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{{Short description|British weekly illustrated newspaper}}
{{about|the British newspaper||Graphic (disambiguation)}}
{{italic title}}
[[Image:The Graphic - Tichborne Case.jpg|thumb|200px|Front page of ''The Graphic'' during the [[Tichborne case]] in 1873]]
'''''The Graphic''''' was a British weekly illustrated newspaper, first published on 4 December 1869 by [[William Luson Thomas]]'s company Illustrated Newspapers Ltd. Thomas's brother [[Lewis Samuel Thomas]] was a co-founder. The premature death of the latter in 1872 "as one of the founders of this newspaper, [and who] took an active interest in its management" left a marked gap in the early history of the publication.<ref>''The Graphic'', 16 March 1872, p.243.</ref> It was set up as a rival to the popular ''[[Illustrated London News]]''.

The influence of ''The Graphic'' within the art world was immense; its many admirers included [[Vincent van Gogh]] and [[Hubert von Herkomer]].<ref name=WLT>Mark Bills, "Thomas, William Luson (1830–1900)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004</ref>

It continued to be published weekly under this title until 23 April 1932 and then changed the title to ''The National Graphic'' between 28 April and 14 July 1932; it then ceased publication, after 3,266 issues. From 1890 until 1926, Luson Thomas's company, H. R. Baines & Co., published '''''The Daily Graphic''''', a name later revived by Kemsley Newspapers between 1946 and 1952.

==Background==
[[Image:Mansion House Egyptian Hall The Graphic 1884.jpg|thumb|left|An illustration from the newspaper from 1884]]
''The Graphic'' was founded by [[William Luson Thomas]], a successful artist, wood-engraver and social reformer. Earlier he, his brother and his brother-in-law had been persuaded to go to [[New York City|New York]] and assist in launching two newspapers, ''Picture Gallery'' and ''Republic''. Thomas also had an engraving establishment of his own and, aided by a large staff, illustrated and engraved numerous standard works.<ref name="WLTtt">Mr William Luson Thomas, Obituary. ''The Times'', Thursday, October 18, 1900; pg. 7; Issue 36276</ref> Exasperated, even angered, by the unsympathetic treatment of artists by the world's most successful illustrated paper, ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'', and having a good business sense Luson Thomas resolved to set up an opposition. His illustrated paper, despite being more expensive than its competition, became an immediate success.<ref name=WLT/>
{{Clear}}

==Realisation==
When it began in 1869, the newspaper was printed in a rented house. By 1882, the company owned three buildings and twenty printing presses, and employed more than 1,000 people. The first editor was [[Henry Sutherland Edwards]]. A successful artist himself, the founder Thomas recruited gifted artists including [[Luke Fildes]], [[Hubert von Herkomer]], [[Frank Holl]], and [[John Everett Millais]].

''The Graphic'' was published on a Saturday and its original cover price was [[Sixpence (British coin)|sixpence]], while the ''Illustrated London News'' was fivepence.<ref name=WLT/> In its first year, it described itself to advertisers as "a superior illustrated weekly newspaper, containing twenty-four pages imperial [[Book size|folio]], printed on fine toned paper of beautiful quality, made expressly for the purpose and admirably adapted for the display of [[wood engraving|engraving]]s".

In addition to its home market the paper had subscribers all around the [[British Empire]] and North America. ''The Graphic'' covered home news and news from around the Empire, and devoted much attention to literature, arts, sciences, the fashionable world, sport, music and opera. Royal occasions and national celebrations and ceremonials were also given prominent coverage.

===Artists===
Artists employed on ''The Graphic'' and ''The Daily Graphic'' at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century included [[Helen Allingham]], [[Edmund Blampied]], [[Alexander Boyd]], [[Frank Brangwyn]], [[Randolph Caldecott]], [[Lance Calkin]], [[Frank Cadogan Cowper]], [[Léon Daviel]], [[John Charles Dollman]], [[James H. Dowd]], [[Godefroy Durand]], [[Luke Fildes]], [[Harry Furniss]], [[John Percival Gülich]], [[George du Maurier]], [[Phil May (caricaturist)|Phil May]], [[George Percy Jacomb-Hood]], [[Ernest Prater]], [[Leonard Raven-Hill]], [[Sidney Sime]], [[Snaffles|Snaffles (Charles Johnson Payne)]], [[George Stampa]], [[Edmund Sullivan]], [[Bert Thomas]], [[F. H. Townsend]], [[Harrison Weir]], and [[Henry Woods (painter)|Henry Woods]].

The notable illustrator [[Henry William Brewer]], contributed a regular illustrated article on architecture to the magazine for 25 years, until his death in 1903.<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry William Brewer |url=https://britishmapengravers.net/entries/b-entries/henry-william-brewer/ |website=British Map Engravers – A Supplement |date=15 October 2019 |publisher=British Map Engravers |access-date=6 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=The Late Mr H W Brewer |journal=The Norfolk News |date=24 October 1903}}</ref>

===Writers===
Writers for the paper included [[George Eliot]], [[Thomas Hardy]], [[H. Rider Haggard]] and [[Anthony Trollope]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.library.yale.edu/~mpowell/victorianper.html#graph |title=Imperial Views |website=www.library.yale.edu |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000816220910/http://www.library.yale.edu/~mpowell/victorianper.html |archive-date=2000-08-16}} </ref>
[[Malcolm Charles Salaman]] was employed there from 1890 to 1899. [[Beatrice Grimshaw]] travelled the South Pacific reporting on her experiences for the ''Daily Graphic''.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20355045 |title=DANGERS OF PEARL DIVING. |newspaper=[[The Queenslander]] |date=18 March 1905 |access-date=10 December 2011 |page=40 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> [[Mary Frances Billington]] served the ''Graphic'' as a special correspondent from 1890 to 1897, reporting from India in essays that were compiled into ''Woman in India'' (1895).<ref>Fred Hunter, [http://www.oxforddnb.com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/view/article/47609 "Billington, Mary Frances (1862–1925)"] ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford University Press 2004).</ref> [[Joseph Ashby-Sterry]] wrote the Bystander column for the paper for 18 years.

