Oxford University Press facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Oxford University Press

Parent company	University of Oxford
Founded	1586; 439 years ago (1586)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Headquarters location	Oxford, England
Key people	Nigel Portwood (Secretary to the Delegates and CEO)
Publication types	Academic journals books sheet music
Imprints	Clarendon Press Blackstone Press
No. of employees	6,000

Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing company of the University of Oxford in England. It is the largest university publisher in the world. The first book was printed in Oxford in 1478. The company officially got the right to print books in 1586. It is the second oldest university publisher, after Cambridge University Press, which started in 1534.

OUP is a part of the University of Oxford. It is managed by 15 academics, called the Delegates of the Press. These Delegates are chosen by the university's vice-chancellor. The main person in charge is the Secretary to the Delegates, who is also OUP's chief executive. This way of running things has been similar since the 1600s. The main office is on Walton Street in Oxford.

For over 400 years, OUP has mostly published educational books. Today, it still publishes academic journals, dictionaries, English language learning materials, and books on many subjects like history, music, and literature. They also publish Bibles and atlases. OUP has offices all over the world, especially in places that were once part of the British Empire.

History of Oxford University Press

Special metal pieces, called "Fell Types," used for printing. They are shown in the OUP Museum.

The University of Oxford started printing around 1480. It became a main printer of Bibles, prayer books, and scholarly works. In the 1630s, Oxford's chancellor, Archbishop William Laud, helped the university get legal rights for its printing. He asked King Charles I for rights that would help Oxford compete with other printers. In 1636, Oxford received its "Great Charter," which gave the university the right to print "all manner of books." Laud also got special permission from the King to print the King James Version of the Bible at Oxford. This special right brought in a lot of money for the next 250 years.

After the English Civil War, John Fell, who was a Dean at Christ Church and a Bishop of Oxford, decided to set up printing presses in 1668. This became the university's first central print shop. In 1674, OUP began printing a large calendar called the Oxford Almanack. This calendar was printed every year without stopping from 1674 to 2019. John Fell created the first official plan for the university's printing. He imagined hundreds of books, including the Bible in Greek, books in Arabic and Syriac, and many works on classical philosophy, poetry, and history.

Oxford University Press building on Walton Street.

The early 1700s were a quiet time for the press. It didn't have a strong leader like John Fell. The business was saved by one Delegate, William Blackstone. He was unhappy with how messy the press was. Blackstone asked for big changes to make the Delegates' roles clear and to make the print shop work better. The university started to make these changes by 1760.

By the late 1700s, the press became more focused. In 1825, the Delegates bought land on Walton Street. New buildings were built, and the press moved there in 1830. This place is still the main office of OUP today.

The press then went through a time of huge change. In 1830, it was still a printing business that mainly printed scholarly books for a small group of readers. At this time, Thomas Combe joined the press and became the university's printer until 1872. Combe was a good businessman but didn't always see new opportunities. For example, he didn't understand how profitable "India paper" would become for Oxford later. Even so, Combe made a lot of money from his shares in the business. One famous book printed during his time was the first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865.

It took a special report in 1850 and a new Secretary, Bartholomew Price, to really change the press. Price was appointed in 1868. He had already suggested that the press needed a strong leader to manage the business well. Under Price, OUP started to look like the modern company it is today. New important projects began. For example, in 1875, the Delegates approved the series Sacred Books of the East. This series, edited by Friedrich Max Müller, brought many religious ideas to more readers.

Price also moved OUP towards publishing books on its own. In 1880, Henry Frowde (1841–1927) became the official Publisher to the university. Frowde was very important to OUP's growth. He added new types of books and oversaw the huge publication of the Revised Version of the New Testament in 1881. He also helped set up the press's first office outside Britain, in New York City, in 1896.

