Milestones in the History of the University of Delaware Press is on display in the first-floor exhibition area of the Morris Library from June 15 through September 11, 2009. The exhibition depicts the beginnings of the University of Delaware Press and celebrates its achievements over the years.
Curators: Karen G. Druliner, Managing Editor of the University of Delaware Press, and Linda L. Stein, Associate Librarian and Press webmaster.
Founders of the Press | The Press Joins the Associated University Presses (AUP) | Award-Winning Titles | Occasional Series | Additional Reading
“Nothing . . . excepting always sound scholarship and adequate equipment for instruction, redounds more to the credit of an educational institution or adds more to its prestige than a Press bearing its name, wisely administered, and issuing only books and journals of acknowledged and permanent value which carry to other institutions of learning and to educated men in all parts of the world the name of the institution . . .”
This statement, which appears in the July 1922 President’s Report of University of Delaware President Walter Hullihen, conveys the importance President Hullihen placed on scholarly publishing. Sharing that vision were Everett Johnson, publisher of the Newark Post and owner of the Press of Kells and Dr. Joseph Odell, director of the Service Citizens, an organization supported by Pierre S. du Pont for the purpose of improving public schools in Delaware. Dr. Odell was interested in publishing books on public health, education, Americanization, and community development, while President Hullihen sought national recognition of University of Delaware research. Through the sale of stock, Service Citizens provided working capital needed to establish the University of Delaware Press, and Everett Johnson’s Press of Kells supplied a local source of high-quality printing. The collaboration promised to be beneficial to all.
From its inception until 1926, the University of Delaware Press published seven books, but became inactive following the death of Everett Johnson in 1926 and the subsequent closing of the Press of Kells. In 1949, a faculty publications committee initiated a monograph series, of which Dr. Anna J. De Armond’s Andrew Bradford, Colonial Journalist was the first published. Thereafter, the University of Delaware Press entered into cooperative agreements with other nearby, larger university presses, including Rutgers, New York University, and Temple.
In 1975, the University of Delaware Press joined Associated University Presses (AUP), a consortium of several smaller university presses located in eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. This arrangement allowed the University of Delaware Press to maintain its own imprint and editorial control while giving AUP responsibility for book production and distribution.
Today the University of Delaware Press publishes about forty books each year. Currently its major strengths are in literary studies, especially Shakespeare, Renaissance and Early Modern Literature; Eighteenth-Century Studies, Art, and Culture; French Literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; art history and history; and historical and cultural studies of Delaware and the Eastern Shore. The Press is managed by a Board of Editors which is comprised of University of Delaware faculty from multiple departments. The Board of Editors is chaired by Professor Donald C. Mell and the Managing Editor is Karen G. Druliner.
The exhibition, Milestones in the History of the University of Delaware Press, depicts the beginnings of the University of Delaware Press and celebrates its achievements over the years. Featured are historical documents, photographs of key leaders, and early publications of the Press, including the first book National Education in the United States of America (1923). The exhibition also presents information about AUP and its founder, Thomas Yoseloff; photographs from the September 2006 celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the agreement with AUP; award-winning titles; and colorful books on art history.
Barnes, Robert C. and Judith M. Pfeiffer. Press, Politics, and Perseverance: Everett C. Johnson and the Press of Kells. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1999.
Wood logo of Press of Kells [K in a triangle, each side of which is an “H”], from the Everett C. & Louise Staton Johnson Papers, Morris Library, Special Collections, Manuscript Collection Number: 361, item F63. (Gift of Mrs. Marjorie Tilghman, 1989-1995). For a description of the Everett C. & Louise Staton Johnson Papers, see www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/johnsn_e.htm.
Framed photograph, black and white image of the Press of Kells building. Original from the Everett C. & Louise Staton Johnson Papers, Morris Library, Special Collections, Manuscript Collection Number: 361, item F64. (Gift of Mrs. Marjorie Tilghman, 1989-1995). For a description of the Everett C. & Louise Staton Johnson Papers, see www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/johnsn_e.htm.
Image of President Walter Hullihen, from The University of Delaware: A History. Newark: University of Delaware, 1986.
