The Pictorial Press: Its Origin and Progress

by Mason Jackson

The Observer continued its illustration of events as they occurred, sharing the engravings with Bell’s Life and the Englishman. St. Katharine’s Docks were opened on Oct. 25th, 1828, and on the following day the Observer published a bird’s eye view of the docks, showing the ceremonies attending the opening. In January, 1829, appeared two views of Buckingham Palace, then building for George IV.; and in August a cut of the ‘Post-Office Accelerator,’ a carriage for conveying London postmen to their several districts. A portrait of Rowton, the winner of the Great St. Leger for 1829, was given in September. This year the lovers of wonderful shows were attracted to an exhibition in London of two Siamese youths who were united together by a short cartilaginous band at the pit of the stomach, but with no other connexion existing between them. They were perfectly straight and well made, and walked with a gait like other people; being perfect in all their parts, and having all their functions distinct. Their names were Chang and Eng; and they were first discovered on the banks of the Siam river, fishing, by Mr. Hunter, an American, by whom they were taken to New York, where they were exhibited, and were afterwards brought to England. They were supposed to be about eighteen years old when they were exhibited in London in 1829. The Observer of November 22, 1829, published a long account of the Siamese Twins, with a woodcut representing them as they were exhibited to the public.

After having been exhibited for several years in London and the provinces, the Siamese twins went to America, where they settled on a farm, and married sisters. In the year 1869 they returned to London, and were as elderly men again exhibited; but they soon went back to America, where in a few years they died, both together. A similar exhibition was made in London about 1868 of twin girls, named Millie-Christine, or the ‘Two-headed Nightingale,’ and it was probably the appearance of these two ‘black birds’ that suggested the idea of the Siamese twins appearing again in public.

In June, 1830, George the Fourth died, and the Observer published several engravings connected with the event. On June 24th appeared a portrait of ‘His Majesty George the Fourth as he last appeared in his Pony Phaeton in Windsor Park;’ and on July 18 three illustrations of the lying-in-state and the funeral were published.

‘The King is dead! Long live the King!’ So said the citizens of London when they invited William IV. and Queen Adelaide to a banquet at Guildhall on the following November 9; and on the 1st, eight days before the entertainment came off, the Observer duly supplied the public with ‘A correct view of the grand civic entertainment,’ as it was to be. On Aug. 1, 1831, new London Bridge was opened by the King and Queen, and two engravings illustrative of the event were published in the Observer, the Morning Chronicle, Bell’s Life, and the Englishman. One of them is interesting, as it shows the relative positions of the old and the new bridge. The view was taken from the tower of St. Saviour’s Church, Southwark, looking towards Fish Street Hill.

HIS MAJESTY GEORGE IV., AS HE LAST APPEARED IN HIS PONY PHAETON IN WINDSOR PARK. FROM THE ‘OBSERVER,’ JUNE 29, 1830.

The Observer of Sept. 11, 1831, contained four illustrations of the coronation of King William IV. and Queen Adelaide, together with long and elaborate descriptions. There was another paper in existence at this time called the United Kingdom, which also illustrated the coronation. This was the period of the great Reform agitation, when the newspapers were absorbed in political excitement; and after this the Observer for a time ceased to give any illustrations.

On July 28, 1835, a diabolical attempt was made in Paris to shoot Louis-Philippe, king of the French. The assassin, whose name was Fieschi, constructed an infernal machine, consisting of twenty-five barrels, charged with various kinds of missiles, and lighted simultaneously by a train of gunpowder. The machine was fired from a window as the King rode along the lines of the National Guard, on the Boulevard du Temple, accompanied by his three sons and suite. The King and his sons escaped, but Marshal Mortier was shot dead and many officers were dangerously wounded. Amongst the spectators upwards of forty persons were killed or injured. In its number for August 9, 1835, the Observer gave a sketch of the attempted assassination, a portrait of the criminal, and a representation of the infernal machine.

The actual infernal machine, with a waxen effigy of Fieschi, formed for many years a prominent attraction at Madame Tussaud’s Exhibition.

The reign of William IV. was a short one, and soon the Observer had to illustrate his funeral, as it had done that of his predecessor. The number for July 3, 1837, contained three engravings of the royal obsequies, and ere long the brief rule of the Sailor King was forgotten in the dawning glories of the Victorian era. The epoch of railways was opening. The Greenwich Railway was the first railway out of London, and the next was the North-Western, or the London and Birmingham as it was then called. On July 24, 1837, the Observer published a large woodcut of the ‘Grand entrance to the London and Birmingham Railway at Euston Square.’ Mr. Hardwick’s massive structure was then in progress, and formed the entrance to the first of the great London railway stations—vast buildings, some of which have swallowed up whole streets, and contributed greatly to alter the appearance of London in their vicinity.

GERARD, ALIAS FIESCHI, AND THE INFERNAL MACHINE. FROM THE ‘OBSERVER,’ AUGUST 9, 1835.