The first article on suicide appeared in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica in 1777. 19 other pieces in 15 different editions have been published since then. This paper presents a summary of the articles & discusses their changing emphases from 1777 to 1997. Shneidman says that generally the Encyclopaedia Brittanica has done a good job of presenting both the sociological & psychological threads of suicide study, but it has sometimes lagged behind on socially-sensitive issues.