Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. facts for kids
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| Founded | 1768 Edinburgh, Scotland |
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| Founder |
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| Country of origin | Scotland |
| Headquarters location | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
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| Imprints | Merriam-Webster |
| Owner(s) | Jacqui Safra |
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. is a famous company. It publishes the Encyclopædia Britannica, which is the oldest encyclopedia still being published today! This company also owns Merriam-Webster, a well-known dictionary publisher in America. Britannica started in Edinburgh, Scotland, a long time ago. Now, its main office is in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States.
Contents
The Story of Britannica
How It All Began
The Britannica company started in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1700s. This was a time called the Scottish Enlightenment, when many new ideas were born.
In 1768, Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell began creating the very first Encyclopædia Britannica. They hired William Smellie to write most of the articles. The second edition came out in 1784. After Macfarquhar passed away in 1793, Bell took over completely. He then published the third and fourth editions.
Later, another publisher from Edinburgh, Archibald Constable, published the fifth and sixth editions. After Constable died in 1827, a company called A & C Black Ltd. bought the rights to the encyclopedia. They continued publishing it for 70 years.
Starting with the ninth edition in 1875, Britannica began to include many more topics. They invited experts from literature, social studies, and science to write for it. This ninth edition is still seen as one of the most amazing collections of knowledge ever made.
In 1901, Horace E. Hooper and Walter M. Jackson bought all the rights to the encyclopedia. They created companies in both the United States and England. Hugh Chisholm was the editor for the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth editions.
Britannica and Sears
In 1915, the famous store Sears agreed to sell a cheaper version of the eleventh edition. This made the encyclopedia available to more families. In 1920, Sears bought the entire Britannica company. However, after three years, Sears lost money.
In 1923, Sears sold Britannica back to the family of Horace Hooper. They published the twelfth and thirteenth editions. When they needed money for the fourteenth edition, Sears stepped in again. Sears took ownership of Britannica once more in 1928.
In 1932, Sears changed how Britannica sold its books. Instead of selling them in stores, they used sales people who visited homes. They also set up booths at events and malls. In 1938, Britannica started publishing the Britannica Book of the Year. This book summarized important world events from the past year.
The Benton Family Era
In 1941, Sears gave Britannica to the University of Chicago. But the university felt it couldn't run the company. William Benton, who was a vice president at the university, stepped in. He offered to invest his own money to keep the company going. Benton eventually bought all of Britannica.
In 1952, Benton began planning for the fifteenth edition. During the 1960s, Britannica also bought Merriam-Webster (the dictionary company) and Compton's Encyclopedia.
William Benton passed away in 1973. The fifteenth edition, called Britannica 3, came out in 1974. It was special because it had three parts:
- A ten-volume Micropædia for quick facts.
- A 19-volume Macropædia for longer, detailed articles.
- A one-volume Propædia to help users understand how to use the encyclopedia.
In 1985, a two-volume index was added to make finding information even easier. Robert P. Gwinn took over from Benton in 1974. He split the company into Britannica USA and Britannica International. In 1990, Britannica sold almost 120,000 encyclopedias in the United States. However, sales started to drop after 1994. This led the company to close many of its sales offices.
Britannica in the Modern Age
In 1996, Jacob E. Safra, a Swiss investor, bought Britannica. He made changes to the company. In 1999, Britannica launched Britannica.com, which put the entire encyclopedia online.
In 2009, the Britannica Global Edition was printed. It had 30 volumes, over 40,000 articles, and 8,500 photos. By the 2010s, Britannica started focusing a lot on education. They created learning tools for schools and other institutions.
In 2010, Britannica partnered with Concentric Sky to create iPhone apps for students from kindergarten to 12th grade. In 2011, they made Britannica Kids available on Intel Atom-based Netbooks and as an iPad app. Britannica also launched Britannica ImageQuest in 2010, which is a huge collection of images.
A big change happened in 2012. After 244 years, Britannica stopped printing paper encyclopedias. The 2010 edition was the last one on paper. Since then, all new editions have been published only online.
In 2018, the company released Britannica Insights. This is an extension for the Chrome web browser. It adds extra information to Google search results. In 2019, Britannica worked with Binumi to offer a video product for schools. This allowed schools to use many free video clips for digital storytelling projects.
In 2020, Encyclopædia Britannica released a new print encyclopedia for kids. It was called Britannica All New Children's Encyclopedia: What We Know and What We Don't. This book covered many important topics and was praised for bringing back print for younger readers. It was their first children's encyclopedia since 1984. Also in 2020, Britannica acquired ProCon.org, a website that provides balanced information on important topics.
See also
In Spanish: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. para niños
- Lists of encyclopedias
- List of online encyclopedias
