Thames & Hudson
Encyclopedia
Thames & Hudson is a publisher of illustrated books on art, architecture, design, and visual culture. With its headquarters in London
, England
it has a sister company in New York
and subsidiaries in Melbourne
, Singapore
and Hong Kong
. In Paris
it has a further subsidiary company, Interart, which is engaged in the distribution of English-language books and a sister company, Éditions Thames & Hudson. It has been an independent, family-owned company since its founding in 1949.
Thames & Hudson's World of Art
series is especially well-known. In particular, A Concise History of Painting: From Giotto
to Cézanne by Michael Levey
(of the National Gallery
in London
), originally published in 1962 (ISBN 0-500-20024-6), is a classic and authoritative introduction to the history of European art from the beginnings of perspective
in Italy
to the foundations of modern art
at the start of the 20th century.
, Austria
, in 1903. He left that city, where he ran an art gallery and published illustrated books with an emphasis on education, arriving in London in 1938. He initially worked as production director of Adprint, a business established by fellow Viennese émigré Wolfgang Foges. Neurath and Foges went on to pioneer the concept of what is today known as book packaging, in which book ideas are conceived, commissioned, produced, and sold to publishers in different markets in their own languages and under their own imprints (co-editions) in order to create large print-runs and lower unit production costs. Neurath’s concept was the first sign of many innovations that through Thames & Hudson he would later introduce to the world of publishing.
Wishing to take co-edition book packaging further and recognizing the need to amortize the high production costs of illustrated books, Neurath established his own publishing house, incorporating offices in London (at 244 High Holborn
) and New York in the autumn of 1949. Thus arose the company name, Thames & Hudson, the rivers represented by two dolphins symbolizing friendship and intelligence, one facing east, one west, suggesting a connection between the Old World and the New. Eva Neurath, who had arrived in London in 1939 from Berlin (she was at that time married to Wilhelm Feuchtwang) and worked alongside Neurath at Adprint, co-founded the company as partner.
Among the ten titles that were published in Thames & Hudson’s first publication season in 1950, English Cathedrals, with photographs by Swiss Martin Hürlimann
(who went on to create over twenty titles for the company), was the first and most successful. A testament to the company’s strong belief from the very start in the longevity of books, it remained in print until 1971. Also appearing in the first year of publication was Albert Einstein’s Out of my later years, an early indication of the publication programme’s breadth.
With the gradual and successful expansion of the list, which grew from ten titles in 1950 to 144 in print in 1955, the company outgrew its High Holborn
offices and moved in 1956 to a Georgian townhouse at 30 Bloomsbury Street, just off Bedford Square
, then the epicentre of London publishing activity. The company remained at that address, eventually expanding to five houses, until 1999.
In 1958, Thames & Hudson launched what is one of its best-known series, the World of Art, which for the subsequent decades provided the backbone of its highly varied list. Characterized by their pocketable size and black spines – ‘little black artbooks’ – the series expanded in just seven years to include 49 titles. More than fifty years later, over 300 titles have appeared in the series, and many remain in print today. Other major series that imparted depth and prestige to the list were Ancient People and Places, edited by Glyn Daniel, who from the 1950s helped to pioneer a wider interest in archaeology, on television and in book form. More than 100 titles were published in the series over a 34-year period. The large-format Great Civilizations series, published from 1961, featured contributions by such esteemed academics as Alan Bullock
, Asa Briggs, Hugh Trevor-Roper, A.J.P. Taylor, and John Julius Norwich
.
On Thames & Hudson’s tenth anniversary, the UK publishing industry magazine, The Bookseller, described the company as ‘neither wedded to eclecticism nor dedicated to mass appeal, [it has] produced some of the most ambitious picture books ever published... and have sold them in a number which ten years ago would have been considered improbable and at prices which have won the surprised gratitude of thousands of readers.’
was published, featuring different-sized volumes that fit into an interlocking lucite case.
