Category The Encyclopædia Britannica – 14th Edition – 1965

Knitting

Bran

I just upgraded my knitting needles. I have been using KnitPro / Knitter's Pride / KnitPicks (they're all the same!) interchangeable needles since February 2012, when I purchased the KnitPro Nova Deluxe Set for 43.85€. I was a graduate student in Germany, and that was an insanely expensive purchase for me at the time. They've served me well - they are essentially hollow brass needles coated with nickel plating that screw on to flexible cords of different lengths. I slowly supplemented the initial set over the years with additional needle and cord sizes, but there have been a few issues. Quality control has sometimes been lacking - one pair of needle tips completely lacked the screw connection to attach to the cable, for example, and the actual needle sizes have not always matched up to the claimed size. Over the past couple of years all of them, whether I've actively used them or kept them secure in their case, have developed some sort of sticky film that makes knitting difficult. So, after consulting the internet and a dear friend, I decided to splurge on a set of ChiaoGoo stainless steel interchangeable needles, which arrived this last week. So far I'm enjoying them - no goo and the cables are much more flexible than my other set.

Knitting doesn't get much attention in early encyclopedia sets - if there is an entry on the subject, it tends to be short. Here's the entry from Johnson's Universal Cyclopædia (1887), found in volume 4 on page 613:

Knit'ting [Ang. Sax. cnyttan or knittan; Ger. knutten, knot; Hind. ganth; Sans. gnanthi, a "knot"], a manner of weaving or twisting a single thread into a kind of cloth by means of steel, ivory, or wooden implements called knitting-needles, which are made of various sizes, according to the fineness of thread used and the tightness of stitch required.

Knitting is a far more modern invention than its kindred art, netting. Many antiquaries affirm that knitting was invented in Scotland, and thence introduced into France; others say that it is of Spanish origin, and was first known in England in the reign of Henry VIII. But in a rare collection of the acts of Edward VI. is one specifying, among other woollen articles, "knitte hose, knitte peticotes, knitte gloves, knitte slieves." In 1527 the French knitters formed themselves into a corporation, styled "Communauté des Maîtres Bonnetiers au Tricot," choosing for their patron St. Fiacre.

The 11th edition (1911) of the Encyclopædia Britannica's entry appears in volume 15, p. 869:

KNITTING (from O.E. cnyttan, to knit; cf. Ger. Knütten; the root is seen in "knot"), the art of forming a single thread or strand of yarn into a texture or fabric of a loop structure, by employing needles or wires. "Crochet" work is an analogous art in its simplest form. It consists of forming a single thread into a single chain of loops. All warp knit fabrics are built on this structure. Knitting may be said to be divided into two principles, viz. (1) hand knitting and (2) frame-work knitting (see Hosiery). In hand knitting, the wires, pins or needles used are of different lengths or gauges, according to the class of work wanted to be produced. They are made of steel, bone, wood or ivory. Some are headed to prevent the loops from slipping over the ends. Flat or selvedged work can only be produced on them. Others are pointed at both ends, and by employing three or more a circular or circular-shaped fabric can be made. In hand knitting each loop is formed and thrown off individually and in rotation and is left hanging on the new loop formed. The cotton, wool and silk fibres are the principle materials from which knitting yarns are manufactured, wool being the most important and most largely used. "Lamb's-wool," "wheeling," "fingering" and worsted yarns are all produced from the wool fibre, but may differ in size or fineness and quality. Those yarns are largely used in the production of knitted underwear. Hand knitting is to-day principally practised as a domestic art, but in some of the remote parts of Scotland and Ireland it is prosecuted as an industry to some extent. In the Shetland Islands the wool of the native sheep is spun, and used in its natural colour, being manufactured into shawls, scarfs, ladies' jackets, &c. The principal trade of other districts is hose and half-hose, made from the wool of the sheep native to the district. The formation of the stitches in knitting may be varied in a great many ways, by "purling" (knitting or throwing loops to back and front in rib form), "slipping" loops, taking up and casting off and working in various coloured yarns to form stripes, patterns, &c. The articles may be shaped according to the manner in which the wires and yarns are manipulated.

Here is the Encyclopedia Americana (1924) on the subject (vol.16, pages 488):

KNITTING, an industrial and ornamental art akin to weaving, but of much later origin. It does not appear to be more than three or four centuries old, and seems to have been first used in the manufacture of stockings. It consists in forming a series of loops with a single thread, through which another row of loops is passed, and so on consecutively in spiraled circles, the garment being shaped by variations in the number of loops in a row. In hand-knitting, steel-wires or bone or composition needles are used, termed knitting needles, and on these the loops are formed. For manufacturing purposes hand-knitting has been entirely superseded by machinery (see Knitting-Machine), which is constantly receiving new improvements. Hand-knitting, however, still forms an agreeable domestic occupation and also furnishes many women in some parts of the world with means of subsistence. Promptly upon America's entrance into the World War, many patriotic societies, and women of the Red Cross in particular, started a work of knitting sweaters for soldiers and sailors. The movement was taken up by thousands of women, who devoted their otherwise idle time to knitting, and it became common to see women everywhere with knitting bags on their arms, that they might work whenever they had spare moments. On the street cars, at social gatherings, in intervals of business, there was industrious knitting, resulting in a great volume of very serviceable sweaters and some other knitted garments being provided for the "boys at the front."

