Stanford University Press

Stanford University Press—or at least, the idea of it—was born in Bloomington, Indiana. It was there in 1891 that Leland and Jane Stanford offered the presidency of their new university to David Starr Jordan, who, before accepting the post, drew up a memo of understanding for the Stanfords’ approval. “Before the selection of the faculty,” Jordan wrote, “I should like your assent to the following propositions.” There were four; the first three addressed student admission standards, the balance between theoretical and applied learning, and faculty needs. The fourth and final proposition reads in full: “That provision be made for the publication of the results of any important research on the part of professors, or advanced students. Such papers may be issued from time to time as ‘Memoirs of the Leland Stanford Junior University.’” The first iteration of Stanford University Press (SUP) was established in 1892 by an enterprising Stanford student, and member of the “Pioneer Class,” Julius Andrew Quelle. Initially operating out of the university’s woodworking shop, the private printing company Quelle founded produced a student paper and eventually a handful of book-length articles written by Stanford faculty. So successful was Quelle’s outfit that he abandoned his studies, working as a private printer to the university until 1917 when Stanford bought the printing company, and moved the operations to a larger office where the press would be housed for the next eighty-some years.

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