baltimore Evening Sun), editor, and author.
  • Lavinia P. Dudley, 1948–1964. Editor (Encyclopædia Britannica and Encyclopedia Americana) and manager; first woman to head a major American reference publication.
  • George A. Cornish, 1965–1970. Reporter (New York Herald Tribune) and editor.
  • Bernard S. Cayne, 1970–1980. Educational researcher (Educational Testing Service, Harvard Educational Review), editor (Ginn & Co., Collier's Encyclopedia, Macmillan) and business executive (Grolier Inc.).
  • Alan H. Smith, 1980–1985. Editor (Grolier/Encyclopedia Americana)
  • David T. Holland, 1985–1991. Editor (Harcourt Brace, Grolier/Encyclopedia Americana).
  • Mark Cummings, 1991–2000. Editor (Macmillan, Oxford University Press).
  • Michael Shally-Jensen, 2000–2005. Editor (Merriam-Webster/Encyclopædia Britannica).
  • K. Anne Ranson, 2005–2006. Editor (Academic American Encyclopedia, Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia).
  • Joseph M. Castagno, 2006–present. Editor (Grolier/Lands and Peoples, New Book of Popular Science).

See also

References

  1. ^ "Encyclopedia Americana". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Encyclopedia Americana | American reference work". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  3. ^ Kister, K. F. (1994). Kister's Best Encyclopedias: A Comparative Guide to General and Specialized Encyclopedias (2nd ed.). Phoenix, Arizona: Oryx Press. ISBN 0-89774-744-5.
  4. ^ Noam Cohen (16 March 2008). "Start Writing the Eulogies for Print Encyclopedias". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 June 2008.
  5. ^ Encyclopedia Americana, 1963 Edition, vol. 10, p. 317a.
  6. ^ Encyclopaedia Americana; A Popular Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature, History, Politics and Biography, Brought Down to the Present Time; Including a Copious Collection of Original Articles in American Biography; on the Basis of the Seventh Edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon. Edited by Francis Lieber, Assisted by E. Wigglesworth. Vol. I (1 ed.). Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey. 1829. Retrieved 24 February 2017 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ^ "Literary Gossip". The Week : a Canadian journal of politics, literature, science and arts. Vol. 1, no. 12. 21 February 1884. p. 190. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  8. ^ Walsh, S. Padraig (1968). Anglo-American General Encyclopedias: A Historical Bibliography, 1703–1967. New York: Bowker. p. 42. OCLC 221812838.
  9. ^ a b Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Rines, George Edwin" . Encyclopedia Americana.
  10. ^ Collison, Robert (1964). Encyclopedias: Their History throughout the Ages. New York: Hafner.
  11. ^ "French Plan to Sell Grolier," PublishersWeekly.com, 11/29/1999; "Scholastic to Acquire Grolier," press release, Scholastic Inc., 4/13/2000.
  12. ^ "Scholastic Has Record Year and Begins Grolier Integration," PublishersWeekly.com, 7/24/00; "Scholastic Sales Surge Continues," PublishersWeekly.com, 1/01/01; "Robinson: Scholastic's Business Remains Strong," PublishersWeekly.com, 10/01/01; "Sales Dip, Earnings Rise at Scholastic," PublishersWeekly.com, 7/29/02; "Scholastic Cuts 400 from Global Workforce," PublishersWeekly.com, 6/02/03; "Scholastic Takes a Charge," PublishersWeekly.com, 7/19/04; "Scholastic Cuts 30 Spots in Library Unit," PublishersWeekly.com, 6/02/05; "Scholastic to Cut Costs as Profits Fall," PublishersWeekly.com, 12/16/05; "Weak Results Prompt Closings, Layoffs at Scholastic," PublishersWeekly.com, 3/23/06.

External links

  • Text and images of the Encyclopaedia Americana 1851 at the University of Michigan's Making of America site.
  • Encyclopedia Americana Description from Grolier online
  • Complete hyperlinked editions of the 1904 and 1918-20 eds. at the Online Books Page
  • The Americana, Scientific American compiling department, 1912, hdl:2027/nyp.33433005016187 (fulltext)
  • Encyclopedia Americana, Encyclopedia Americana Corp., 1918 – via HathiTrust (fulltext)