By mid-century, knitting started getting more attention in the encyclopedia sets. Hand-knitting didn't appear at all in my 1919 World Book, for example, but my 1958 set features a diagram on how to "cast on" stitches and notes that "knitting is older than written history." The article (volume 10, pages 4188-4189) also comments on knitting education: Knitting is taught to girls in some European schools. Schools in the United States do not usually teach knitting. The reason is that there are only two main stitches used in knitting — the knit and the purl — and the rest depends upon practice alone. Department stores and small "knit shops" in the United States have made knitting a popular hobby. Hand knitting reached a peak in the United States in 1935, partly because stores selling yarn offered free lessons in knitting. I wonder what the mid-century World Book would think of "stitch-and-bitch" sessions.

The 14th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (my copy is from 1965) concentrates on machine knitting under "Knitting," but directs the reader interested in hand-knitting to the article on "Needlework" (vol. 16, p. 183), which describes with diagrams (see picture below) the basics of the craft. I, for one, would not want these illustrations to be my sole reference for learning the craft, but it shows the trend towards including illustration. In general, the newer the encyclopedia set, the more likely there will be both illustrative examples of what knitted work looks like and diagrams demonstrating the basic stitches. The 1992 World Book, for example, features two-color diagrams illustrating the stitches as well as full-color close-up photographs of finished stockinette and garter-stitch knitting.

Illustration from the 14th Edition Encyclopædia Britannica, "Needlework"

Pompeii

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Our local science center is currently hosting the travelling exhibit "Pompeii: The Exhibition." I plan on viewing the exhibition tomorrow. I visited Pompeii myself on a rainy day back in 2006, along with the "secret cabinet" at the Museum of Naples, and I look forward to viewing the various artifacts. In anticipation, I decided to look up Pompeii in my various encyclopedia sets. The general caveat that will always accompany blog posts of this nature: the information stated below is quoted from these old reference works for entertainment purposes only; accuracy has not been verified. Always double-check information before citing. Books are fallible.

Illustration from the 1919 World Book

The 1919 World Book (volume 8, pages 4748-4749) has a rather short article on the subject of Pompeii; the large drawing of the forum (p. 4749) takes up nearly as much space as the text. "For over fifteen centuries after the eruption, the site of the buried cities was unknown. Pompeii lay at the mouth of the River Sarnus, near the Bay of Naples, but the great disaster so changed the geography of the region — turning the river back from its course and raising the sea beach — that men had no way of discovering the site. In fact, for a long time its very name was almost forgotten. Then, by a happy accident, interest in the buried cities was revived. In 1748 a peasant who was sinking a well in that locality found some statues and other antiquities, and this led to extensive excavations in the region" (4749). The entry does not mention specifically how the residents of Pompeii perished nor does it mention their remains, focusing instead on the makeup of the city. The 1958 World Book (volume 13, pages 6482-6484) generally copies the same text, but replaces the drawing with a lot of B&W photographs - it features more pictures of Pompeii and its artifacts than any of the other reference works I looked at. One interesting line it does add on to the original entry is a note that a description of the eruption (since the entry, like the 1919 version, does not itself go into the sordid details) can be found in a fictional account: "Lord Lytton gives a description of the tragedy in his novel The Last Days of Pompeii" (6484).

One of the many, many photographs in the 1958 World Book. A house close to where I work has a reproduction of this on their doorway. CAVE CANEM!

The 1992 World Book (volume 15, pages 656-658) features a new text, written in very simple language. It features three color photographs in the entry. This version now includes the details lacking from the previous World Books; rather than just state that the volcano erupted and the buildings were buried, the human element is brought in, beginning with Pliny the Younger's account: "The Roman writer Pliny the Younger told in a letter how he led his mother to safety through the fumes and falling stones. His uncle, the writer Pliny the Elder, commanded a fleet that rescued some people. He landed to view the eruption and died on the shore" (657). This is followed by a description of what happened to unlucky citizens of Pompeii and the archaeological significance of their mode of death: "Some of the victims were trapped in their homes and killed by hot ashes. Others breathed the poisonous fumes and died as they fled. Archaeologists find the shells (molds) of the bodies preserved in the hardened ash. By carefully pouring plaster into the shells, they can make detailed copies of the individuals, even to the expressions of agony on their faces" (657). One of the photo captions states that at this time, three-fourths of Pompeii had been excavated (658); in the previous encyclopedia editions, only half had been uncovered.

