From the 1860s to the 1930s flourished illustrator art in across the world.

In Britain artists such as Arthur Rackham, Kate Greenaway, Edmund Dulac, Randolph Caldecott and Walter Crane, to name but a few, revolutionized the art of children's story illustrations. This was fostered by the evolving printing trade: Edmund Evans used a woodblock printing technique, chromoxylography, which was used primarily for inexpensive serialised books and children's books requiring few colours, so as to maximize profits. He went on to become the preeminent wood engraver and colour printer in Britain during the second half of the 19th century.

The Gravuring Process further revolutionized the illustrator’s art in 1900.  This technique enabled the artist's work to be reproduced with little involvement by trained lithographers and engravers. Hodder and Stoughton used this technique to produce many of the sort after first edition Children’s publications.