Ackermann, Rudolph

Rudolph Ackermann (1764–1834) – print‐seller, bookseller, publisher, inventor, businessman – popularized aquatint, lithography, and illustrated books from his vast London publishing house, R. Ackermann, and the Repository of Arts shop. Allen M. Samuels (1974) suggests that this savvy, German‐born entrepreneur can only be qualified by the business records that he left behind. Without a centralized archive of his letters, we can only surmise the accuracy of a Notes and Queries article's (1869) description: ‘To the end of his days he retained a strongly marked German pronunciation of the English language, which gave additional flavor to the banters and jests uttered in his fine bass voice; but he wrote in English with great purity on matters of affection and of business long before middle life’ (130). Many publishers, artists, and authors, including Alaric A. Watts, John Clare, J.B. Papworth, John Murray, James Hogg, William Jerdan, Sir Walter Scott, J.M.W Turner, William Combe, Thomas Rowlandson, and Thomas Hood, refer to Ackermann in their memoirs and letters, but only as it pertains to his business acumen. Very few accounts exist of Ackermann's workplace, with the exception of a single 1798 mention by colourist John Sell Cotman, and that provided by his son, Miles Edmund. John Ford, Ackermann's only biographer, paints a picture of a well‐liked humanitarian (1983). Ackermann built a successful business on innovative printing technology and capitalized on current movements in politics and culture but never seemed to personally subscribe to political views himself. Doubtless Ackermann was instrumental to London's publishing history especially the advancement of illustrated books, but Ford's portrait of a benevolent businessman has been explored more deeply in recent scholarly articles – though an updated full biography of Rudolph Ackermann has yet to be written.