| "1922" is in quotation marks because the illustrations in this
edition were actually drawn in 1853 and 1904. The 128 black-and-white drawings, by
M[atthew] U[rlwin] Sears, were originally drawn for one of the many pirated British editions
that came out within a year after Stowe's novel first appeared in the U.S. That edition was
published by a Scottish firm called Adam and Charles Black. By 1904, the firm had become
A. & C. Black, and had moved to London, when it republished Sears' drawings along with 8 new
"colour" illustrations by Simon Harmon Vedder, in a new printing of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
This edition was reprinted by several different
American firms, including the Hubbel Publishing Co. (New York, 1916) and the
Macmillan Company (New York, 1922). It is from this Macmillan printing that the
images available here have been scanned. Thus the illustrations in this edition illustrate both more than just Stowe's text. They show how regularly publishers recycled old material in order to continue to capitalize on the novel's perennial popularity (Houghton Mifflin, Stowe's authorized publishers, did the same thing with their "NEW" EDITION of 1888). And as the work of British artists, the two sets of illustrations can serve as a point of reference outside the dominant motifs and conventions of the various American illustrations elsewhere in the archive. Certain images that were old favorites for American artists are missing, and characters who were not typically represented in American illustrations are visible. For example, children, black and white, are much less frequently represented. You can see these illustrations by clicking on any of the icons at left. Uncle Tom's Cabin. By Harriet Beecher Stowe. With Eight Full-Page Illustrations in Colour by Simon Harmon Vedder. New York: The Macmillian Company, 1922. |