Description: A few words from......Holmsey!!!
When I was a youngster, I loved spending what seemed like hours, looking through the family encyclopedia set. It even started before I could read. I enjoyed looking at all the photos, charts, and graphs. I remember stumbling upon a page with a real nice photo of a man, with a banner above the photo featuring the man’s name. I recall asking my Mom, “Who’s this man?” Mom replied that he used to be the President of the United States. With this new knowledge, I kept scanning through all the volumes of our
I also recall my Dad showing me a chart in the encyclopedia about all the ranks in the U.S. Army. I also remember reading about Ben Franklin and all that he accomplished in his lifetime. As I grew older I use to look at the encyclopedias at school and at the public library. These volumes were so much nicer than what we had at home. So many more glossy photos and more spectacular text than what we had at home, although I still loved what we had at home.
In today’s world with the internet, Google, and Wikipedia at our fingertips, most folks don’t use the “old fashion” book version of the encyclopedia anymore. I was shocked to find out that most of the encyclopedias that were around for years are no longer being printed. Collier’s and Funk & Wagnalls ended printing their encyclopedias in 1997. Arguably one of the best encyclopedia sets was the Encyclopedia Britannica which published its final print edition in 2010. They now provide a subscription online