Nobody seems to know the exact day, but this month the Encyclopedia Britannica celebrates its 175th birthday. The unique educational institution is not what it used to be. Even its nationality has changed with time. Founded in Scotland, the Britannica now belongs to the University of Chicago, to which it came as a gift from Sears, Roebuck (TIME, Feb. 1).
Britannica's first (three-volume) edition was issued by a three-man "society of gentlemen," was restricted to art and science, contained no biographical or historical pieces, brushed off Women in three words ("female of man"),...
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