Blake
Blake names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Blake ROBERT, a British naval officer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ROBERT, a British naval officer, born at Bridgewater in 1599. He studied at Oxford and was elected a member for Bridgewater in the Parliament of 1640. This being soon dissolved he lost his election for the next, and sought to advance the Parliamentary cause in a military capacity in the war which then broke out. He soon distinguished himself, and in 1649 was sent to command the fleet with Colonels Deane and Pop- ROBERT BLAKE ham. He attempted to block up Prince Rupert in Kinsale, but the Prince escaped to Lisbon, where Blake followed him. Being refused permission to attack him in the Tagus by the King of Portugal, he took several rich prizes from the Portuguese, and followed Rupert to Malaga, where, without asking permission of Spain, he attacked him and nearly destroyed the whole of his fleet. In the Dutch War which broke out in 1652 he was attacked in the Downs by Van Tromp with a fleet of 45 sail, the force of Blake amounting only to 23, but Van Tromp was obliged to retreat. In February following he put to sea with 60 sail, and soon after met the Dutch Admiral, who had 70 sail and 300 merchantmen under convoy. During three days a running fight up the Channel was maintained, resulting in the loss of 11 men-of-war and 30 merchant ships by the Dutch, while that of the English was only one man-of-war. In this action Blake was severely wounded. On June 3 he again engaged Van Tromp and forced the Dutch to retire, with considerable loss, into their own harbors. In November, 1654, he was sent with a strong fleet to enforce a due respect to the British flag in the Mediterranean. He sailed first to Algiers, which submitted, and then demolished the castles of Goletta and Porto Ferino, at Tunis, because the Dey refused to deliver up the British captives. A squadron of his ships also blocked up Cadiz, and intercepted a Spanish plate fleet. In April, 1657, he sailed with 24 ships to Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe; and, notwithstanding the strength of the place, burned the ships of another Spanish plate fleet and came out without loss. He died Aug. 17, 17, 1657 1657, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, whence his body was removed at the Restoration and buried in St. Margaret's Churchyard.
Blake EDWARD, an English statesman
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
EDWARD, an English statesman, born in Adelaide, Ont., Canada, Oct. 13, 1833; was educated at Upper Canada College and Toronto University; called to the bar in 1856; and engaged in practice in Toronto. He entered public life in 1867; was Premier of Ontario in 1871- 1872, Minister of Justice in 1875-1877, and the recognized leader of the Canadian Liberal party in 1880-1891. He declined the appointments of Chancellor of Upper Canada in 1869, Chief Justice of Canada in 1875, and Chief Justice of Ontario in 1897, and also the honor of knighthood. In 1892 he was invited by the leaders of the Anti-Parnellites in Ireland to enter the British House of Commons as the representative of an Irish constituency. Consenting, he removed to South Longford, was elected for that district, and in 1895 was re-elected. In 1896 he was appointed a member of the Judiciary Committee of the Privy Council. He died in Toronto, 1912.
Blake WILLIAM, an English poet and artist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM, an English poet and artist, born in London, Nov. 28, 1757; learned to draw; became a noted illustrator and engraver; had a printshop in WILLIAM BLAKE London; and exhibited at the Royal Academy. His imagination was strange, powerful, grotesque, and poetic; and his belief was that his poems and drawings were communications from the spirit world. His "Poetical Sketches" (London, 1783); "Songs of Innocence" (1789), and "Songs of Experience" (1794), contain pastoral and lyrical poems of great beauty. His "Prophetic Books," including "Book of Thel" (1789); "Marriage of Heaven and Hell" (1790); "Book of Urizen" (1794); "Book of Los" (1795); "Book of Ahania" (1795); "Jerusalem" (1804), and "Milton" (1804), are famous. His greatest artistic work is in "Illustrations to the Book of Job" (1826). He died in London, Aug. 12, 1827.
Blake ELI WHITNEY, an Amerícan inventor
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ELI WHITNEY, an Amerícan inventor, born in Westboro, Mass., Jan. 27, 1795; graduated at Yale University in 1816. He began business with his uncle, Eli Whitney, in the manufacture of fire-arms; and in 1834 founded, near New Haven, Conn., the pioneer factory for the manufacture of domestic hardware. In 1857 he invented the widely known stone and ore crusher called the Blake crusher, which introduced a new era in road making and mining industries, and is used throughout the world. He died in New Haven, Conn., Aug. 17, 1886.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 gave William Blake a brisk paragraph, calling his imagination "strange, powerful, grotesque" and treating him as an odd visionary engraver; today he is a central figure of English Romanticism, taught everywhere, with Tate Britain holding the largest collection of his art and the whole illuminated corpus reproduced online in the William Blake Archive. His lines "And did those feet in ancient time" became a national anthem in all but name after Hubert Parry set them to music in 1916 — five years before this entry appeared, which does not mention them. Scholars have also corrected the dating Collier's repeats: the title pages of "Milton" and "Jerusalem" say 1804, but Blake went on working the plates for well over a decade after that. The other three Blakes stand much as described — Robert Blake's bones are still in the churchyard of St Margaret's, Westminster, and Eli Whitney Blake's jaw crusher of 1857 remains the basic design used in quarries worldwide.
Written for this edition, 2026.