Chambers's Information For The People
Edited by William & Robert Chambers
Published by W. & R. Chambers: London And Edinburgh (Both Volumes Undated c1880)
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Chambers's Information for the People—edited by William and Robert Chambers and presented here in a handsome two-volume New Edition in full polished calf with marbled edges and endpapers—is one of the great Victorian encyclopaedic works designed to democratise knowledge for the general reader. First issued in the mid-19th century, this expanded edition gathers an enormous range of subjects, from astronomy, geology, physics, botany, zoology, and engineering to arts, languages, education, moral philosophy, world history, and domestic economy. Richly illustrated with wood engravings, diagrams, portraits, and maps, it reflects the era's energetic drive to consolidate scientific, historical, and practical information in a single accessible reference source.
Across its wide thematic sweep, the work also explores global geography and ethnology with the characteristic ambition—and biases—of Victorian scholarship. Particularly notable for Australian readers and collectors is its extensive treatment of Australasia and Oceania, including a detailed map of Australia and discussions on colonial development, Indigenous populations, climate, agricultural potential, and settlement patterns. The set also features a substantial account of the Australian gold discoveries, charting the early Bathurst finds, the transformative rushes at Ballarat and Bendigo, and their rapid impact on population, economy, and global interest in the colony. These sections are among the earliest widely circulated popular summaries of Australia's gold era.
A beautifully bound and impressively comprehensive pair of volumes, Chambers's Information for the People remains an important cultural artefact of Victorian self-education and early encyclopaedic ambition. Its inclusion of early printed Australian maps and commentary on the goldfields enhances its value for collectors focused on colonial Australian history, early geography, and 19th-century reference works."