==Weekly topics==
* Topics of the Week: 12 paragraphs of [[news]] coverage.
* Amusements: A roundup of activities for the week, for the middle-class reader.
* Our illustrations: a summary of all the illustrations in the edition.
* Home: a summary of the news in Britain.
* [[Anglicanism|Church]] news
* Legal: Trials and Cases of interest to the target reader.
* A weekly [[Serial (literature)|serial]] written by popular authors of the time, such as [[William Black (novelist)|William Black]] (although this seemed to appear in the 1880s).
* Book reviews
* A summary of the new developments in science.
* [[Rural]] notes: information about the [[season]] and tips about crops, and other news concerning the rampant unrest of the farm labourers.
* New Music: Reviews of the latest music and musicals.
* Obituaries: of Church leaders, factory owners, European Royalty, musicians and noteworthy Victorians.
* Sport: coverage of football and cricket (with [[W.G. Grace]])
* Motoring: c. 1903–1908 [[Dorothy Levitt]], ''The Fastest Girl on Earth'', wrote a column on motoring from the point of view of 'A woman's right to motor'. A collection of her articles formed the basis of the book ''[[Dorothy Levitt#Pioneering motoring|The Woman and the Car: A chatty little handbook for all women who motor or who want to motor]]'' in 1907/9.

There were at least three pages dedicated to advertising, with many adverts for toothpaste, soap products and 'miracle-cure' pills.

==Innovations==
''The Graphic'' was designed to compete with the ''[[Illustrated London News]]'' (established in 1842), and became its most successful rival. Earlier rivals such as the ''[[Illustrated Times]]'' and the ''[[Pictorial Times]]'' had either failed to compete or been merged with the ''ILN''. It appealed to the same [[middle-class]] readership, but ''The Graphic'', as its name suggests, was intended to use images in a more vivid and striking way than the rather staid ''ILN''. To this end it employed some of the most important artists of the day, making an immediate splash in 1869 with ''Houseless and Hungry'', Luke Fildes' dramatic image of the shivering London poor seeking shelter in a workhouse.

It is much more difficult to produce and print illustrations than type. Improvements in process work and machinery at the end of the 1880s allowed Luson Thomas to realise a long-cherished project, a daily illustrated paper.<ref name=WLTtt/>

==''The Daily Graphic''==
On 4 January 1890, Luson Thomas's company, H. R. Baines & Co., commenced publication of the first daily illustrated newspaper in England, which was called ''The Daily Graphic''.{{efn|This newspaper is not to be confused with its American precursor [[The Daily Graphic|of the same name]], published between 1873 and 1889, which was the first American daily illustrated newspaper.}}
It was published until 16 October 1926, when it was incorporated with the ''[[Daily Sketch]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Victorian Illustrated Newspapers and Journals|url=http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/news/victoriannews/index.html#d|website=British Library|access-date=27 January 2018}}</ref> Twenty years later, the ''Daily Sketch'' was renamed the ''Daily Graphic'' for a period<ref>"A Graphic Sketch", ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' page 2, 2 July 1946</ref> but the name disappeared for the second and final time when the ''Sketch'' was sold to [[Associated Newspapers]] at the end of 1952.<ref>"Our London Correspondence", ''[[The Guardian|Manchester Guardian]]'' page 4, 2 January 1953</ref>

==Demise==
Luson Thomas's seventh son [[George Holt Thomas]] was a director of the newspaper company and became general manager. Holt Thomas founded ''[[The Bystander]]'' and later ''Empire Illustrated'' before abandoning newspapers in 1906 and making a greater name for himself in the aviation industry.<ref>Vincent Orange, ‘Thomas, George Holt (1870–1929)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004</ref>

On 15 August 1932, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine reported the name change to ''The National Graphic'' and editor [[William Comyns Beaumont]] of ''The Bystander'' took over, replacing [[Alan John Bott]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20081219101017/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,744210,00.html ''Time Magazine'': "Eight Less One"], August 15, 1925</ref>

==References==
{{notelist}}
{{reflist|30em}}
*''Mitchell's Newspaper Press Directory'', 1870
*''The Reference Specialist British Library Newspapers''

==Further reading==
*Law, Graham. [https://web.archive.org/web/20141207115814/http://www.victoriansecrets.co.uk/victorian-fiction-research-guides/the-illustrated-london-news-and-the-graphic/ ''Indexes to Fiction in ''The Illustrated London News'' (1842–1901) and the ''Graphic'', (1869–1901)''. Victorian Fiction Research Guides 29, Victorian Fiction Research Unit, Department of English, University of Queensland, 2001.]
*''Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals 1800–1900'' (Canada: North Waterloo Academic Press, 2003)
*''The Newspaper Press in Britain: an annotated bibliography'' (London:Mansell Publishing, 1987).

==External links==
{{Commons category|The Graphic}}
*[http://www.spartacus-educational.com/Jgraphic.htm A history of ''The Graphic'' newspaper & staff, with image of the paper's engraving room in 1882.]
*[http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/news/victoriannews/index.html Publication dates] (British Library website)
*[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000533840 ''The Graphic''] archives at [[HathiTrust]]

{{Defunct UK newspapers}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graphic, The}}
[[Category:1869 establishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1932 disestablishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Defunct newspapers published in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Defunct weekly newspapers]]
[[Category:Newspapers established in 1869]]
[[Category:Publications disestablished in 1932]]

The Graphic - Revision history

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