What Was Notes and Queries — and Why Did It Matter?

In the middle of the nineteenth century, England was awash with questions. The country was changing at extraordinary speed. Railways were knitting towns together, cities were swelling, literacy was expanding, and new readers were discovering books, newspapers, and libraries in unprecedented numbers. The past—its language, customs, documents, monuments, and traditions—was suddenly being examined with fresh curiosity. And yet there was no internet. No search engines. No public databases. No easy way to ask a question and see who else might know the answer. Into this world, in 1849, came Notes an…