Yet more evidence of plagiarism of Thomas Atkinson’s drawings. I have just come across two large encyclopaedia pages, from 1882 and 1892, which both use illustrations taken from Atkinson’s books on Siberia and Central Asia.

The first page (above) comes from a world atlas published by F A Brockhaus in Leipzig in 1882, although the first edition appeared in 1870. The first two illustrations on the top line and the last illustration on the second line are Thomas’ drawings, although not credited.

In this further example, published in England in 1892, the second illustration on the second line and the first on the third line are poor quality versions of Thomas’ drawings. Again, neither is credited. Leaving aside the issue of copyright infringement, it appears that  for many years Thomas’ drawings and paintings were the one of the main – often uncredited – sources of images of the people who lived on the Central Asian steppes in the nineteenth century.