Rare August 1851 Run of The Times Newspaper – Complete Month, the collection is complete except for one edition, the 21st, and all editions come with their Supplements where published, each edition runs to 8 pages and the Supplements to 4. Published at the height of the Industrial Revolution and during the monumental Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations at London's Crystal Palace, this archive offers an extraordinary day-by-day window into 19th-century life, commerce, and world events.
Collection Highlights & Condition:
Comprehensive Archive: Includes every daily issue and every supplement published in August 1851 with the sole exception of the 21st. Please note that The Times was never published on a Sunday at this time and the Supplements were issued with most, but not all editions. The collection includes 25 editions plus a further 16 Supplements, 41 in total.
Historical Significance: Chronicles daily Victorian life during a pivotal summer, featuring information about the Great Exhibition, international trade, colonial expansion, shipping movements, and classic contemporary classified advertisements covering every aspect of life at the time.
Condition & Presentation: Almost all editions are bound and preserved in good, highly readable condition with minor age-related toning. All copies have good, readable text and are complete.
The sheet size is 62cm x 46cm (24" x 18"), these are not modern facsimiles—they are the authentic, large-format broadsheets handled by Victorians at a pivotal time in world development. These editions are printed on strong, high-grade mid-19th-century paper stock, preserving a resilient, tactile texture far superior to the brittle wood-pulp newsprint of the late Victorian era made from a mixture of fibres, straw, or early chemical processes and just before the widespread introduction of cheap, highly acidic wood-pulp newsprint in the late 1800s, making these comparatively very robust.
A magnificent primary source from August 1851—the absolute zenith of the Great Exhibition—capturing world-changing Victorian innovation, international commerce, and daily dispatches week by week.
An immersive, day-by-day portal into 19th-century history, complete with contemporary shipping notices, parliamentary updates, and authentic period advertisements.
The Times, knows as Thunderer of Fleet Street was founded in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register before becoming The Times in 1788, it earned the nickname "The Thunderer" for its formidable, highly influential editorial voice that shaped British politics and foreign policy at the height of the British Empire. Throughout the 19th century, The Times was widely regarded as the most authoritative newspaper in the world, renowned for its pioneering use of foreign correspondents, investigative reporting, and its rapid adoption of revolutionary steam-powered printing presses. Because it recorded every major global event—from the Napoleonic Wars to the Industrial Revolution—in real time, The Times remains the ultimate historical archive and the premier chronicle of 19th-century civilisation.
This lot will be sent flat.
Listed here are the issues included with 'S' denoting Supplement, 'NS' denotes no supplement printed on that day.
1 F NS
2 S S
4 M S
5 T S
6 W S
7 T S
8 F S
9 S S
11 M NS
12 T S
13 W S
14 T NS
15 F NS
16 S S
18 M NS
19 T S
20 W NS
22 F S
23 S NS
25 M S
26 T S
27 W NS
28 T S
29 F NS
30 S S
