University of North Carolina Press

The University of North Carolina Press was incorporated as a non-stock company in 1922. Its original purpose was threefold: to publish periodicals devoted to the research and writing of University of North Carolina faculty; to publish catalogs and other documents for the university; and to promote the arts, sciences, and literature by publishing generally deserving works. Throughout its history, the Press has been espeically strong in the areas of Southern history and literature. Although supported in part by the University, the Press remained administratively independent until 1951, when it was brought under the supervision of the University of North Carolina (System)'s General Administration. Today the Press is a major publisher of scholarly journals and books.

The University of North Carolina Press was incorporated as a non-stock company in 1922. Its original purpose was threefold: to publish periodicals devoted to the research and writing of University of North Carolina faculty; to publish catalogs and other documents for the University; and to promote the arts, sciences, and literature by publishing generally deserving works. Throughout its history, the Press has been espeically strong in the areas of Southern history and literature. Although supported in part by the University, the Press remained administratively independent until 1951, when it was brought under the supervision of the University of North Carolina (System)'s General Administration. Today the Press is a major publisher of scholarly journals and books.

As an independently incorporated agency, the Press operated outside the University's administrative structure. It was, and continues to be, managed by a Board of Governors through a Director. However, from its creation the Press was closely tied to the University. A majority of the Board of Governors and its committees have been University faculty members. The University has supplied funds to enable the Press to fulfill the second goal listed above. Funding for the publication of non-University works has been provided by author subsidies and foundation grants. In 1926, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Foundation provided a three-year, $50,000 grant, and during the middle decades of this century the Ford Foundation granted a total of $121,500 to support the Press's publishing program.

Soon after his inauguration as Consolidated University President, Gordon Gray concluded that the independent status of the Press presented an anomalous situation since the University subsidized many of the Press's periodical publications, appropriated funds for its employees' salaries, and provided quarters for its operations. Thus, he established the authority of the Chancellor over the Press. As a direct result of this action, endowment support for the Press increased significantly, notably through gifts by Aubrey Lee Brooks and the Joseph L. Morrison estate.

The Press was first housed in the University Library. In 1926, it moved to larger quarters in Alumni Hall. Two decades later, its operations were shifted to Bynum Hall, and in July 1980, it occupied the newly-constructed Brooks Hall near the Koch Theater.