Quote: A picture is worth ten thousand words (Arthur Brisbane 1915 July 26)

[Garson O'Toole]

Fred discussed "A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words" at the
Freakonomics blog yesterday:

http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/07/14/a-pictures-worth-a-thousand-words/

Here are some results for the basic phrase using "picture" and
"thousand words" or "ten thousand words." A cartoon by Arthur Brisbane
published on July 26, 1915 used the phrase "A picture is worth ten
thousand words." The phrase was also used in advertisements published
in 1915, and the words were credited to Brisbane. This information may
already be in the files of the Yale Book of Modern Proverbs, or YBMP
may have better data.

This post is narrowly focused. So I do not deal with older variants
involving "look"; nor do I discuss phrases such as 1750's: One timely
deed is worth ten thousand words.

Cite: 1915 July 26, New Orleans Item, Debt Carries You for a While But
Groaning and Sweating, You Carry Debt in the End by Arthur Brisbane,
Page 6,  New Orleans, Louisiana. (GenealogyBank)
[Part of comments or captions accompanying two drawings.]
A picture is worth ten thousand words.
If you can't see the truth in these pictures you are among the vast
majority that must learn only by experience.

Cite: 1915 July 29, Printers' Ink, [Advertisement for Leslie's
Illustrated Weekly Newspaper], Page 33, Volume XCII, Number 5, Decker
Communications Inc., New York. (HathiTrust)
[Caption of a picture of the Eastland disaster]
"A strong picture is worth ten thousand words." - Arthur Brisbane
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x004135300
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x004135300?urlappend=%3Bseq=503

Cite: 1915 October, The Printing Art, [Advertisement for Leslie's
Illustrated Weekly Newspaper], Page 140, University Press, Cambridge,
Massachusetts. (HathiTrust full view)
[Caption of a picture of the Eastland disaster]
"A strong picture is worth ten thousand words." - Arthur Brisbane

Advertising men must surely know that Brisbane is right when he says
"A strong picture is worth ten thousand words."

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015086718320
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015086718320?urlappend=%3Bseq=188

Here is an earlier variant that mentions "pages of description"
instead of "words."

Cite: 1912, The Tapestry Book by Helen Churchill Candee, Page 80,
Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York. (Google Books full view)

As one picture is worth many pages of description, it were well to
observe the examples given (plate facing page 79) of the superb set of
Antony and Cleopatra, a series of designs attributed to Rubens,
executed in Brussels by Gerard van den Strecken.

Garson

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