Price truly changed OUP. In 1884, the press became fully owned by the university. It had its own paper mill, print shop, and warehouse. Its publications grew to include school books and modern scholarly texts like James Clerk Maxwell's A Treatise on Electricity & Magnetism (1873). This book was very important for Einstein's ideas. Price helped OUP become a modern publisher while keeping its quality. In 1879, he also took on a huge project: the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

The "New English Dictionary" was a big academic project offered to Oxford by James Murray. It was expected to take ten years and cost about £9,000. These numbers were very wrong! The Dictionary started being printed in 1884, but the first edition was not finished until 1928, 13 years after Murray died. It cost around £375,000. This huge cost became a challenge for Price's successors.

The next Secretary, Philip Lyttelton Gell, struggled and was dismissed in 1897. Charles Cannan took over in 1898.

By the early 1900s, OUP expanded its business overseas. This was partly thanks to Humphrey Milford, who was the publisher from 1913 to 1945. In the 1920s, prices for materials and labor went up very quickly. Paper was hard to find and had to be brought in from South America. Slowly, economies and markets got better. By 1928, the press had offices or depots in many cities around the world, including London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Toronto, Melbourne, Cape Town, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, and Shanghai.

In 1923, OUP started a Music Department. At that time, publishing music was rare. OUP bought an Anglo-French Music Company, gaining its resources and connections. This helped OUP find a special place in music publishing. It also helped promote English music that was not well-known. The Music Department didn't make a profit until 1939.

The Great Depression of 1929 caused profits from the Americas to almost disappear. India became the "one bright spot" for the company. The Bombay office was a key point for sending books to Africa and Australia. People who trained in the main Indian offices later helped start branches in Africa and Southeast Asia. From 1927 to 1934, the New York branch of Oxford University Press was reorganized to become profitable again after the Depression.

After World War II, OUP focused on strengthening its operations as the British Empire changed and the Commonwealth was reorganized.

In the 1960s, OUP Southern Africa began publishing local authors for general readers, schools, and universities. This was done under its Three Crowns Books imprint. This branch covers Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, and South Africa. OUP Southern Africa is now one of the three biggest educational publishers in South Africa. It publishes textbooks, dictionaries, and atlases. Most of its authors are local. In 2008, it partnered with the university to support scholarships for South Africans studying for advanced degrees.

Today, the North American branch in New York City mainly helps sell Oxford Bibles in the United States. It also handles marketing for all books from its parent company. By the end of 2021, OUP USA had published eighteen books that won the Pulitzer Prize.

In July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, its bookshop on the High Street closed. On 27 August 2021, OUP closed Oxuniprint, its printing division. This marked the end of OUP's centuries-long history of printing.

OUP Museum

The Oxford University Press Museum is located on Great Clarendon Street in Oxford. You need to book visits in advance. Museum staff lead the tours. Displays include a 19th-century printing press, information about the OUP buildings, and the history of the Oxford Almanack, Alice in Wonderland, and the Oxford English Dictionary.

Clarendon Press Imprint

OUP became known as "The Clarendon Press" when its printing moved from the Sheldonian Theatre to the Clarendon Building in 1713. This name continued when OUP moved to its current location in Oxford in 1830. The name "Clarendon Press" got a new meaning when OUP started publishing books through its London office in the early 1900s. To tell the two offices apart, books from London were called "Oxford University Press" publications, while those from Oxford were called "Clarendon Press" books. This stopped in the 1970s when the London office closed. Today, OUP uses "Clarendon Press" as a special label for Oxford books that are very important academically.

Books and Series Published by OUP

Seven of the twenty volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary (second edition, 1989).

Oxford University Press publishes many types of dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. They also create resources for learning English as a second language, like Let's Go. OUP offers English language exams, such as the Oxford Test of English. They publish bibliographies like Oxford Bibliographies Online, and popular series like Very Short Introductions. OUP also publishes books on Indology, music, classics, literature, history, Bibles, and atlases. Many of these are published under the Oxford Languages brand.

Clarendon Scholarships

Since 2001, Oxford University Press has helped fund the Clarendon bursary. This is a scholarship program for graduate students at the University of Oxford.

See also

In Spanish: Oxford University Press para niños