Lead report in the OU Gazette, 27/7/95 (transcription follows clowns.gif).
The caption to the clowns photo reads: Sir Keith Thomas leads the Delegates of the Universty Press in procession down Park Avenue to their first ever meeting outside Oxford.
THE Delegates of the Oxford University Press held their annual meeting on 18 July in their new New York branch offices on Madison Avenue - the first time they have met outside Oxford since the Delegacy was set up in the seventeenth century.
The Delegates, led by Sir Keith Thomas, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and chairman of the OUP Finance Committee, processed in full academic dress past bemused New Yorkers down Park Avenue, to Madison Avenue and into the landmark building at 198, prior to their meeting.
The occasion symbolised the importance attached by the Delegates to the burgeoning New York operations - poised to enter their centenary year. OUP USA began in 1896, essentially, selling bibles. Today it is the largest US academic publisher, with 600 new titles a year outstripping the activities of Yale, Harvard, and Princeton university presses.
The spectacular new OUP offices, 140,000 square feet on six floors, are based in the well known former B. Altman department store. The site will also contain the city's public Science, industry, and Business Library, and other cultural and academic units, including Oxford University's North American offices.
The public entrance features a 22-foot high atrium with vaulted ceiliong, two restored antique fountains, plus a fully equipped lecture and function room where OUP plans to stage regular symposia, literary teas, and lunches with authors on current intellectual issues.
Sir Keith, President of Corpus Christi College, deputising for the Vice-Chancellor who was forced to miss the opening reception because of flu, praised the architects for their 'triumph' in turning a crumbling store into a fitting showpiece for OUP. 'It is the first time a man has tried to sell me a Manhattan skyscraper - and I was able to buy it,' he said.
Mr Edward Barry, President of OUP USA, declared that these were very exciting times for the office. 'We are looking forward to the opportunities we will have to share our scholarship with the public in a variety of new ways.'
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