#UPWeek blog tour: A brief history of IU Press in pictures

It's day 2 of the University Press Week blog tour! Today's theme explores university presses in pictures. As we prepare to celebrate our 65th anniversary next year, we take a look back at the history of the Press.

Indiana University Press was founded in 1950 by IU President Herman B Wells, who viewed the work of the Press as a public good:

The Press will endeavor to extend the University's teaching and research beyond the library, laboratory, and classroom, thus performing a function of a university peculiarly important in a democracy. 

Herman B Wells. Photo courtesy of Indiana University Archives.

An IU faculty member recommended to Wells that the Press could be started with "at least one good man a secretary." The "good man" selected was Bernard Perry, who had worked at major commercial publishing houses, including W.W. Norton & Company, E.P. Dutton, and Vanguard Press. He was appointed as the first director of the Press on February 17, 1950. 

Bernard Perry. Photo courtesy of Indiana University Archives.

During Perry's tenure as director, the Press moved to several locations. (In fact, Perry fretted so much over finding a suitable home for the Press that it prompted Wells to write to his assistant: "Tell Bernard to quit worrying. He will not be put out in the street.") We think Perry would be pleased with our latest move to the Wells Library in 2013, which puts the Press in the heart of the IU campus.

Editor-in-Chief Bob Sloan on our last day at our Morton Street location, with a piece of the former office in hand.

Since its beginning with one director and a part-time secretary, the Press has now grown to a 36-member staff. As we head into our 65th year, the Press continues to build upon the legacy that Perry and Wells started. While technology and the ways in which we distribute scholarship have changed over the years, our fundamental mission has not. We will remain, as Wells said in 1950, "[to] be an ultimate expression of the influence of the University in scientific and intellectual publishing."

Staff photo taken at our moving out party in 2013.

Our last wish for our anniversary celebration is that Johnny Depp will be photographed again holding one of our books.

Johnny Depp holding a copy of Dillinger: The Untold Story. He was photographed with it around the time he was working on the movie Public Enemies.

The University Press Week blog tour continues today at Stanford University Press, Fordham University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, and University Press of Florida. Follow the conversation on Twitter with hashtag #upweek.