Having built one of the most important publishing houses in Europe in fewer than two decades, Walter Neurath died in 1967 at the age of 63. Sculptor Henry Moore
wrote, “His death is a loss to our cultural life.” Sir Herbert Read observed that Neurath “more than any other single individual [was] responsible for the revolution in the publishing of art books” and “was one of those rare entrepreneurs who successfully combine business acumen with idealism.”
Eva Neurath became chairman. Walter’s son, Thomas, who with his sister Constance had joined the company in 1961, became managing director; Constance later served as art director for several decades. Broadening the programme to include popular culture and fashion, Thomas Neurath continued the international expansion of the company, opening up an office in Melbourne in 1970 (spearheaded by then sales director Trevor Craker), a year that saw 150 new books published and over 718 titles in print. In the United States, the New York company, which had closed in 1953, was re-established in 1976. It was initially led by Paul Gottlieb, who later became president of Harry Abrams publishers in New York. In 1979 he was succeeded by Peter Warner, who served the company for thirty years. Will Balliett has been president of Thames & Hudson Inc. since 2009.
) on Neville Brody
heralded the new importance of the graphic designer as more and more people turned to website design. In 2000 the company launched Hip Hotels, giving rise to an era of ‘lifestyle travel’ books targeted at a more globally mobile audience.
The year 1999 witnessed two significant events: the death, at the age of 91, of Eva Neurath, the founding partner who had served as chairman for 32 years; and the 50th anniversary of the company. That year Thames & Hudson moved from its Bloomsbury offices back to an address on High Holborn, with a space designed by architect John McAslan
. The company’s dolphin logo, more or less unchanged during the previous five decades, was redesigned by UK brand consultancy The Partners.
By 2000, Thames & Hudson had opened offices in Paris (1989, Éditions Thames & Hudson), Singapore (1995) and Hong Kong (1997). In 2005, Jamie Camplin, who had joined the company in 1969, became managing director, with Thomas Neurath becoming chairman of the board (his daughter Johanna currently serves as art director). In 2009, the 60th year of operation, Thames & Hudson employs some 200 people worldwide, mostly in the London headquarters, with an annual publishing programme that releases approximately 180 books a year on art, photography, architecture, graphics, three-dimensional design (industrial, furniture, product), gardens, fashion and textiles, archaeology, history, travel, lifestyle and interiors, and popular culture.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
it has a sister company in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and subsidiaries in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. In Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
it has a further subsidiary company, Interart, which is engaged in the distribution of English-language books and a sister company, Éditions Thames & Hudson. It has been an independent, family-owned company since its founding in 1949.
Thames & Hudson's World of Art
World of Art
World of Art is a long established series of art books from the publisher Thames & Hudson, now comprising over 150 titles.Perhaps the most classic book in the series is A Concise History of Painting: From Giotto to Cézanne by Michael Levey , originally published in 1962...
series is especially well-known. In particular, A Concise History of Painting: From Giotto
Giotto di Bondone
Giotto di Bondone , better known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages...
to Cézanne by Michael Levey
Michael Levey
Sir Michael Vincent Levey, LVO was a British art historian and was director of the National Gallery for thirteen years, from 1973 to 1986.-Biography:...
(of the National Gallery
National Gallery, London
The National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
), originally published in 1962 (ISBN 0-500-20024-6), is a classic and authoritative introduction to the history of European art from the beginnings of perspective
Perspective (visual)
Perspective, in context of vision and visual perception, is the way in which objects appear to the eye based on their spatial attributes; or their dimensions and the position of the eye relative to the objects...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
to the foundations of modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
at the start of the 20th century.
History
Thames & Hudson was established by Walter Neurath who was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, in 1903. He left that city, where he ran an art gallery and published illustrated books with an emphasis on education, arriving in London in 1938. He initially worked as production director of Adprint, a business established by fellow Viennese émigré Wolfgang Foges. Neurath and Foges went on to pioneer the concept of what is today known as book packaging, in which book ideas are conceived, commissioned, produced, and sold to publishers in different markets in their own languages and under their own imprints (co-editions) in order to create large print-runs and lower unit production costs. Neurath’s concept was the first sign of many innovations that through Thames & Hudson he would later introduce to the world of publishing.
