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The Cornell University Press is the
The Cornell University Press is the university press
A university press is an academic publishing house specializing in monographs and scholarly journals. They are often an integral component of a large research university. They publish work that has been reviewed by scholars in the field. They pro ...
of Cornell University
Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
, an Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
university in Ithaca, New York
Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...
. It is currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, making it the first university publishing
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
enterprise in the United States, but was inactive from 1884 to 1930.
The press was established in the College of the Mechanic Arts, as mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...
was called in the 19th century, because engineers knew more about running steam-power
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...
ed printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...
es than literature professors. Since its inception, The press has offered work-study financial aid: students with previous training in the printing trades were paid for typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text for publication, display, or distribution by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or '' glyphs'' in digital systems representing '' characters'' (letters and other ...
and running the presses that printed textbooks, pamphlets, a weekly student journal, and official university publications.
Today, the press is one of the country's largest university press
A university press is an academic publishing house specializing in monographs and scholarly journals. They are often an integral component of a large research university. They publish work that has been reviewed by scholars in the field. They pro ...
es. It produces approximately 150 nonfiction titles each year in various disciplines, including anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
, Asian studies
Asian studies is the term used usually in North America and Australia for what in Europe is known as Oriental studies. The field is concerned with the Asian people, their cultures, languages, history and politics. Within the Asian sphere, Asian ...
, biological sciences
Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution of ...
, classics
Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...
, history
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
, industrial relations, literary criticism and theory, natural history, philosophy, politics and international relations, veterinary science, and women's studies. Although the press has been subsidized by the university for most of its history, it is now largely dependent on book sales to finance its operations.
In 2010, the Mellon Foundation, whose President Don Michael Randel
Don Michael Randel (born December 9, 1940) is an American musicologist, specializing in the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Spain and France. He is currently the chair of the board of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a truste ...
is a former Cornell Provost, awarded to the press a $50,000 grant to explore new business models for publishing scholarly works in low-demand humanities subject areas. With this grant, a book series was published titled "Signale: Modern German Letters, Cultures, and Thoughts". Only 500 hard copies of each book in the series will be printed, with extra copies manufactured on demand once the original supply is depleted.
Other currently active series include "Expertise: Cultures and Technologies of Knowledge" and Police/Worlds: Studies in security, crime and governance.
Domestic distribution for the press is currently provided by the University of North Carolina Press
The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a not-for-profit university press associated with the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the southern United States. It is a mem ...
's Longleaf Services.
Notable books
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *See also
*List of English-language book publishing companies
This is a list of English-language book publishers. It includes imprints of larger publishing groups, which may have resulted from business mergers. Included are academic publishers, technical manual publishers, publishers for the traditional book ...
* List of university presses
A university press is an academic publishing
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term ...
References
External links
* {{Authority control Press Publishing companies established in 1869 Book publishing companies based in New York (state) University presses of the United States 1869 establishments in New York (state)