Tenth edition
The 10th edition (1902–03) was made by the addition of an 11-volume supplement to the ninth, numbering the supplementary volumes where the ninth left off, from 25 to 35. The 34th volume was an atlas of more than 120 maps with a gazetteer, and the 35th volume contained a combined index to the 34 volumes, a combined list of contributors, and a key to the abbreviated symbols used as signatures to the articles in which for the first time “X.,” signifying anonymity, appears. Bearing the imprint of Adam and Charles Black and The Times, the title page began: “The new volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica, constituting in combination with the existing volumes of the ninth edition the tenth edition of that work, and also supplying a new, distinctive, and independent library of reference dealing with recent events and developments….” The next page listed three editors, Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, Arthur T. Hadley, and Hugh Chisholm, 19 departmental editors (including Richard Garnett for biography and Edmund W. Gosse for literature), four associate editors, and two copy editors. One of the associate editors was Franklin H. Hooper, Horace Hooper’s brother, who from his office in New York controlled editorial work in the United States. The British editorial department had moved from Edinburgh to London. The preface pointed out that “these supplementary volumes are the product of the New World as well as of the Old.”
A selection of notable contributors to the 10th edition is provided in the table.
| author | article(s) |
|---|---|
| Laurence Binyon | Burne-Jones, Sir Edward; Lawson, Cecil Gordon |
| Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann | Models |
| Walter Camp | Base-ball; U.S. sections of Athletic Sports; Football (gridiron); Rowing |
| Laurence Housman | Illustration in part |
| Joseph Jefferson | Booth, Edwin |
| F.D. Lugard | Uganda in part |
| Frederic William Maitland | English Law |
| John Muir | Yosemite |
| Fridtjof Nansen | Greenland; Polar Regions: The Arctic Ocean |
| A.C.W. Harmsworth, Viscount Northcliffe | Newspapers in part |
| Sir Flinders Petrie | Egyptology in part |
| Gifford Pinchot | Forests and Forestry: United States |
| Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch | Brown, Thomas Edward |
| John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh | Argon |
| Bertrand Russell | Geometry, Non-Euclidean |
| Carl Schurz | Hayes, Rutherford B. |
| Sir Charles Scott Sherrington | Physiology: Muscle and Nerve |
| Sir J.J. Thomson | Electricity: Electric Waves |
The 10th edition brought the ninth up to date in obvious ways, and in particular in history; the ninth edition had not tried to cover recent events in any detail. The article “English History,” for instance, covered the whole reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). For the first time, biographical articles on living persons were introduced—not merely heads of state but also prominent figures in various walks of life. Such biographical articles, left unsigned, were often illustrated with text engravings of their subjects. The plates included a number of reproductions of works of art.
One feature of the 10th edition resembled the dissertations of a previous Supplement, though on a much smaller scale. Volumes 26 through 33 began with a prefatory essay on an aspect of developments in the modern world. These included “A General Survey of Recent Political Progress” by Edward Dicey (vol. 26), “The Growth of Toleration” by Leslie Stephen (vol. 28), “Modern Conditions of Literary Production” by Augustine Birrell (vol. 30), “The Influence of Commerce on International Conflict” by Frederick Greenwood (vol. 31), and “The Function of Science in the Modern State” by Karl Pearson (vol. 32).
The nine new volumes included nearly 900 new contributors. As American readers were expected to form a high proportion of the encyclopaedia’s users, there were many more American contributors to the 10th edition than to the ninth. Some of the most famous contributors were C.W. Eliot (“Gray, Asa”); Alfred C. Harmsworth (“Newspapers” in part); Fridtjof Nansen (“Greenland” and “Polar Regions,” the latter in part); Bertrand Russell (listed as B.A.W. Russell; “Geometry” in part); Sir J.J. Thomson (“Electricity” in part and “Magneto-Optics”).