1949–2026: Eleven Books that Define Thames & Hudson’s History

 

1958: A Picture History of Archaeology

The end of the 1950s saw the publication of a book that would lead the way for a new format in publishing: A Picture History of Archaeology by the writer and journalist C.W. Ceram. It had started life as a virtually unillustrated textbook, but once the book was acquired by T&H, Ceram realized that he could tell the same story by re-organizing the content into 300+ illustrations accompanied by extended captions. The result – designed by George A. Adams and published in 1958 with an initial print run of 250,000 – was revolutionary in that the new, magazine-inspired format allowed readers to follow the thread of the narrative just by reading the captions. With the revamped structure deemed a success, several new titles followed the same format, including The Ancient Sun Kingdoms of the Americas (1962) by Victor W. Von Hagen, The Science of Life (1963) by Gordon Rattray Taylor and The Bible as History in Pictures (1964) by Werner Keller.

The standout series of the 1960s was undoubtedly the ten-volume Great Civilizations. The first volume, The Dawn of Civilization by Stuart Piggott, published in 1961, was a spectacular achievement on all fronts with just under 1,000 illustrations and text by fifteen eminent archaeologists. It was heralded in the Spring 1961 catalogue as ‘the greatest archaeological study of its kind ever published’, with a print run of over 200,000 copies and multiple co-editions published simultaneously in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the United States and more. This, it concluded, represented ‘not only a marvel of book production, but also the finest example of international publishing co-operation ever known.’

 

1974: The Book of Kells

The process of turning the Book of Kells, the 9th-century manuscript now housed in the Old Library of Trinity College Dublin, into a book was not without its challenges. Eva Neurath and Werner Guttmann had travelled to Dublin to oversee the photography but were not allowed to handle the manuscript; the final instalment of the text was late; and the proofs, made by specialists in Switzerland, had to be checked and double-checked by the college.

The effort was worth it: in 1974 The Book of Kells was published, heralded in The Times as the first commercial edition of the manuscript, with each copy costing ‘about £29’. By 1982, well over 100,000 copies had been sold. Following its success, Thames & Hudson became the recognized expert in all aspects of publishing such precious historic artefacts, from the photography to the reprographics.

In 1985, the Ashkenazi Haggadah reproduced the original manuscript in the British Library exactly as it appeared, down to the wine stain on one of the folios. Also appearing that year was The Bayeux Tapestry, which reproduced in its entirety, at actual size, the great 11th-century retelling of the events immediately preceding the Norman Conquest and culminating in the Battle of Hastings.

1976: David Hockney

The mid-1970s saw several important events in Thames & Hudson’s history. Nikos Stangos arrived at the company in 1974 and would stay for the next twenty-nine years, as Commissioning Editor for Art and later as Director. Stangos would have a lasting impact on the art list, and over the next several decades played a key role in shaping it.

Under his influence, the collaborative dynamic would change, from publisher/author to publisher/artist. Celebrated artists – including David Hockney – became associated with the company for the first time as active collaborators in the bookmaking process, shaping content and design. One of Hockney’s first books for Thames & Hudson was David Hockney by David Hockney, published in 1976 as the result of recorded conversations between Stangos and the artist. Two subsequent titles, Paper Pools (1980) and That’s the Way I See It (1993) followed the same model.

More recently, David Hockney has collaborated with author Martin Gayford on several T&H titles that follow a similar conversational format, including: A History of Pictures (2016), A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney (2011) and Spring Cannot be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy (2021).

1984: Subway Art

Interest in the countercultural movements of the 1960s and ’70s led Thames & Hudson to seek out new subjects and contemporary themes. Even subjects that might at first appear out of step with a publisher of art books were embraced. In 1984 Thames & Hudson published what would become one of its most successful books ever. Subway Art came into being when Martha Cooper, a young photographer from new York of the city’s underground spraycan-art scene, teamed up with henry Chalfant, another photographer of the graffiti subculture, and took their work to the Frankfurt book Fair in search of a publisher.

There had not previously been a book on street art as an artistic genre in its own right, but Subway Art transformed both the perception of graffiti art, taking it from public nuisance to an art form that is feted and viewed by millions in art galleries and museums around the world. Since it first appeared over four decades ago, the book has sold nearly half a million copies across all formats and editions and has never been out of print.

