We recently acquired a full set (all 39 parts and 2,018 pages) of the Harmsworth Natural History (HMH), published (I think) every fortnight for 7d in 1910 and 1911. This was one of Alfred Harmsworth’s ventures, joining other collectibles such as the Harmsworth Encyclopaedia, Harmsworth Self-Educator and the Harmsworth History of the World. All were intended to form a complete set and you’d buy the binders to fit them into volumes.
Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922), later Lord Northcliffe, was the Rupert Murdoch of his day. He founded the Daily Mail in 1896 and the Daily Mirror in 1903. As a press baron he was particularly active as one of the first motorists and used the Daily Mail to promote that movement, and in turn aviation when that, er, took off around 1909.
This collection reminds us there’s nothing new about buying a popular encyclopaedia which builds up into a complete set. All topics seem to have been covered over the years: sewing, history of war, you name it. Nowadays they tend to get advertised on the TV, and are published by Marshall Cavendish, Orbis and the like. I remember all too well collecting On Four Wheels in the 1970s, which at 25p per week took all my pocket money. I was very relieved to get to part 135 when it finally drew to a conclusion, having had the requisite binders bought for birthday and Christmas presents. Sad, I know.
The HNH took full advantage of a then new technique, half-tone printing, to achieve colour reproduction. The technology appeared in the 1880s, with another one, photogravure, and within a generation they had completely changed the look of the magazines you’d see in your WH Smith. It meant that the previous technique for reproducing colour - engraving - had all but disappeared by the early twentieth century. Half-tone was still expensive, and required a better quality paper, but it did mean that publishers like Harmsworth were able to take advantage of decreasing costs. At 7d, mind, HNH was truly a luxury, and the children depicted in the images (who I guess are meant to be typical buyers) were about as middle class as they came.
The only advertising within the HNH is for Harmsworth’s own in-house publications, and, as far as I can tell, always the Children’s Encyclopaedia (renamed Children’s Magazine in 1911). This was plugged relentlessly but used some lovely artwork, shown here.
