Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1885 — The First Newspaper Illustration. [ARTICLE]

The First Newspaper Illustration.

According to a-book on the subject, j published in London, it appears that i the effort to illustrate important or current events was much earlier made than many are aware. The first attempt to illustrate the news of the day seems to have been made in 1607, when a tract on “Woful News from Wales” curiously illustrated a flood that occurred in Monmouthshire. Another tract, in the same year, pictures floods in Somersetshire and Yorkshire. There w r ere others, in 1612 and 1613, illusti ating, among other things, the burning of Tiverton and “The This Windie Winter.” Favorite subjects with those early wood-cutters were murders, battles and floods, with now and then a supernatural flight, whether of ghost or meteor. There were some very good cuts in 1641 and 1643, one or two being accounted worthy the pages of a modern illustrited paper. The first paper that attempted regularly to illustrate features of its news was the Mercurius Civicus, published in London during the civil war. War maps were published as early as 1701, when the London Post gave an outline drawing of the seat of war in Italy, and in 1756 the Dublin Journal gave a plan of the battle of Culloden. * * * Delicate diseases radically cured. Consultation free. Address, World's Dispensary Medieal Association, Buffalo, N. Y. County Clerks may be smart, but they are generally fee-bill minded.