encyclopedia, americana, this, article, about, modern, version, 19th, century, encyclopedia, encyclopædia, americana, lieber, this, article, multiple, issues, please, help, improve, discuss, these, issues, talk, page, learn, when, remove, these, template, mess. This article is about the modern version For the 19th century encyclopedia see Encyclopaedia Americana Lieber This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article needs to be updated Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information May 2014 This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Encyclopedia Americana news newspapers books scholar JSTOR February 2016 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message Encyclopedia Americana is a general encyclopedia 2 written in American English It was the first major multivolume encyclopedia that was published in the United States 2 With Collier s Encyclopedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopedia Americana became one of the three major English language general encyclopedias The three were sometimes collectively called the ABCs 3 Following the acquisition of Grolier in 2000 the encyclopedia has been produced by Scholastic Encyclopedia AmericanaAuthorFrancis Lieber 1800 1872 LanguageEnglishSubjectGeneralPublished1829 33 1 Media type1The encyclopedia has more than 45 000 articles most of them more than 500 words and many running to considerable length the United States article is over 300 000 words Americana is international in scope and is known for its detailed coverage of American and Canadian geography and history 2 Americana is also known for its strong coverage of biographies and scientific and technical subjects 2 Written by 6 500 contributors the Encyclopedia Americana includes over 9 000 bibliographies 150 000 cross references 1 000 tables 1 200 maps and almost 4 500 black and white line art and color images It also has 680 factboxes Major articles are signed by their contributors many being scholars pre eminent in their field 2 Long available as a 30 volume print set the Encyclopedia Americana is now marketed as an online encyclopedia requiring a subscription In March 2008 Scholastic said that print sales remained good but that the company was still deciding on the future of the print edition 4 The company s final print edition was released in 2006 2 The online version of the Encyclopedia Americana first introduced in 1996 2 continues to be updated and sold This work like the print set from which it is derived is designed for high school and first year college students along with public library users It is available to libraries as one of the options in the Grolier Online reference service which also includes the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia intended for middle and high school students and The New Book of Knowledge an encyclopedia for elementary and middle school students Grolier Online is not available to individual subscribers Contents 1 History and predecessors 2 Later developments 3 Editors in Chief 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksHistory and predecessors Edit This 1921 advertisement for the Encyclopedia Americana suggests that other encyclopedias are as out of date as the locomotives of 90 years earlier There have been three separate works using the title Encyclopedia Americana The first began publishing in the 1820s by the German exile Francis Lieber The 13 volumes of the first edition were completed in 1833 and other editions and printings followed in 1835 1836 1847 1848 1849 and 1858 Lieber s work was based upon and was in no small part a translation of the 7th edition of the well established Konversations Lexikon of Brockhaus Some material from this set was carried over into the modern version as well as the Brockhaus short article method 5 6 A separate Encyclopedia Americana was published by J M Stoddart between 1883 and 1889 as a supplement to American reprintings of the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica It was four quarto volumes meant to extend and complete the articles in Britannica 7 Stoddart s work however is not connected to the earlier work by Lieber 8 In 1902 a new version in 16 volumes was published under the title Encyclopedia Americana under the editorial supervision of Scientific American magazine The magazine s editor Frederick Converse Beach was editor in chief and was said to be assisted by hundreds of eminent scholars and authorities who served as consulting editors or authors The first publisher was R S Peale amp Co between 1903 and 1906 further editions were issued by the Americana Corp and the Scientific American Compiling Department with George Edwin Rines appointed managing editor in 1903 9 The relationship with Scientific American was terminated in 1911 10 From 1907 to 1912 the work was published as The Americana A major new edition appeared in 1918 20 in 30 volumes with George Edwin Rines as editor in chief 9 A yearbook which has appeared under a variety of titles was also published each year beginning in 1923 and continuing until 2008 2 The encyclopedia was purchased by Grolier in 1945 By the 1960s sales of the Americana and its sister publications under Grolier The Book of Knowledge the American Peoples Encyclopedia the Book of Popular Science and Lands and Peoples were strong enough to support the company s occupancy of a large building variously named the Americana Building and the Grolier Building in Midtown Manhattan at 575 Lexington Avenue Sales during this period were accomplished primarily through mail order and door to door operations Telemarketing and third party distribution through their Lexicon division added to sales volumes in the 1970s By the late 1970s Grolier had moved its operations