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Illustrations and Plates
Illustrations were a selling point of certain periodicals, and should always be an important element of the description. Changes in illustrations or their accompanying captions can be an important source of bibliographical information, and both the content and means of production of illustrations have considerable historical and cultural relevance. Since scholars may have a special interest in illustrations apart from the other contents of the periodical, it may make sense to present them in a separate listing. In this way, detailed information about the processes used for illustration can be made easy to find, with the added benefit of not making the list of contents unnecessarily long.
Given the close relationship between the periodical press and the development of illustration in the nineteenth century, I would argue for mentioning all illustrations in the periodical and describing at least some of them, if not all, including advertisements. It is difficult to decide whether illustrated advertisements should be separated from illustrations listed in the contents or otherwise featured as part of "text." A
The same considerations apply to plates.[34] The placement of plates in periodicals should be carefully noted, especially in bound volumes, where variations in the positions of plates can help to establish active or passive aggregation. The actual position of plates should always be compared to positions designated on the plates themselves or elsewhere in the number or volume.
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