The Nuttall encyclopædia: being a concise and comprehensive dictionary of general knowledge

A little about the book

The Nuttall Encyclopædia offers a compact alphabetical route through the general knowledge its early twentieth-century editors considered most useful. Entries range across history, geography, literature, biography, religion, philosophy, science, and the arts. A reader can look up an unfamiliar name, follow a passing reference, or move between unrelated subjects in the exploratory fashion that makes an encyclopedia different from a continuous narrative.

Its brevity is part of its design: the volume aims to place a wide range of information within reach without requiring the space or cost of a much larger reference work. That convenience also makes its historical perspective important. Choices about what to include, how to describe other cultures, and which achievements deserve emphasis reflect the period of publication. Today the book can serve both as a guide to older literary and historical references and as an example of how knowledge was organized for general readers. Dates, scientific explanations, political descriptions, and evaluative judgments should be understood in that historical context.

Things You May Not Know About The Nuttall Encyclopædia

• More than sixteen thousand entries. The title page advertises more than sixteen thousand articles, emphasizing the remarkable amount of material compressed into a single reference volume.
• James Wood edited this edition. The source title page credits the Reverend James Wood as editor, a distinction worth keeping separate from the Nuttall name in the title.
• A 1907 source edition. The Gutenberg text reproduces an edition dated 1907, so its descriptions of the contemporary world belong to that historical moment.
• Subjects rather than word definitions. The preface distinguishes an encyclopedia’s explanations of subject matter from the word definitions readers would ordinarily expect to find in a dictionary.
• Designed for a smaller shelf. The preface presents compactness and affordability as practical advantages, offering general readers an alternative to more expensive and extensive encyclopedias.