Wishing to take co-edition book packaging further and recognizing the need to amortize the high production costs of illustrated books, Neurath established his own publishing house, incorporating offices in London (at 244 High Holborn
High Holborn
High Holborn is a road in Holborn in central London, England. It starts in the west near St Giles Circus, then goes east, past the Kingsway and Southampton Row, and continues east. The road becomes Holborn at the junction with Gray's Inn Road....
) and New York in the autumn of 1949. Thus arose the company name, Thames & Hudson, the rivers represented by two dolphins symbolizing friendship and intelligence, one facing east, one west, suggesting a connection between the Old World and the New. Eva Neurath, who had arrived in London in 1939 from Berlin (she was at that time married to Wilhelm Feuchtwang) and worked alongside Neurath at Adprint, co-founded the company as partner.
Among the ten titles that were published in Thames & Hudson’s first publication season in 1950, English Cathedrals, with photographs by Swiss Martin Hürlimann
Martin Hürlimann
Martin Hürlimann was a Swiss photographer. His work was published in a number of books. Western European cities were a common theme, but he also photographed Ceylon and Southeast Asia....
(who went on to create over twenty titles for the company), was the first and most successful. A testament to the company’s strong belief from the very start in the longevity of books, it remained in print until 1971. Also appearing in the first year of publication was Albert Einstein’s Out of my later years, an early indication of the publication programme’s breadth.
With the gradual and successful expansion of the list, which grew from ten titles in 1950 to 144 in print in 1955, the company outgrew its High Holborn
High Holborn
High Holborn is a road in Holborn in central London, England. It starts in the west near St Giles Circus, then goes east, past the Kingsway and Southampton Row, and continues east. The road becomes Holborn at the junction with Gray's Inn Road....
offices and moved in 1956 to a Georgian townhouse at 30 Bloomsbury Street, just off Bedford Square
Bedford Square
Bedford Square is a square in the Bloomsbury district of the Borough of Camden in London, England.Built between 1775 and 1783 as an upper middle class residential area, the sqare has had many distinguished residents, including Lord Eldon, one of Britain's longest serving and most celebrated Lord...
, then the epicentre of London publishing activity. The company remained at that address, eventually expanding to five houses, until 1999.
In 1958, Thames & Hudson launched what is one of its best-known series, the World of Art, which for the subsequent decades provided the backbone of its highly varied list. Characterized by their pocketable size and black spines – ‘little black artbooks’ – the series expanded in just seven years to include 49 titles. More than fifty years later, over 300 titles have appeared in the series, and many remain in print today. Other major series that imparted depth and prestige to the list were Ancient People and Places, edited by Glyn Daniel, who from the 1950s helped to pioneer a wider interest in archaeology, on television and in book form. More than 100 titles were published in the series over a 34-year period. The large-format Great Civilizations series, published from 1961, featured contributions by such esteemed academics as Alan Bullock
Alan Bullock
Alan Louis Charles Bullock, Baron Bullock , was a British historian, who wrote an influential biography of Adolf Hitler and many other works.-Early life and career:...
, Asa Briggs, Hugh Trevor-Roper, A.J.P. Taylor, and John Julius Norwich
John Julius Norwich
John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich CVO — known as John Julius Norwich — is an English historian, travel writer and television personality.-Early life:...
.
On Thames & Hudson’s tenth anniversary, the UK publishing industry magazine, The Bookseller, described the company as ‘neither wedded to eclecticism nor dedicated to mass appeal, [it has] produced some of the most ambitious picture books ever published... and have sold them in a number which ten years ago would have been considered improbable and at prices which have won the surprised gratitude of thousands of readers.’
