The Colored News was a politically neutral weekly illustrated newspaper which survived for just nine issues from 4 August to 29 September 1855. It contained a broad mix of news from home and abroad, with an emphasis on home, including general news, law and police, market news, parliamentary news, theatre and book reviews, bankruptcy notices, births, deaths and marriages, and advertisements.

The first issue contains an editorial which sets out the intentions of the newspaper as follows:

‘Bearing in mind the responsibility attached to the conduct of a newspaper and one which of necessity must find its way into the hands of many thousands, its editors will endeavour to administer to the instruction and amusement of not one class in particular but of every class so that into whatever hands The Colored News may fall, there will be found amongst a variety of subjects something to suit the tastes and inclinations of every reader’.

The Colored News was the first British newspaper to publish illustrations in colour. These were produced using a new two stage printing process which added colour to illustrations printed from wood engravings. The editorial in the first edition says that this use of colour illustrations would be … ‘the one distinctive feature by which The Colored News will be recognized and, it is hoped, patronized by the public’.

Unfortunately this did not happen and The Colored News ceased publication after a very short run. However, the process of applying colour to woodblock illustrations continued was subsequently taken up by some other newspapers at the time, including The Illustrated London News which printed its first coloured illustrations in the 1855 Christmas Supplement.

Stephen Lester - The British Library