Encyclopedia Britannica

Is regarded as the most academic and scholarly general knowledge English language encyclopedia, and is the oldest one still being produced.

It is has over 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 writers, including five American presidents and 110 Nobel Prize winners.

It originated in Edinburgh in Scotland and was published between 1768 and 1771 in three volumes. It grew with each subsequent edition: the second edition was 10 volumes and by 1810’s fourth edition it had grown to 20 volumes. Its increasing reputation as a scholarly work meant that it was able to recruit eminent writers and the 9th (1875-1889) and 1911 (11th) editions are regarded as landmarks in literary style and scholarship.

It was acquired by an American firm in 1901 and in 1911 and the articles were simplified and shortened to appeal to a broader market in North America. It became the first encyclopedia to be ‘continuously revised’ in 1933, when every encyclopedia was reprinted and every article revised on a schedule.

The final print edition appeared in 2010 and the whole operation moved online in 2012. Interestingly, although being based in the United States since 1901, the Britannica has kept British spelling for its half a million topics and 40 million words.