Introduction

This chapter examines design history and the evolution of nineteenth-century illustrations in the context of economic knowledge ecologies. Special attention will be paid to analysing why certain visual trends emerged in the mid- to late nineteenth century, along with trends in the growth and competitive nature of the press. The professionalisation and then de-professionalisation of the British wood-engraving trade will also be covered through three different eras in illustrated British periodicals, defined here as the decades of the publicists (1830s–1840s), the decades of the wood engravers (1840s–1850s) and the decades of market diversification and fragmentation (1860s–1900). These eras will be examined by groups of specific illustrated publications established during those years, including the Penny Magazine (1832–45) and Information for the People (1845), as well as in general trends in the first two decades of the Illustrated London News (1842–69) and the first three decades of Punch magazine (1841–2002). Other publications will also be referred to in order to corroborate or contrast styles and layouts, and to show the influence of British engravers on the printing industry.

The historical circumstances that provided fertile ground for printed images to become abundant, particularly through the means of the illustrated press, were threefold. Firstly, there was the economic impetus provided by changes in British legislation, most prominently the removal of ‘taxes on knowledge’, which enabled more cost-effective publishing to flourish in the second half of the nineteenth century (and discussed more fully by Tom O’Malley in Chapter 6 of this volume). Secondly, there was the professional dimension, the manner in which journalism became a capitalistic enterprise, and a paralleling rise and fall of the wood-engraving profession within this enterprise. Nineteenth-century illustration technologies will be covered in more depth by Helen Williams in Chapter 2 of this volume, but it is worth acknowledging, as this chapter will attempt to do, the historical and commercial context of such technologies as they relate to design. Thirdly, given that wood engraving rose to prominence in the mid-century, then essentially declined when the periodical press adapted new technology to create images at the close of the century, this chapter will highlight the effects of more sophisticated visual communication technologies developed from the 1830s through to the 1890s, and the influence of other image-making processes such as photography on wood-engraved images.