to Danbury Connecticut Later developments EditIn 1988 Grolier was purchased by the French media company Hachette which owned a well known French language encyclopedia the Hachette Encyclopedia Hachette was later absorbed by the French conglomerate the Lagardere Group A CD ROM version of the encyclopedia was published in 1995 Although the text and images were stored on separate disks it was in keeping with standards current at the time More importantly the work had been digitized allowing for release of an online version in 1997 Over the next few years the product was augmented with additional features functions supplementary references Internet links and current events journal A redesigned interface and partly reengineered product featuring enhanced search capabilities and a first ever ADA compliant text only version for users with disabilities was presented in 2002 The acquisition of Grolier by Scholastic for US 400 million took place in 2000 The new owners projected a 30 increase in operating income although historically Grolier had experienced earnings of 7 to 8 on income 11 Following the acquisition Americana became part of a suite of educational resources 2 Staff reductions as a means of controlling costs also followed soon thereafter even while an effort was made to augment the sales force Cuts occurred every year between 2000 and 2007 leaving a much depleted work force to carry out the duties of maintaining a large encyclopedia database 12 In 2004 Scholastic stated that Americana s 2 500 online articles are being revised annually 2 Today Americana lives on as an integral database within the Grolier Online product Editors in Chief EditFrederick Converse Beach 1902 1917 Engineer and editor of Scientific American magazine George Edwin Rines 1917 1920 Author and editor A H McDannald 1920 1948 Reporter Baltimore News and Baltimore Evening Sun editor and author Lavinia P Dudley 1948 1964 Editor Encyclopaedia Britannica and Encyclopedia Americana and manager first woman to head a major American reference publication George A Cornish 1965 1970 Reporter New York Herald Tribune and editor Bernard S Cayne 1970 1980 Educational researcher Educational Testing Service Harvard Educational Review editor Ginn amp Co Collier s Encyclopedia Macmillan and business executive Grolier Inc Alan H Smith 1980 1985 Editor Grolier Encyclopedia Americana David T Holland 1985 1991 Editor Harcourt Brace Grolier Encyclopedia Americana Mark Cummings 1991 2000 Editor Macmillan Oxford University Press Michael Shally Jensen 2000 2005 Editor Merriam Webster Encyclopaedia Britannica K Anne Ranson 2005 2006 Editor Academic American Encyclopedia Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Joseph M Castagno 2006 present Editor Grolier Lands and Peoples New Book of Popular Science See also EditLists of encyclopediasReferences Edit Encyclopedia Americana Encyclopaedia Britannica a b c d e f g h i j Encyclopedia Americana American reference work Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved 10 April 2021 Kister K F 1994 Kister s Best Encyclopedias A Comparative Guide to General and Specialized Encyclopedias 2nd ed Phoenix Arizona Oryx Press ISBN 0 89774 744 5 Noam Cohen 16 March 2008 Start Writing the Eulogies for Print Encyclopedias The New York Times Retrieved 26 June 2008 Encyclopedia Americana 1963 Edition vol 10 p 317a Encyclopaedia Americana A Popular Dictionary of Arts Sciences Literature History Politics and Biography Brought Down to the Present Time Including a Copious Collection of Original Articles in American Biography on the Basis of the Seventh Edition of the German Conversations Lexicon Edited by Francis Lieber Assisted by E Wigglesworth Vol I 1 ed Philadelphia Carey Lea amp Carey 1829 Retrieved 24 February 2017 via Internet Archive Literary Gossip The Week a Canadian journal of politics literature science and arts Vol 1 no 12 21 February 1884 p 190 Retrieved 26 April 2013 Walsh S Padraig 1968 Anglo American General Encyclopedias A Historical Bibliography 1703 1967 New York Bowker p 42 OCLC 221812838 a b Rines George Edwin ed 1920 Rines George Edwin Encyclopedia Americana Collison Robert 1964 Encyclopedias Their History throughout the Ages New York Hafner French Plan to Sell Grolier PublishersWeekly com 11 29 1999 Scholastic to Acquire Grolier press release Scholastic Inc 4 13 2000 Scholastic Has Record Year and Begins Grolier Integration PublishersWeekly com 7 24 00 Scholastic Sales Surge Continues PublishersWeekly com 1 01 01 Robinson Scholastic s Business Remains Strong PublishersWeekly com 10 01 01 Sales Dip Earnings Rise at Scholastic PublishersWeekly com 7 29 02 Scholastic Cuts 400 from Global Workforce PublishersWeekly com 6 02 03 Scholastic Takes a Charge PublishersWeekly com 7 19 04 Scholastic Cuts 30 Spots in Library Unit PublishersWeekly com 6 02 05 Scholastic to Cut Costs as Profits Fall PublishersWeekly com 12 16 05 Weak Results Prompt Closings Layoffs at Scholastic PublishersWeekly com 3 23 06 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Encyclopedia Americana Wikisource has original text related to this article The Encyclopedia Americana 1920 Text and images of the Encyclopaedia Americana 1851 at the University of Michigan s Making of America site Encyclopedia Americana Description from Grolier online Complete hyperlinked editions of the 1904 and 1918 20 eds at the Online Books Page The Americana Scientific American compiling department 1912 hdl 2027 nyp 33433005016187 fulltext Encyclopedia Americana Encyclopedia Americana Corp 1918 via HathiTrust fulltext Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Encyclopedia Americana amp oldid 1123176990, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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