The Illustrated London News made its debut in coloured journalism on the 22nd December 1855 when the first series of coloured printed pictures appeared in its Christmas supplement. They were the first to appear in any journal and were a landmark in English colour printing. The woodblocks and colouring, produced by George Cargill Leighton were rather crude, but proved enormously successful and a second batch of colour prints was swiftly commissioned by Herbert Ingram, appearing on May 10th 1856.