The 1910 Encyclopædia Britannica (volume 22, pages 50 to 56) features a city map on page 52, showing the extent to which the city had been excavated at the time. The article devotes most of its space to the history of the city before the volcanic eruption and to the physical description of the city at the time, as the archaeological at the time viewed it. There are some interesting anecdotes given, such as this one from Tacitus' Annals: "In A.D. 59 a tumult took place in the amphitheatre between the citizens and visitors from the nieghbouring colony of Nuceria. Many were killed and wounded on both sides. The Pompeians were punished for this violent outbreak by the prohibition of all theatrical exhibitions for ten years (Tacitus, Ann.. xiv. 17). A characteristic, though rude, painting found on the walls of one of the houses gives a representation of this event" (50). One nice feature of this entry is that it links as much historical data as it can back to Roman sources; Tacitus is cited numerous times, as is Cicero ("whose letters abound with allusions to his Pompeian villa" 50), Seneca, and Pliny.

Map from the 1910 Encyclopædia Britannica

As mentioned, the entry focuses on the description of the city as can be gleamed from the archaeological record. The main streets, for instance, "are uniformly paved with large polygonal blocks of hard basaltic lava, fitted very closely together, though now in many cases marked with deep ruts from the passage of vehicles in ancient times. They are also in all cases bordered by raised footways on both sides, paved in a similar manner; and for the convenience of foot-passengers, which was evidently a more important consideration than the obstacle which the arrangement presented to the passage of vehicles, which indeed were probably only allowed for goods traffic, these are connected from place to place by stepping-stones raised above the level of the carriage-way" (51). Numerous examples of graffiti are mentioned, the first in a footnote on the amphitheatres: "The interest taken by the Pompeians in the sports of the amphitheatre is shown by the contents of the numerous painted and scratched inscriptions relating to them which have been found in Pompeii — notices of combats, laudatory inscriptions, including even references to the admiration which gladiators won from the fair sex, &c." (53). These are mentioned again towards the end of the article: "Still more curious, and almost peculiar to Pompeii, are the numerous writings painted upon the walls, which have generally a semi-public character, such as recommendations of candidates for municipal offices, advertisements, &c., and the scratched inscriptions (graffiti), which are generally the mere expression of individual impulse and feeling, frequently amatory, and not uncommonly conveyed in rude and imperfect verses" (56). Other facts about the residences unearthed include notes on climate control ("elaborate precautions were taken against heat, but none against cold, which was patiently endured" 54) and on the tools and artifacts found: "Another curious discovery was that of the abode of a sculptor, containing his tools, as well as blocks of marble and half-finished statues. The number of utensils of various kinds found in the houses and shops is almost endless, and, as these are in most cases of bronze, they are generally in perfect preservation" (54).

The 1910 Encyclopædia Britannica article states that the population of Pompeii was probably around 20,000 (51); this is the figure given by all of my reference works except for one — the 1984 Brockhaus (volume 17, pages 165-165) estimates the population to be between 12,000 and 15,000 residents. The Britannica estimates that 10% of that population perished in the volcanic eruption, based on "the number of skeletons discovered" (51). Unlike the World Book, the Britannica makes no qualms of mentioning the bodies, even if the cause of death is not strictly given: "Almost all the skeletons and remains of bodies found in the city were discovered in similar situations, in cellars or underground apartments — those who had sought refuge in flight having apparently for the most part escaped from destruction, or having perished under circumstances where their bodies were easily recovered by the survivors. According to Cassius Dio, a large number of the inahbitants were assembled in the theatre at the time of the catastrophe, but no bodies have been found there, and they were probably sought for and removed shortly afterwards. Of late years it has been found possible in many cases to take casts of the bodies found — a complete mould having been formed around them by the fine white ashes, partially consolidated by water" (55).

The 1965 Encyclopædia Britannica (volume 18, pages 201-205) features an updated map of the city, but generally quotes verbatim the 1910 article. It does, however, make one correction regarding the design of the houses. The 1910 article has surmised that the walls facing the street were very plain (particularly in contrast to the inner courtyards), but the 1965 version gives a correction: "The careful investigation in recent years of the buildings in the eastern portion of the Strada dell' Abbondanza has shown that previous conceptions of the appearance of the exterior of the houses were entirely erroneous. The upper stories were diversified by balconies, open loggias, colonnades, etc., while the lower portions of the façades were painted, often with scenes of considerable interest" (202). The 1997 Encyclopædia Britannica (volume 9, pages 590-592), on the other hand, has a completely rewritten article, which is fairly lengthy for a Micropædia article, with an (again) updated map and a single black-and-white photograph. This entry is particularly nice for the attention it gives to the history of the lengthy archaeological excavation: "Early digging was haphazard and often irresponsible; excavators were primarily treasure seekers, hunting for imposing buildings or museum objects. Haphazard digging was brought to a stop in 1860, when the Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli became director of the excavations. [...] Fiorelli also developed the technique of making casts of bodies by pouring cement into the hollows formed in the volcanic ash when the bodies disintegrated" (591). Similarly, there are nice notes on the cultural impact of the rediscovery of Pompeii: "The laudatory pronouncements of the eminent German classicist Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who made his first trip to Naples in 1755, and the etchings of Giambattista Piranesi did much to popularize the excavations. Naples, Pompeii, and Herculaneum became important stops on the European Grand Tour made by English visitors" (591).

