Imaginative Book Illustration Society

'With the spread of literacy in the 1830s and the invention of mechanical presses, a much greater proportion of the population had access to literature. To encourage these new readers, publishers adopted the practice of issuing novels in monthly parts and of including steel engraved illustrations in each part. By the 1860s a more sophisticated readership had evolved, and a number of books were published in which the illustrations were their raison d'être ...'