Herbert Ingram

Herbert Ingram (27 May 1811 – 8 September 1860) was a British journalist and politician. He is considered the father of pictorial journalism through his founding of The Illustrated London News, the first illustrated magazine. He was a Liberal politician who favoured social reform and represented Boston for four years until his early death in the shipwreck of the Lady Elgin. Early life Ingram was born at Paddock Grove in Boston, Lincolnshire, the son of a butcher. After being educated at Laughton's Charity School and the free school in Wormgate (a street in Boston), he was apprenticed as a 14-year-old to town printer Joseph Clarke. When Ingram finished his training, he moved to London, where he worked as a journeyman printer. In 1832, Ingram established his own printing and newsagents business in Nottingham, in partnership with his brother-in-law, Nathaniel Cooke. As a newsagent, he noticed that when newspapers included woodcuts, their sales increased. He concluded that making a good profit would be possible from a magazine that included a large number of illustrations. However, a while was needed before he could put this theory into practice. The newsagent business failed to make much progress until Ingram purchased the rights to a laxative known as Parr's Life Pills. The profits from marketing these pills provided the capital that enabled him to set up and publish The Illustrated London News. The Illustrated London News