Oxford University Press and the Making of a Book

To celebrate the publication of the first three volumes of The History of Oxford University Press on Thursday and University Press Week, we’re sharing various materials from our Archive and brief scholarly highlights from the work’s editors and contributors. To begin, we’d like to introduce a silent film made in 1925 by the Federation of British Industry. The Oxford University Press and the Making of a Book was one of a series illustrating industrial life and it highlighted the Press’s work to audiences around the world. It also provides great insight into each step of the printing process from casting type and composition, to casting plates and stereotyping, to binding and shipping.

Click here to view the embedded video.

With access to extensive archives, The History of Oxford University Press is the first complete scholarly history of the Press, detailing its organization, publications, trade, and international development. It also considers the effects of wider trends in education, reading, and scholarship, in international trade and the spreading influence of the English language, and in cultural and social history — both in Oxford and through its presence around the world.

Video: Copyright Confederation of British Industry. Used with permission by Oxford University Press. Courtesy of the Oxford University Press Archive.

Music credits: Golden Age Skit (1773/6) by Paul Mottram (PRS) via US Audio Network. Capriccio (1545/1) by Paul Mottram (PRS) via US Audio Network. Stationmaster’s Whiskers (1769/1) by Paul Michael Harris (PRS) via US Audio Network.

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