Meyers Konversations-Lexikon was Germany's preeminent encyclopedia through the late 19th century, and its publishers invested heavily in illustration. Chromolithography had matured just enough by the 1890s to reproduce color with real fidelity, and the encyclopedia's plates reflect that, covering natural history, geography, and science with the precision of a reference work and the craft of a print studio. The period originals from this tradition hold up as objects in their own right.