Thomas Boreman can be said to be the most important children’s publisher before John Newbery. Very little information about Boreman survives today, except that of what is conferred from his publications. Not even an illustration of someone who could be Boreman exists. However, it is known that Boreman owned several bookstalls around London: the corner of St Clement’s Lane without Temple-Bar, Ludgate Hill at the Boot and Crown, Ludgate Hill at the Sign of the Cock, near Child’s Coffee House in St Paul’s Churchyard, and near the Guildhall.[1] He is most famous for the work featured in this blog, A Description of Three Hundred Animals (1730) and its supplements, A Description of a Great Variety of Animals (1736) and A Description of Curious and Uncommon Creatures (1739), as well as Gigantick Histories (1740-1743).
Boreman is lesser known and was less successful in his business than Newbery, but Boreman’s influence can be observed in the works of Newbery, as well as the illustrator, Thomas Bewick. Boreman preceded Newbery in recognizing the interest in heavily featuring illustrations in his books, and did so in his books about natural history targeted towards children. It is said that the letterpress and illustrations of the beasts and birds in Newbery’s A Pretty Book of Pictures for Little Masters and Misses: or Tommy Trip’s History of Beasts and Birds (1762) were inspired by Boreman’s copper plates.[2] Newbery’s trademark of binding in Dutch floral boards, a mark that demonstrated Newbery’s regard for high quality materials[3], was also inspired by Boreman, whose Gigantick Histories was also bound in Dutch floral boards, published a few years earlier.
Most notably, Boreman’s A Description of Three Hundred Animals had directly inspired Thomas Bewick to pursue an occupation in illustrations. As quoted from Coleman O. Parsons’s “The Influence of Thomas Boreman on Thomas Bewick”, Bewick writes:
Having, from the time that I was a schoolboy, been displeased with most of the figures in children’s books, and particularly with those of the Three Hundred Animals, the figures in which, even at that time, I thought I could depict much better; and having afterwards very often turned the matter over in my mind, of making improvements in that publication.[4]
Many of Bewick’s illustrations in A New Lottery Book of Birds and Beasts, for Children to learn their Letters as soon as they can Speak (1771), were done with reference to the illustrations in Boreman’s A Description of Three Hundred Animals.[5] The subsequent editions of A Description of Three Hundred Animals up until 1753 had not changed much from its original in 1730. To compare, Bewick’s illustrations are on the left and illustrations from the 1730 edition of A Description of Three Hundred Animals are on the right:
Bewick’s animals, especially for foreign and imaginary animals, assume the same pose as Boreman’s. Therefore, although Boreman did not publish as many children’s books as Newbery had, the thoughtful approach and care Boreman took towards his books made them markedly progressive.
[1] Demers, Patricia. “Thomas Boreman (fl. 1730 – 1743)” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
[2] Parsons, Coleman O. “The Influence of Thomas Boreman on Thomas Bewick” Notes and Queries 31.3 (1984) p. 405.
[3] Kinnell, Margaret, p. 141.
[4] Parsons, Coleman O. p.405.
[5] Ibid, p.406.