Briefly returning to the 1984 Brockhaus: this was the only encyclopedia to directly mention the pornographic, which it includes in a list of the different types of graffiti found: "Wandinschriften geben Auskunft über Begebenheiten des tägl. Lebens: Geschäftsanzeigen, Wahlagitationen, Gladiatorenscherze, Liebesgeständnisse sowie pornograph. Darstellungen" (Wall inscriptions provide information about everyday life: job postings, campaign slogans, gladiator jokes, love confessions and even pornographic depictions, 165). It also gives an exact date of the eruption: August 24, 79. I shall mention one final encyclopedia, the 1993 New Standard Encyclopedia (volume 13, pages 471-473), which features very vivid, almost literary descriptions of the demise of the residents: "Out of the great, dark cloud that shot up from the mountain, masses of scorching pumice fragments, some of them as large as three inches (7.6 cm) across, rained down on Pompeii. Deadly sulfurous gases emitted by the hot material killed many persons as they ran through the streets, and killed some who fled to their cellars or huddled in inner rooms to escape the falling rock. Others waited until the doorways of their homes were blocked, then escaped from second-story windows, only to fall in the continuing lethal deluge. When 8 to 10 feet (2.4 to 3 m) of the pumice covered the city a fine ash moistened by steam began to fall. Breathing in this smothering substance, the people who had survived so far but had not yet escaped out to sea were suffocated" (472). This encyclopedia, in contrast to the others, claims that nearly three-fourths of the population perished in the eruption. It also, like the 1997 Encyclopædia Britannica, focuses on the cultural impacts the archaeological discovery of Pompeii caused: "Antiquities recovered from Pompeii were carried off to museums, and created a trend toward neoclassic design that swept the art world. [...] A romantic novel, The Last Days of Pompeii (1834) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, captured the public imagination and made the lost city familiar to all" (473).

Update: The exhibit (Pompeii: The Exhibition) was great. It first led you through multiple galleries meant to give an impression of everyday life in the city. Then there was a "4D" show you had to pass through representing the eruption, followed by a final gallery consisting of real casts of victims. The exhibit quoted the same date as the Brockhaus: August 24, 79. It said the city had more inhabitants, though.

This boar and dog have spouts in their mouths; they were originally part of a fountain.

There were multiple casts of people, but this one (a dog) stuck out to me the most.

The Encyclopædia Britannica - 14th Edition (1965)

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General Details

Title: The Encylopædia Britannica Fourteenth Edition
Volumes: 24
Language: English
Publisher: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company
Year: 1965
Pages: 25,397

The Encyclopædia Britannica Co. first released the 14th edition in 1929 ("on the eve of the great depression" - vol. 8, p. 376), just three years after the 13th edition supplementary volumes. This edition lasted up until 1973 thanks to a new editorial plan to continuously revise articles on a set schedule, issuing new sets each year: "Under the Britannica plan of continuous revision, all the material in the set is scheduled in classifications for more extensive annual revisions than have ever before been possible in the history of encyclopaedias" (Volume 1, "Editor's Preface"). In the eyes of the Encyclopædia Britannica staff at the time, there would be no more numbered editions; the encyclopedia would simply be known by the year - my particular copy of the 14th edition would be the Encyclopædia Britannica 1965 - since each year's set would differ in some way from the prior due to its scheduled revisions. In light of the dramatic shift format-wise that occurs to the encyclopedia after 1973, however, it still makes sense to refer to this as the 14th edition.

My copy of the set came with its own custom bookshelf, perfectly sized to hold the encyclopedia volumes as well as the oversize Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas (a separate work, as the encyclopedia itself has an atlas in the final volume). The first volume, under the entry for "anatomy," has a series of transparent, acetate pages allowing the reader to layer the different body systems over a male and female model. The encyclopedia relies on photographs more than drawings for its illustrations, and there are a number of glossy pages of photographic plates inserted throughout, a small number of which are in color; the majority of the encyclopedia is in black-and-white. The final (unnumbered) volume contains an index, an atlas, an index to the atlas, and a list of contributors.

Sample Entries

I look up the same two entries in every reference work featured on this site - "umbrella" and "Saint Louis" - in order to provide a basis of comparison between them. "Umbrella" can be found in volume 22, on pages 677 and 678. It is noticeably shorter than the 11th edition's entry:

UMBRELLA, an accessory of dress, is a covering carried in the hand to ward off the rain. The original purpose of the umbrella was that of a sunshade and as such it is traced back to ancient Egypt and Nineveh where it early became a symbol of honour and authority. Ancient Egyptian art depicts the Pharaoh enthroned beneath an umbrella.

From the far east also come many interesting accounts and legends of the umbrella. There its use was permitted only to royalty and those of high office.

The Greeks are credited with introducing the umbrella as a sunshade into Europe. Paintings on Greek vases suggest that it was in common use. Roman sunshades were similar to those used by the Greeks. It is believed, however, that the Romans were the first to use the umbrella as a protection against rain.

