© The contents of this finding aid are the copyright of the University of Chicago Library
© 2006 University of Chicago Library
The collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: University of Chicago Press. Records, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
Series I: GENERAL RECORDS
Listings for the folders containing the miscellaneous material included in this section are self-explanatory, but some indication of what seems important to the history of the Press might be useful. Boxes1-6 contain valuable material on the earliest years. The document of incorporation, signed and sealed, is bound in a legal size volume (marked Vol. 0) in box 3, folder 1, along with other early documents. Some correspondence of early directors with President Harper, who took a personal interest in and responsibility for the Press, is in box 1, folders 1-2 (D. C. Heath), folder 5 (Ned Arden Flood), and folder 8 (Newman Miller). Newman Miller's annual reports submitted to the President for the fiscal years 1899-1900 through 1917-1918 are in twenty legal size bound volumes in box 3, folders 2-7, through box 6, folders 1-4. Financial reports of the publication department for fiscal years 1935-1936 through 1950-1951 are in bound volumes in Boxes10 and 11, and financial information for the years 1950-1958 is bound in a large volume in box 12. Some information on grants and departmental publication funds may be found in box 14, folders 1-12.
Information about the Press staff and their activities in the 1920s may be found in box 6, folder 5, and in Boxes 8 and 9, especially the volumes of Press Impressions. Donald Bean's miscellaneous memorabilia in Box 13 throw more light on this period. Bean's bound "Report on American Scholarly Publishing, 1929" (folder 5), written at the behest of the Rockefeller Foundation, is the first survey of university press publishing in the United States, and the only one until ale University Press director Chester Kerr's 1949 A Report on American University Presses, also funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
A sampling of advertising brochures, publications, and lists will be found in Box 15, folders 7-14, through Box 16, folder 7. Various unbound seasonal catalogs are in Box 16, folders 9-12, through Box 17, folder 2, and miscellaneous general, or annual, catalogs are in Box 17, folders 3-6, and Box 18, folders 1-4. Two useful compilations are the list of out-of-print titles, 1891-1958, and an account of all the journals published by the Press up through 1965, Box 18, folders 5 and 6, respectively.
Series II: MINUTES
The copy of minutes from the Trustees' Committee on Press and Extension from 1903 to 1917 in Box 19, folders 5-6, was evidently preserved from Newman Miller's office, for there are notes in his handwriting and some letters included with its pages. The complete official copy of the minutes of this body, from 1898 to 1932, are in two large volumes with the University Board of Trustees' records in the Archives.
Of most interest for the publishing history of the Press are the minutes of the Board of University Publications, for the first thirty years known as the Board of the University Press or, alternatively, as the Administrative Board of the University Press. Although this faculty board existed from 1892, there are no extant minutes until May 1900. The earliest minutes are in two bound volumes in Box 20. Minutes of the Board of University Publications and of its subcommittee, the Publication Committee, 1917-1945, are in Box 21, folders 1-11, and Box 12, folders 1-2. Minutes of the Board for 1943-1967 are in three bound volumes in Boxes23 and 24. Unfortunately, minutes of the meetings from October 19, 1945, through August 27, 1947, have been lost. A few miscellaneous minutes from 1957 to 1963 are in Box 22, folder 11. An index of manuscripts approved for publication by the Board from 1921 through 1961 will be found in Box 22, folders 3-10.
An incomplete collection of minutes of the meetings of faculty advisory committees, 1943-1956, is in Box 22, folder 12, and a similar incomplete collection of minutes of meetings of the editorial board made up of Press editors, 1956-1965, is in Box 22, folder 13. A bound volume of the staff editorial board minutes from 1962 through 1965, with index, is in Box 24.
Series III: BOOK FILES
Material relating to individual books and series published by the Press from 1892 through 1965 is arranged alphabetically, by author or series title, in Boxes25 through 506. Each entry in this inventory lists the author, or authors, the main title of the book, and the date of publication in parentheses. Full titles of books and more bibliographical information may be found in the anniversary catalogs of the Press, the fiftieth anniversary catalog for books published through 1940 and the seventy-fifth for books published through 1965. Where the inventory lists a series title followed by "See also: individual authors," the reader will find the authors of books in the series listed under the series title in the anniversary catalogs. Both catalogs are available from the Archives reference collection as well as from the University Press Records.
Arrangement of material within the folders generally follows the chronological stages through which a manuscript passes to become a printed book: (1) editorial correspondence relating to acquisition or submission of a manuscript, readers' reports, approval by the Board of University Publications, and preparation of the manuscript for printing; (2) production material, usually filled-out forms showing preliminary cost estimates, specifications, orders to the printers, schedules for proofs, and the publication schedule giving date of publication and distribution of the first copies; (3) advertising and promotion materials such as the "Author's Questionnaire" giving information about the author and the book, brochures, jackets, direct mail letters, etc.; and (4) the review list, prepared by the promotion department and indicating journals and newspapers to which review copies are to be sent, and clippings of the published reviews. The amount of material in these four categories differs considerably from book to book, depending partly on what has survived in the Press files, partly on whether the author was on campus and conducting business orally with the Press, and somewhat on procedural changes over the years. The similarities in Press operations from about 1910 to 1965, however, are more remarkable than the differences.
Periodic housecleaning of Press offices to provide needed space was responsible for the destruction of many general files and much material from the earlier book files. Very little correspondence has survived relating to books published in the first twenty years or so, but there are a number of extant book reviews for some of them. In processing the files for the Archives nothing has been discarded except duplicate copies of correspondence, memos, etc.; form requests for review copies; and most requests for, and form letters granting, permission to quote passages from Press books. Files relating to books not published for whatever reason ("kill" files) have always been routinely destroyed by the Press when they are no longer active. In sum, the extant records provide an informative but far from comprehensive view of the operation of the University of Chicago Press.
Series IV: ADDENDA, 1929-1965
The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections: