Today, an encyclopedia and a new nation. The University of Houston presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
Thomas Dobson first announced his plans to publish an encyclopedia in 1789, only a month before George Washington’s inauguration as the first president of the United States. Dobson had emigrated from Scotland a few years before and settled in Philadelphia, where he worked as a publisher, printer, and author. His audacious vision of publishing the first American encyclopedia fed on the ambition and excitement of his new country, and he used that patriotic momentum to promote the enterprise.
The third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was being published in Scotland at the time, and Dobson adapted its text and illustrations for his American market. He started by removing “Britannica” from the title and changing the dedication from King George to his readers. His project broke new ground for American publishing. Nothing on this scale had been successfully produced in the country before, and its 18 volumes were printed on American-made paper, with American-made type, and illustrated with 595 pages of images engraved by American artists.
Title page and frontispiece, Encyclopaedia, Philadelphia: Printed by Thomas Dobson, 1790-1798. Frontispiece engraved by John Vallance. Photo credit: Powell Library, Bayou Bend Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Dobson also found new approaches to market his work. Since a multi-volume work like this took years to complete, he advertised the project widely and frequently to sell subscriptions. He promoted the work as an American enterprise to the founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton subscribed, and George Washington ordered two copies. After completing the first volume, Dobson presented a copy to the Senate of the United States on May 1, 1790.
My favorite image, plate 179, looks like a work of abstract art. What could be starbursts or exploding fireworks stand out against a deep black ground. Below them, three beautifully intertwined letters glow in the darkness. The illustration accompanies the article on electricity and actually depicts designs formed by sending an electrical shock through metallic rings on a glass plate. The curving letters at the bottom of the original British image formed King George’s initials, but in Thomas Dobson’s American encyclopedia, they are U, S, and A. The image illustrates a scientific phenomenon, but, to me, it also powerfully embodies and celebrates the momentous creation of a new nation and the people and ideas that made it possible.
Plate 179, Encyclopaedia, Philadelphia: Printed by Thomas Dobson, 1790-1798. Plate engraved by Robert Scot. Photo credit: Powell Library, Bayou Bend Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
I’m Margaret Culbertson at the Bayou Bend Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where we too are interested in the way inventive minds work.
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A set of Dobson’s encyclopedia is in the collection of the Kitty King Powell Library, Bayou Bend Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and was funded by William J. Hill. In Houston, one may make arrangements to view the volumes by calling the Powell Library, 713-353-1542, or emailing mculbertson [at] mfah.org (mculbertson[at]mfah[dot]org).
Bibliography:
Encyclopaedia, or, a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature…. Philadelphia: Printed by Thomas Dobson, 1798-1803.
Arner, Robert D., Dobson’s Enclopaedia: The Publisher, Text, and Publication of America’s First Britannica, 1789-1803. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.
This episode first aired on December 18, 2024