The use of the umbrella almost disappeared during the middle ages but it appeared again in Italy in the latter half of the 16th century when it was regarded as a symbol of distinction and power by the pope and the clergy. By 1680 the umbrella appeared in France and later in England. The use of the umbrella was general in Italy, France, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands by the 18th century, by which time it was generally employed as protection against the rain. The general construction of umbrellas has changed little through the centuries; however, with the introduction of the steel frame in 1850, the weight was reduced considerably.

Though the umbrella, especially the handle, varied in style with the changes of fashion, it was generally black in colour. In the 20th century women's umbrellas were produced in a variety of colours though men's umbrellas continued to be black.

See Katherine Morris Lester and Bess Viola Oerke, Accessories of Dress (Peoria, Ill., 1940); Carolyn G. Bradley, Western World Costume (New York, 1954); Millia Davenport, The Book of Costume (New York, 1948; London, 1951).

(M. B. K.)

The entry on Saint Louis is found in volume 19. It spans from page 844 to 847 and features two pages of black and white photographic plates. One thing to note here, when comparing the 14th edition entry to those of earlier Encyclopædia Britannica editions, is that the focus has really moved away from numbers to a real description of the history and feel of the place. Previous editions seemed to often be little more than a list of insanely high dollar amounts and the number of specific imports and exports; now the focus is on the historical or culturally important features of the city. This entry also provides a lot of examples of the textual links found within the set. There are numerous instances of see, q.v. (quod vide, Latin for "which see" - singular), and qq. v. (quae vide, Latin for "which see" - plural) scattered throughout which direct the reader to other areas within the same article or to other related articles for more information.

SAINT LOUIS, the chief city of Missouri, U.S., 200 years old in 1964, is a mid-continental focal point of transport and manufacture. The incorporated area extends almost 20 mi. on the west bank of the Mississippi river, within 3 ½ mi. of the mouth of the Missouri river on the north. St. Louis is the central city of a standard metropolitan statistical area (SMSA) of 4,119 sq. mi., comprising, in addition to the city itself, the separately established St. Louis county, with 98 incorporated communities, and St. Charles, Franklin and Jefferson counties in Missouri as well as Madison and St. Clair counties in Illinois. Among the separately incorporated Missouri municipalities in the metropolitan area are Clayton, Kirkwood, Maplewood, St. Charles, University City and Webster Groves. For further information on these, and on Illinois cities in the metropolitan area, see Government, below.

Migration from the inner city is reflected in the population, which declined from 856,796 in 1950 (when it was eighth in population among U.S. cities) to 750,026 in 1960, a loss of 12.5%, making it tenth. At the same time the metropolitan area was making considerable gains, its 1960 population of 2,060,103 representing a 19.8% increase over 1950. The addition of Franklin county in 1963 to the SMSA resulted in an adjusted 1960 figure of 2,104,669. See also Population Characteristics, below.

History. — French Period. — The original site of St. Louis was a shelf of river front under a bluff, bordered by a wide prairie to which the community later spread. The location was chosen by Pierre Laclède Liguest, junior partner in a fur-trading company, organized in New Orleans, which had obtained the exclusive right to trade with the Missouri river Indians and with those west of the Mississippi above the Missouri. The monopoly was granted by the French director-general of Louisiana, who had not yet been informed that the territory had been ceded to Spain in 1762; it was withdrawn by the Spanish government in 1765 but by that time Laclède was already well established and he and his successors long remained important in the fur trade. The site for the community was well chosen for trade: downstream over 1,000 mi. was New Orleans, La., already a thriving commercial centre and a major fur market; the Great Lakes, Detroit, Mich., and Montreal, Que., were accessible by the Illinois river, entered 38 mi. upstream; the Ohio, joining the Mississippi 180 mi. to the south, was to become important later as a route for settlers from the east.

The village was named by Laclède for Louis IX, the crusader king of France. Clearing of the site began Feb. 15, 1764, under the direction of Auguste Chouteau, destined to become a leading citizen, though then only in his 14th year. Settlers in addition to the original party began arriving almost immediately; the treaty of 1763, ending the French and Indian War, had given Great Britain all the territory east of the Mississippi and many of the French residents of Cahokia and other Illinois villages began to cross the river to the new outpost rather than live under British rule. On the invitation of Laclède, Capt. Louis St. Auge de Bellerive, the French-Canadian commandant of the surrendered Fort de Chartres, brought over his garrison of 20 men and assumed administrative duties that Spain did not take over until 1770, when the first Spanish lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana arrived.

Spanish Period. — The change in administrations did not significantly alter the course of the city's history or make any particular impress upon its culture, which remained predominantly French until large numbers of Americans arrived in the 19th century. Laclède died in 1778 and most of his functions fell upon Auguste Chouteau and his younger brother, Pierre Chouteau. The fur trade was a profitable business, with furs, acquired in exchange for supplies and showy articles of trifling value, bringing as much as 500% profit overseas. Spain's sympathy with the American Revolution drew an attack on St. Louis in 1780 by a Sioux war party under British auspices. This was driven off by a garrison of 29 Spanish soldiers and 281 residents, though not before the death of 15 whites and 7 slaves, mainly in outlying areas. Except for such isolated incidents the community had a peaceful life; close and generally friendly relations were maintained with the Indians, and visiting chiefs often pitched their teepees in the gardens of their business hosts. In 1788 the Mississippi was cleared of pirates. The increased trade made St. Louis the centre of wealth and culture in the upper valley, in spite of its isolation; although by 1800 its population was still somewhat less than 1,000, some of its homes had good libraries and furniture, glass and china brought from France.

