THE PICTORIAL PRESS The earliest attempts in England at the pictorial portrayal of news took the shape of "broadsides," one of which, published in 1587, the year before the Armada, recounted the "Valiant Exploits of Sir Francis Drake." These early pictorial "broadsides" illus trate the hold which murders and tragedies have always had upon the imagination of people. A picture appeared portraying the exe cution of Strafford in 1641, and later the execution of Charles I. was similarly illustrated. Several woodcuts appeared after the Restoration depicting the executions of the regicides. In the Grub Street Journal in 1731 was published an illustration of the Lord Mayor's Show, and in 1740 the Daily Post came out with a picture illustrating Admiral Vernon's attack on Porto Bello. Copper plates were used by the English Magazine, the Thespian Magazine, and other such publications in the 18th century. Occasional pictures of important events were published in the early days of the Observer (1791), including a portrait of Abraham Thornton, who in 1818 on being charged with murder invoked the ancient pro cedure of wager of battle, with the result that a special bill had to be passed abolishing a practically obsolete form of trial. The Observer also published pictures of the coronation of Queen Victoria and of the fire in 1841 which destroyed the armoury at the Tower of London. In 1834 the Sunday Times gave a picture of the ruins of the old House of Commons after it had been burnt down, and a journal called the Magnet in 1840 illustrated the removal of Napoleon's body from St. Helena.
Herbert Ingram conceived the idea of "all the news in pictures" and he brought out the first number of the Illustrated London News on May 14, 1842, price 6d., a weekly paper containing 16 printed pages and 32 woodcuts, one of which depicted the great fire at Hamburg in which a hundred people lost their lives. The chief engravings, by Sir John Gilbert, illustrated the first bal masque given by Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. From that time onwards the Illustrated London News has given a faith ful representation of the events of the week, and in its files can be traced the evolution of the wood engraving to the half-tone, which owing to the development of photography and modern engraving processes by the end of the 19th century had extinguished the skilled handiwork of the wood engraver. In 186o Ingram was
drowned with his eldest son in the disaster in Lake Michigan in North America which overtook the steamer Lady Elgin. The con trol of the paper passed to another son, afterwards Sir William Ingram. Its editors included Charles Mackay John Lash Latey (1859-189o), the late Clement K. Shorter (189o 1899), and Bruce Ingram, grandson of the founder, the present (1929) editor. It virtually held the field alone in weekly illus trated journalism until in 1861 the first penny popular paper was started by the same proprietor, the Penny Illustrated Paper, edited by John Latey junior, who afterwards for a period was edi tor of the Illustrated London News. In 1869 the first serious rival of the Illustrated London News was published, the Graphic, pro duced by W. L. Thomas. Black and White, a paper of the same class as the Illustrated London News followed in 1891; and in 1892 the Sketch was started by the late Sir William Ingram, under the editorship of Shorter, as a social and theatrical illustrated weekly. Clement K. Shorter founded the Sphere in 1899. It be came a serious rival of the existing picture papers, absorbed Black and White, and started the Tatler, which competed for public favour with the Sketch. A similar type of paper was the By stander, issued by the Graphic. Ingram also owned a fashion pdper, the Ladies' Pictorial, and the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. Sir John Ellerman acquired all these papers except the Graphic and the Bystander and they were brought under one proprietary in 5926 by William Harrison of the Inveresk Paper Company, who promoted Illustrated Newspapers Ltd., ac quiring at the same time the Graphic and Bystander which had passed into the hands. of Messrs. Berry. Harrison promoted in 1928 another weekly newspaper on somewhat different lines. The Illustrated Newspapers Ltd. therefore own the Sphere, the Illus trated London News, the Graphic, Sketch, Tatler, Bystander, Eve, which is an amalgamation of several fashion papers including the Ladies' Pictorial, while the same company publish the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News.