Du Pont, Eleuthère Irénée. Life of Eleuthère Irénée du Pont from Contemporary Correspondence, 1772-1834. Translated from the French and with an introduction by B. G. du Pont. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1923-1926. 11 volumes.
Du Pont de Nemours, Pierre Samuel. National Education in the United States of America. Translated from the second French edition of 1812 and with an introduction, by B.G. du Pont. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1923.
Color image of Julien Yoseloff. The original photograph, held by the office of the University of Delaware Press, was taken at the Morris Library, University of Delaware, at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the AUP agreement.
Rye, Gill. Narratives of Mothering: Women’s Writing in Contemporary France. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2009.
Weslager, C. A. The Stamp Act Congress, with an Exact Copy of the Complete Journal. A University of Delaware Bicentennial Book. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London, Associated University Presses, 1976.
Photograph (color), framed, image of members of the Press editorial board. The photograph, held by the office of the University of Delaware Press, was taken at the Morris Library, University of Delaware, at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the AUP agreement.
Color image of Professor Donald C. Mell, Chair, Board of Editors. The original photograph, held by the office of the University of Delaware Press, was taken at the Morris Library, University of Delaware, at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the AUP agreement.
Images of the three colophons used by the University of Delaware Press.
Photograph (black and white), Professor James Merrill, Chair, Board of Editors, 1975-1985. The photograph is held by the office of the University of Delaware Press.
Amhurst, Nicholas. Terrae-Filius Or, The Secret History of the University of Oxford (1721; 1726). Newark: University of Delaware Press; Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 2004.
Davidson, Adele. Shakespeare in Shorthand: The Textual Mystery of King Lear. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2009.
Larson, Robert H. The British Army and the Theory of Armored Warfare, 1918-1940. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1984.
Mayer, Roberta A. Lockwood de Forest: Furnishing the Gilded Age with a Passion for India. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2008.
Pettigrew, Todd H. J. Shakespeare and the Practice of Physic: Medical Narratives on the Early Modern English Stage. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2007.
Rosenberg, Marvin. The Masks of Anthony and Cleopatra. Edited and completed by Mary Rosenberg. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2006.
Color image of Jay L. Halio, emeritus professor of English. The original photograph is held by the English Department.
Series: Cultural Studies of Delaware and the Eastern Shore
Travalini, Billie and Fleda Brown, eds. On the Mason-Dixon Line: An Anthology of Contemporary Delaware Writers. Newark: University of Delaware Press; Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 2008.
Peterson, Russell W. Rebel with a Conscience. Foreword by Peter Matthiessen. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1999.
Young, Toni. Becoming American, Remaining Jewish: The Story of Wilmington, Delaware's First Jewish Community, 1879-1924. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1999.
Series: Studies in 17th- and 18th-Century Art and Culture
Edmunds, Martha Mel Stumberg. Piety and Politics: Imaging Divine Kingship in Louis XIV’s Chapel at Versailles. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated University Presses, 2002.
Johnson, Dorothy, ed. Jacques-Louis David: New Perspectives. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2006.
Series: Monash Romance Studies
West-Sooby, John, ed. Nowhere Is Perfect: French and Francophone Utopias/Dystopias. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2008. (Book housed in University of Delaware Press office.)
The World Shakespeare Congress Proceedings
Fotheringham, Richard, Christa Jansohn, and R. S. White, eds. Shakespeare's World/World Shakespeares: The Selected Proceedings of the International Shakespeare Association World Congress, Brisbane, 2006. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2008.Munroe, John A. The University of Delaware: A History. Newark: University of Delaware, 1986.
Taggart, Robert J. Private Philanthropy and Public Education: Pierre S. du Pont and the Delaware Schools, 1890-1940. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London and Toronto: Associate University Presses, 1988.
Tilghman, Marjorie Johnson and Cornelius A. Tilghman, Sr. A Brief Account of the Press of Kells. Special Collections F61 “A Brief Account of the Press of Kells,” n.d. (6 pp., 2 copies) TS (and copy) by Marjorie J. and Cornelius A. Tilghman. For a description of the collection, see www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/johnsn_e.htm.
Yoseloff, Thomas. The Time of My Life. Drawings by Al Ostervich. South Brunswick and New York: A. S. Barnes and Company; London: The Tantivy Press, 1979.
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