American Period. — Under the Louisiana Purchase (q.v., St. Louis passed from France to the U.S. (the territory having previously been retroceded to France in 1800). On March 10, 1804, Capt. Amos Stoddard of the U.S. army officially took possession of Upper Louisiana for the U.S. In 1804 congress created the district of Louisiana, with St. Louis as district headquarters; in 1805 the territory of Louisiana was created, with St. Louis again the seat of government; and in 1812 the territory of Missouri was created, with St. Louis still the territorial capital. It was incorporated as a town in 1809. Population growth was slow; by 1815 it probably did not exceed 2,600, and in 1821, when Missouri was admitted to the union, there were 621 buildings and a population of 5,600. In 1822 St. Louis was incorporated as a city by the state legislature. As a result of urban-rural friction St. Louis ceased to be the capital upon the coming of statehood.

After the Louisiana Purchase, St. Louis became the crossroad of westward expansion of the U.S. and was also the starting point for exploring parties, one of the best known being that of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1804-06. Jefferson Barracks on the Mississippi became an important military post; among the officers stationed there were U. S. Grant, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. Early in the 19th century fur trading, which had been carried on mostly by individual traders, began to be done by companies. In 1809 the Missouri Fur company was organized by William Clark, Manuel Lisa, Pierre and Auguste Chouteau, Sylvestre Labadie and others, and a branch of John Jacob Astor's American Fur company was established in the city in 1822.

In the War of 1812 the settlement raised 500 mounted rangers to patrol a cordon of 22 stations or family blockhouses along a 75-mi. line from Fort Bellefontaine to Kaskaskia, thus confining Indian forays to petty pilfering and raids on isolated homesteads. In the Mexican war of 1846 young St. Louisans volunteered enthusiastically, interest being heightened by a well-developed trade in mules and silver with the southwest. Cholera struck the city in 1832 and a recurrence in 1849 cost more than 4,000 lives. Fire spreading from burning steamboats made 1849 a year of disaster along the water front as well, hundreds of buildings being destroyed; this area, however, was rebuilt more substantially, with wider and better streets. In spite of these reverses, the census of 1850 showed a population of 77,860.

The American Civil War and Afterward. — In a border state where slavery was legalized, St. Louis was bitterly divided throughout the Civil War and was kept under martial law. Although early settlers had come mainly from Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky, they were followed by New Englanders and other northerners who, with the vigorous support of German-born residents, swung the balance to the Union side. A state-wide delegate convention held in St. Louis early in 1861 voted against secession and called for peaceful adjustment, impossible after the firing on Fort Sumter. Gov. Claiborne F. Jackson, having rejected President Lincoln's call for troops from Missouri, set up Camp Jackson in the neighbourhood of Olive and Grand avenues and assembled 800 militiamen. Meantime, discovery of Confederate arms shipments labeled "ale" and "marble" raised fear of an attack on the large Federal arsenal. Suspecting disaffection among regular army officers, Capt. Nathaniel Lyon supplemented a small Federal force by home guards made up largely of German voters who had been organized in political marching clubs during Lincoln's presidential campaign. Camp Jackson surrendered without bloodshed until pistol shots from a crowd of spectators drew fire from the raw recruits, leaving about 15 dead, including some of the captive militiamen, and 5 more mortally injured. Sympathy was further alienated from the Union cause the following day, May 11, when more newly enlisted "Wide Awakes," excited by a pistol shot killing one of their marchers, wheeled and fired down a city street, killing four of their own number and two civilians. Only the return of Gen. W. S. Harney, who marched four regiments of regulars into the heart of the city, restored order and stemmed a rush to leave the community.

War orders for clothing and supplies gave impetus to the city's commercial growth, already accelerated by the building of railroads in the 1850s. An earlier stimulus to the economy had been steamboat traffic, beginning in 1817 and declining by 1870. The city also developed as an outfitting post for trade with the southwest and the 1849 California gold rush. In the ten years up to 1870 population almost doubled, reaching 310,864. Eads bridge across the Mississippi, completed in 1874, gave access to the city for trains from Cincinnati; previously passengers from the east had been ferried.

A world's fair, the Louisiana Purchase exposition, was held in St. Louis in 1904. The city grew steadily in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with both commerce and industry becoming increasingly important. World Wars I and II stimulated industrial development of the area. Other modern developments are discussed in Government, below.

Historic Sites. — A permanent Jefferson National Expansion memorial, administered by the national park service since 1935, was begun with the clearing of derelict buildings from 40 blocks along the river front. It includes a design by Eero Saarinen for a 500-ft. stainless-steel arch on the old levee, symbolizing the gateway to the west. The oldest of the three remaining landmarks is the Old Rock house, built on the water front in 1818 for Manuel Lisa's fur trade. Another, the Old Cathedral of St. Louis of France, dates from 1831-34. The national park service rehabilitated the Old Courthouse, which was begun in 1839, and installed a historical museum which includes dioramas of early events. The 198-ft. dome above a 60-ft. rotunda bears frescoes by Carl Wimar, an early day artist. The courtroom where the Dred Scott case was heard occupies one wing.

Population Characteristics. — From the beginning ST. Louis has been a cosmopolitan community, indicating the varieties of its heritages by wildly acclaiming the marquis de La Fayette on his visit in 1825, welcoming the Hungarian patriot Lajos Kossuth in 1852, and firing a 100-gun salute on the 100th anniversary of the birth of the German poet Schiller in 1859. The earliest settlers were French Creoles from New Orleans, French Canadians and a handful of Spaniards; after 1804 Americans began settling in the area and soon outnumbered the French. In the 19th century Germans became most numerous among the foreign born, their influx staring in the 1830s in response to glowing reports sent home by Gottfried Duden, a pioneering Prussian. Most numerous after the Germans were the Irish, and after them the British. In the population shift in the middle years of the 20th century a part of the outward movement from the city was compensated for by an influx from rural areas, including a large number of Negroes from the south. The nonwhite proportion of the population increased from 13.4% in 1940 to 25% in 1960.

Government. — By a charter of 1876, the city of St. Louis was established as a unit completely independent of the county and free from control of the state legislature except for general laws. A new charter in 1914, while retaining this feature, introduced several changes: the number of elective offices was reduced, the appointive powers of the mayor were increased, the city council was made a unicameral body, the budget system was introduced, the right to municipal ownership of utilities was granted and provisions were made for the use of the initiative, referendum and recall.

City boundaries as established in 1876 (and subsequently unchanged) prevented city services from following families moving out to less expensive or more satisfactory housing in suburban surroundings. The rapid, and largely planless, spread of the metropolitan area in the 20th century deprived the city of needed tax income; well-to-do and middle-class out-migrants were usually replaced by in-migrants of lesser means, who came largely from rural areas where farm mechanization had reduced the demand for labour. At the same time problems of traffic, parking and transportation were multiplied by persons driving to work in the central city. The complexity of local government is indicated by the fact that in 1960 there were 200 municipalities in the standard metropolitan area, and St. Louis county alone had 28 school districts.

A privately financed metropolitan survey in 1958 recommended a functional but not political consolidation of city and county for joint handling of such common services as traffic and health. Three high-speed trafficways from beyond the city limits were built to bring more traffic into the downtown business district, suffering from the competition of one-stop shopping centres and places of amusement in outlying areas. New residential apartments for middle-income families were made possible in the vicinity of the business centre by urban renewal and slum clearance projects. Smoke elimination through regulation of the use of highly volatile coal was carried out successfully in the 1940s by an engineer, Raymond R. Tucker, subsequently elected mayor.

A housing rehabilitation program was allotted $4,000,000 from a $110,639,000 bond issue voted in 1955 for public improvements. Included was $10,000,000 for slum clearance. Neighbourhood pilot projects demonstrated that it cost less to rehabilitate some blighted areas than to clear slums and rebuild. In other areas public housing replaced substandard dwellings with apartments for low-income families. These buildings are in many instances 8 to 11 stories high and in one 28-block section doubled the density of population, with consequent traffic, school and other complications. A small public-housing program was undertaken in St. Louis county.

Though the suburbs are not without their fringe of shacks, in the main the old amenities have persisted. University City, the largest residential suburb in the county, borders on St. Louis and shares many of its problems. It was incorporated in 1906 and adopted a council-manager plan of government in 1947. Other nearby communities having a city manager are Webster Groves, Clayton, Berkeley, Olivette and Ferguson. Kirkwood dates from 1853, when 40 families moved there to take advantage of newly opened railroad service. Other county communities include Florissant, Jennings, Richmond Heights, Maplewood and Overland.

The municipality of St. Charles, across the Missouri river, dates from Spanish days, about 1679. It has a considerable industry. In Jefferson county are the twin cities of Festus and Crystal City. (For comparative population figures for the city of St. Louis and these suburbs see table in Missouri: Population.)

Illinois communities in this metropolitan complex had an early advantage in heavy industry because of high railroad rates for freight crossing the river; however, many of their residents now commute to daily employment in the central city. The largest of the Illinois suburbs is East St. Louis; ranking next is its neighbour, Granite City; followed by Belleville, Alton (qq.v), Woodriver and Edwardsville. (For comparative population figures for these municipalities see table in Illinois: Population.)

The Economy. — Industry in the St. Louis area profits from adequate supplies of labour, raw materials and water, plus transportation service by many trunk-line railroads and several major highways, airlines and river-barge companies. Natural gas for industry is supplemented by coal from nearby Illinois fields. Almost three-fourths of all possible manufacturing categories are represented and no one industrial group employs more than 6% of the total factory force. Leading industries, ranked by value added by manufacture, are motor vehicles and equipment, beer and other beverages, petroleum refining, electrical industrial apparatus, meat products, organic chemicals, drugs and medicines, iron and steel foundries, paints and allied products, miscellaneous foods, structural and ornamental fabricated metalwork, service and household machines, bakery products, soap and related items and women's outerwear.

