General Details
Title: The Encylopædia Britannica Thirteenth Edition
Volumes: 3 (Added on to the 11th edition)
Language: English
Publisher: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company
Year: 1926
Pages:3491
The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature & General Information: The Three New Supplementary Volumes constituting with the Volumes of the Latest Standard Edition The Thirteenth Edition is a set of three supplementary volumes is essentially a redo of the 12th edition supplementary volumes under a new editor, James Lewis Garvin. The volumes (numbered 1, 2, 3) are meant to follow after volume 29 of the 11th edition set (completely replacing the 12th edition supplement) and they contain information for the years between 1910 and 1926. The 12th edition was very focused on the 1st World War; the 13th is an attempt to better process those events in a more succinct fashion, as well as to give more space to advancements in other realms of human activity. As the preface states, "in one way the supplementary three volumes issued after the World War will always keep irreplaceable value as an aid to the future historian and social investigator. They are exhaustive as a record in minute detail of the War itself and every subject connected with it. They reflect the overpowering extent to which people's minds were still possessed and absorbed by the recent convulsion and its more immediate consequences. We may say that, while the tempest was past, the ocean still heaved and surged on all sides and the air was still obscure. [...] And, above all, the proportion of matter occupied by the War and related references bulked so mightily as to allow no adequate space for very many other subjects essential to a general survey of recent information" (vii-viii).
My copy of the 13th edition supplementary volumes is not the same "handy volume issue" size as my copies of the 11th and 12th, but instead is the standard encyclopedia volume size. Each volume contains a list of contributors at the beginning, and the last volume contains an index and a "classification of articles" section like the 11th edition. There is also, on page 1236, a list of the illustration plates (some in color!) and where they can be found among the three volumes. That said, the 13th edition is, like the 12th edition, not nearly as profusely illustrated as the 11th edition was.
The 13th edition does add a new feature to the encyclopedia - before the index in the 3rd volume is a "Chronological Table of Events" listing by day important events from January 1, 1911 to July 31, 1926. Similar to the 12th edition supplements, the entries in the 13th edition hyperlink to the articles in the 11th edition via a parenthetical note.
Sample Entries
For ease of comparison, I attempt to look up the same two entries in each reference work featured in my guide: "umbrella" and "Saint Louis." Similar to the 12th edition, there are no "umbrella" updates. There is an update for the "Saint Louis" entry on page 448 of the 3rd supplementary volume.
ST. LOUIS (see 24.24). — The population of St. Louis July 1 1925 was 821,543 (census bureau estimate), an increase of 48,545 since 1920. The increase from 1910 to 1920 was 85,868, or 12%. The population figures are for limits fixed in 1876, when St. Louis city and St. Louis county were separated. An amendment (adopted in 1924) to the constitution of Missouri authorises the extension of the city limits into the county if the plan is approved by the voters of both city and county. The city, the counties of St. Louis and St. Charles in Missouri and the counties of St. Clair and Madison in Illinois form the St. Louis industrial district of the U.S. census.
The city charter of 1914 reduced elective officers to mayor, comptroller, president and board of aldermen, collector, treasurer, recorder of deeds, sheriff and coroner with four-year terms. Each of 28 wards has a resident alderman elected by citywide vote. The mayor, the comptroller and the president of the board of aldermen form a board of estimate and apportionment with control of appropriations. The board of public service (appointive) consists of a president and four directors of divisions — public welfare, public safety, public utilities, and streets and sewers, with departments and bureaus under them. The tax rate of 1925 was $2.57 per $100 assessment. Assessed valuation of realty, personalty and utilities increased from $775,500,000 in 1921 to $1,075,099,930 for the taxes of 1925.
City Improvement Plan. — In 1923 St. Louis voted $87,000,000 in bonds for a great scheme of city improvement. The bonds provided $8,500,000 for widening and $5,800,000 for improving 69 m. of streets; $12,000,000 for waterworks on the Missouri river, doubling the present supply of water taken from the Mississippi; $11,000,000 to put underground the River des Pères in the western suburbs; $2,600,000 for a plaza and park fronting Union station; $2,500,000 for new parks and playgrounds, with $1,300,000 for improving the old ones; $8,000,000 for city-wide electric lighting; $8,000,000 for reconstruction of sewers; $400,000 for an aquarium; $4,000,000 for eleemosynary institutions; and $1,250,000 for city markets. The bonds voted provide also $5,000,000 for a memorial plaza occupying 9 city blocks (27 ac.) between Market and Olive streets, west of Twelfth street boulevard. The new buildings on the plaza will be a courthouse, $4,000,000; and auditorium and convention hall, $5,000,000; and a World War memorial, $1,000,000. Existing public buildings in the plaza group include the municipal courts, the city hall and the public library.
Municipal improvements accomplished since 1910 include a permanent open-air theatre in Forest Park with seats for 9,275; a free steel bridge costing $7,500,000; viaducts over railways, $700,000; and new school buildings, $5,000,000. Additions to Washington University were endowment gifts ($1,500,000) and new buildings for the medical, art, biological and other departments, costing $3,000,000. To St. Louis University James Campbell left an estate of $10,000,000 for a hospital and the advancement of medicine and surgery. Three new hospitals — Barnes, the Jewish and the Children's — represent, with endowments, $5,000,000. From the surplus of the Louisiana purchase exposition the Jefferson memorial was built, costing $500,000, for the Missouri Historical Society.
Trade and Industry. — The total resources of banks and trust companies in 1925 were $523,114,561; deposits, $536,701,672; capital stock $42,950,000. Clearings for 1924 were $7,174,034,000. In 1925 St. Louis industries included the largest plants in the United States for the manufacture of shoes, street cars, stamped ware, stoves and ranges, drugs, tobacco, lead and brick. Operating 11 tanneries and 40 factories, the leading shoe company reached a production of 150,000 pairs daily in 1925. Recent development in metals has been marked, giving St. Louis the largest steel-casting plant in the world. An industrial district employing 55,000 has developed in northwest St. Louis since 1915. Rail freight tonnage received increased from 43,000,000 in 1920 to 52,000,000 in 1923; shipments out increased from 29,000,000 to 35,000,000 in the same years. Receipts of grain in 1924 were 113,974,000 bushels. Receipts of hogs in 1923 were 4,800,000.
(W. B. St.)