Category:The Graphic

Title: The Graphic: A Weekly Illustrated Magazine'"

Editor: Henry Sutherland Edwards (1869 -); Arthur Locker (1870 - 1891); Marion Harry Spielmann

Publisher: Edward Joseph Mansfield (1879); George Robert Parker (1899); Augustus Fildes Thomas (1899)

When The Graphic: A Weekly Illustrated Newspaper started on 4 December 1869, there was no other newspaper like it in quality or wide acceptance of art. William Luson Thomas, a skilled wood engraver and watercolor artist, used his previous knowledge of the newspaper industry from his time working in New York to rival the Illustrated London News. Unlike its rival, The Graphic focused mainly on the illustrations and used the news and stories to explain them. An advertisement claimed that it "deals picturesquely with all important events at Home and Abroad, thus forming an invaluable pictorial record. The beautiful series of Supplements in Colour, Tone, and Black and White, include pictures by the most famous Old Masters and Modern Artists, chosen from the principle National and Private Collections of England.” Stemming from the use of the pictures, the paper also published other various subjects to do with the fine arts. In each issue there were weekly topics, science discussions, new poetry and verse, novel reviews, a chapter of a novel, short fiction, amusements, new music, church news, legal issues, foreign news and illustrations for the stories.

Because of new printing technology and innovation, many new artists who worked with more than wood engravings were able to start their careers through the paper. Illustrators were not the only ones who could publish, though. Famous authors like Wilkie Collins, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Victor Hugo, and others published their stories in serialization. Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge was one of the first books to be featured in the paper. Artists would illustrate their books and novel publications could show the work done in The Graphic. According to another advertisement, The Graphic offered "a superior illustrated weekly newspaper, containing twenty-four pages imperial folio, printed on fine toned paper of beautiful quality, made expressly for the purpose and admirably adapted for the display of engravings”. The whole purpose of the paper was to show art and news was second to the engravings. The topics of the paper, therefore, focused on topics which could showcase the work of the artists. Thomas, being an artist himself, had seen how poorly other newspapers treated the content creators and decided to revolutionize the relationship between artist and publisher.

Even though The Graphic cost one penny more than the Illustrated London News at sixpence, the price was worth the quality of the illustrations and stories. Because of the higher price, the audience was more upper class individuals than other periodicals. Thomas hoped that the readers would be concerned about the issues raised in the paper and fight to fix the problems. Although new and not as well known at first, it was able to keep up with the other papers in sales while attracting artists to publish in its pages. Another contributing factor to the success of the paper was that it started during the Franco-Prussian war, causing the sales of newspapers to increase. Soon, the company was able to expand and release special editions like the Royal Wedding in 1893 and Christmas editions as well as monthly publications and a deluxe edition which sold for ninepence. One of Thomas’ sons took over after his death in 1900 and in April of 1932, the paper changed its name to The National Graphic until it discontinued in July of the same year.

Submitted by: Young, Anna: section 1, Winter 2014