Educational and Cultural Activities. — Two urban universities and numerous colleges, seminaries and trade schools draw thousands of students to the St. Louis area. St. Louis university, a Roman Catholic co-educational university founded in 1818, includes among others, schools of law, medicine and dentistry. It has branches at Florissant, Mo., St. Mary's, Kan., and East St. Louis. The Pius XII library, built to preserve microfilms of Vatican library treasures, is one the St. Louis campus. Washington university, charted in 1853, was founded by Rev. William Greenleaf Eliot, grandfather of the poet T. S. Eliot. Its adult-education division, University college, enrolls more than half of the total student body and also operates a civic education centre. This pioneer venture in problems of urban living relies heavily on television programs directed toward small informal discussion groups, known as viewing posts. The centre also conducts civic leadership seminars and consultation services for community organizations. The two universities and the city school system share in an educational television station, KETC.

Other institutions of higher learning in the metropolitan area include, in Missouri, Fontbonne, a Roman Catholic college for women, charted in 1917; Harris Teachers college, a municipally controlled co-educational institution established in 1857; and Maryville College of the Sacred Heart, a Roman Catholic women's college established in 1827, all in St. Louis; Lindenwood, a Presbyterian women's college established in 1827, in St. Charles; and Webster, a Roman Catholic college founded in 1915, in Webster Groves. The Illinois section of the metropolitan area includes Southern Illinois university branches at East St. Louis and Alton, with their headquarters in Edwardsville; the Principia college at Elsah, a private college founded in 1898, with enrollment limited to sons and daughters of Christian Scientists; and Monticello, at Alton, a private junior college for women, founded in 1835.

The St. Louis public-school system was integrated racially in 1955, without difficulty. The first public high school west of the Mississippi was established in St. Louis in 1856, followed in 1873 by the nation's first kindergarten, installed by Susan Blow. William T. Harris (q.v.), then superintendent, introduced a phonetic system for reading and added natural sciences to the curriculum. He also founded and edited the Journal of Speculative Philosophy (1867-93), the first periodical of the sort in English.

Works of early artists such as George C. Bingham, Chester Harding and Carl Wimar, together with a large collection of historical writings, are part of the privately endowed Mercantile library (1846). The public library, with many neighbourhood branches, dates from 1865; the Symphony orchestra from 1881; the Academy of Science from 1856. The Missouri Botanical garden (1858), the gift of Henry Shaw, an early merchant, includes the headquarters of the National Council of State Garden Clubs. Relics of the past include the birthplace of Eugene Field (q.v.);; the Campbell house (1851), an ante-bellum mansion open to the public, with a display of Victorian furnishings and clothing; and the log cabin in which U. S. Grant lived as a farmer for five years. A famous example of the original skyscraper architecture is the Wainwright building (1891), designed by Louis Sullivan.

In the latter part of the 20th century the city had two large daily newspapers, the Post-Dispatch and the Globe-Democrat, many local and neighbourhood journals, several television stations and a number of radio stations.

Parks and Recreation. — Of the city's recreational areas, Forest park is the largest, with 1,380 ac. At one entrance is the Jefferson memorial, housing the Missouri Historical society; one wing is filled with the collected souvenirs of Charles A. Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic in 1927. On a hill is the City Art museum, its main building designed by Cass Gilbert for the world's fair, which was held at this location. The park contains the St. Louis Municipal Opera theatre (1919), which is an outdoor theatre seating 12,000 persons. There are also a zoo, golf courses and other athletic facilities, including boating and a large ice-skating and roller-rink used the year round, and the Jewel Box with flower displays. The county contains a Museum of Transport and maintains the Jefferson Barracks Historical Site park. Alton Lake, on the Mississippi river, provides harbours for small pleasure craft. Cahokia Mounds, a 144-ac. between East St. Louis and Collinsville, preserves a number of examples of the work of a prehistoric race of Mound Builders. The city is the home of the Cardinal baseball team and many athletic and other events are staged in Kiel auditorium, part of the civic centre. On the adjoining Aloe Memorial plaza, facing Union station, is the Carl Milles fountain "The Meeting of the Rivers." An annual event since 1878 is the Veiled Prophet parade and ball.

See also Index references under "St. Louis, Mo.," in the Index volume.

Bibliography. — John Thomas Scharf, History of St. Louis City and County (1883); Richard Edwards and M. Hopewell, The Great West and Her Commercial Metropolis (1860); Frederick L. Billon, Annals of St. Louis in Its Early Days Under the French and Spanish Dominations (1886); Metropolitan St. Louis Survey, Path of Progress for Metropolitan St. Louis (1957); Hiram M. Chittenden, The American Fur Trade of the Far West (1902); Irving Dillard and Allyson Painter, I'm From Missouri (1951).

(Pl. G.)