1990: The Complete Tutankhamun

Archaeology had already gained a foothold at T&H in the 1950s and ’60s; in the succeeding decades, however, it reached a new level of success. The 1990s were the golden age of co-editions, when many of the archaeology titles achieved unprecedented numbers of foreign-language editions – particularly those in the Complete series, which offered comprehensive overviews of subjects from the ancient world in an innovative spread-by-spread format.

The company struck gold with the first book in the series, The Complete Tutankhamun (1990) by Nicholas Reeves, a curator at the British Museum. It was the first authoritative, illustrated survey that brought together the wealth of material surrounding the young pharaoh. Since publication, The Complete Tutankhamun has gone through numerous editions and formats, and in 2023 received a complete overhaul, incorporating the latest discoveries and theories. The Complete Pompeii is currently being revamped to include finds from the ongoing dig. It paved the way for a series of similar titles that could be read and enjoyed both by students and general readers, incorporating imaginative graphics, plans and maps supplementing the photographs.

2012: The Rolling Stones 50

Books devoted to popular music, commissioned and developed by creative director Tristan de Lancey, have played a major role in the expansion of the Thames & Hudson list. A prime example is The Rolling Stones 50 (2012), which combined contributions from each of the band members with The Mirror’s extensive archive of reportage photography and memorabilia from one outstanding collection. The book was made in record time: it was in the shops, in ten languages, seven months later in time for the band’s fiftieth anniversary.

Many dedicated music books have followed in the wake of The Rolling Stones 50. John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Pink Floyd, Oasis, Johnny Marr and Iron Maiden, as well as the Supremes and Amy Winehouse have all been part of the T&H programme, as have titles on individual record companies, from jazz labels Verve and Blue Note to indie subversives Mute.

2015: Bomb Damage Maps

Archives of maps have been another rich source of fascinating visual content. To mark the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Thames & Hudson collaborated with the London Metropolitan Archives to publish The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps 1939–1945 (2015). Providing an official record of the damage wrought by aerial bombardments, Bomb Damage Maps is a straight facsimile of the LCC’s set of 110 meticulously hand-coloured maps, stitched together to show the scale of wartime destruction in a large-format book.

This bestselling title prompted a similar collaboration with the London School of Economics: Charles Booth’s London Poverty Maps (2019), a set of hand-coloured maps from the late 19th century, detailed the housing conditions, employment status and wealth or poverty levels of those living in every district of London, sourced from Booth’s own notebooks.

Several other facsimiles that reimagine cartography have followed: Strata: William Smith’s Geological Maps (2020), winner of numerous awards, including the coveted Alice Award in 2021; and Phænomena (2022), a spectacular guide to the heavens, featuring Gabriel Doppelmayr’s Atlas Coelestis, his magnificent maps of the cosmos from 1742. Lunar (2024), a cartographic history of the moon and recipient of the Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award from the American Astronautical Society offers a more modern take on the cartography theme.

2021: William Morris

In 2015, T&H entered into publishing partnerships with two of the UK’s pre-eminent national institutions – the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum – enabling it to apply creative solutions to their books and engage with new audiences around the globe.

William Morris (2021), published in collaboration with the V&A to mark the 125th anniversary of Morris's death, is the most extensive monograph to date on the father of the Arts and Crafts movement. This remarkable volume includes contributions from a wide range of Morris experts, a contextualized chronology of Morris's life and over 600 illustrations in colour. Since its publication, it has sold more than 10,000 copies and is a powerful representation of our partnership with the V&A.

2024: Led By Donkeys

For decades, popular culture has played a significant role in the company’s list by connecting visual storytelling with contemporary themes and trends that resonate with different audiences, reflect the cultural moment and enrich the programme’s relevance.

One such example is Led By Donkeys: Adventures in Art, Activism and Accountability (2024). Originally set up as a guerrilla operation in the wake of Brexit, Led By Donkeys has a bold mission statement: to hold those in power to account, which they achieve by, among other things, plastering billboards with politicians’ more embarrassing tweets and posts. The book tracks the major moments from 2019 to 2024 when Led By Donkeys' activism captured the public mood with high-profile interventions, taking readers behind the scenes of the organization. Illustrating the book are images shot from helicopters, iPhones and hidden cameras, professional photography, maps, plans, designs and sketches,and, of course, the resulting newspaper front pages, media response and public reaction.

Led by Donkeys was T&H’s bestselling book of the year – fuelled both by the passionate support of its online communities of fans and the tireless efforts of the group itself.