Innovation
Throughout its history, Thames & Hudson has led production innovation: 1958, for example, saw one of the earliest examples of the close creative integration of photographer, editor, design and production director working to produce a unified artist’s book, in Thrones of Earth and Heaven (Roloff Beny, photographer), in a large print-run. In 1964 the company’s production director introduced what are today commonly known as ‘French folds’, dust jackets that are folded over on top and bottom to protect their edges. In 1974, in what The Times described as ‘a 1,000-year-old publishing coup’, Thames & Hudson painstakingly reproduced The Book of Kells, making a commercial edition of the little-seen illuminated manuscript available around the world for the first time. In 2004 a four-volume monograph on Pritzker Prize–winning architect Zaha HadidZaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid, CBE is an Iraqi-British architect.-Life and career:Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.After graduating she worked...
was published, featuring different-sized volumes that fit into an interlocking lucite case.
Having built one of the most important publishing houses in Europe in fewer than two decades, Walter Neurath died in 1967 at the age of 63. Sculptor Henry Moore
Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....
wrote, “His death is a loss to our cultural life.” Sir Herbert Read observed that Neurath “more than any other single individual [was] responsible for the revolution in the publishing of art books” and “was one of those rare entrepreneurs who successfully combine business acumen with idealism.”
Eva Neurath became chairman. Walter’s son, Thomas, who with his sister Constance had joined the company in 1961, became managing director; Constance later served as art director for several decades. Broadening the programme to include popular culture and fashion, Thomas Neurath continued the international expansion of the company, opening up an office in Melbourne in 1970 (spearheaded by then sales director Trevor Craker), a year that saw 150 new books published and over 718 titles in print. In the United States, the New York company, which had closed in 1953, was re-established in 1976. It was initially led by Paul Gottlieb, who later became president of Harry Abrams publishers in New York. In 1979 he was succeeded by Peter Warner, who served the company for thirty years. Will Balliett has been president of Thames & Hudson Inc. since 2009.
Recent decades
During the 1980s and 1990s, Thames & Hudson continued to be defined by the wide spectrum and high quality of the books it published across all areas of visual creativity and by its presentation of new or little-known subjects to a broad international audience. For example, in 1984 Subway Art, the first documentation of graffiti art, was published and remained continuously in print for 25 years until its republication in an enlarged anniversary edition in 2009. In 1988, at the dawning of the digital era, a monograph (in connection with an exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert MuseumVictoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
) on Neville Brody
Neville Brody
Neville Brody is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director.Neville Brody is an alumnus of the London College of Printing and Hornsey College of Art, and is known for his work on The Face magazine and Arena magazine , as well as for designing record covers for artists such as...
heralded the new importance of the graphic designer as more and more people turned to website design. In 2000 the company launched Hip Hotels, giving rise to an era of ‘lifestyle travel’ books targeted at a more globally mobile audience.
The year 1999 witnessed two significant events: the death, at the age of 91, of Eva Neurath, the founding partner who had served as chairman for 32 years; and the 50th anniversary of the company. That year Thames & Hudson moved from its Bloomsbury offices back to an address on High Holborn, with a space designed by architect John McAslan
John McAslan
John McAslan is a British architect. His firm John McAslan and Partners designed the "striking" British embassy in Algiers....
. The company’s dolphin logo, more or less unchanged during the previous five decades, was redesigned by UK brand consultancy The Partners.
By 2000, Thames & Hudson had opened offices in Paris (1989, Éditions Thames & Hudson), Singapore (1995) and Hong Kong (1997). In 2005, Jamie Camplin, who had joined the company in 1969, became managing director, with Thomas Neurath becoming chairman of the board (his daughter Johanna currently serves as art director). In 2009, the 60th year of operation, Thames & Hudson employs some 200 people worldwide, mostly in the London headquarters, with an annual publishing programme that releases approximately 180 books a year on art, photography, architecture, graphics, three-dimensional design (industrial, furniture, product), gardens, fashion and textiles, archaeology, history, travel, lifestyle and interiors, and popular culture.
See also
- List of publishers
- Ian Mackenzie-KerrIan Mackenzie-KerrIan Mackenzie-Kerr was a British book designer. He worked for Thames & Hudson for almost fifty years, where he was instrumental in transforming the appearance of their books.-Life and work:...
(1929–2005), a book designer with T&H for nearly 50 years