Oliver and Boyd was a British publishing and printing firm that traded from 1807 or 1808 until 1990.[1] The firm has been described as a "stalwart in Scottish publishing".[2]
History
Building on Tweeddale CourtThe grave of Thomas Oliver, Grange Cemetery
Oliver and Boyd was founded in Edinburgh by two partners: Thomas Oliver (1775–1853)[3] and George Boyd (died 1843). The exact foundation year is not known but is believed to have been either 1807 or 1808.[4]
The firm operated from the 1820s until the 1970s at the same address in Tweeddale Court,[5] near the Royal Mile in Edinburgh[4] (the old "Oliver and Boyd" sign remains above the front door of the Tweeddale Court building to this day).[5] It was one of the "auld" firms to survive in the area after the crash of 1825–26.[2]
By the 1830s, the firm was not only publishing but also printing and bookbinding under the same roof at Tweeddale Court, an innovative practice for Edinburgh in that period.[4] By 1836, the firm carried out printing there on a "massive scale". Prior to Oliver & Boyd, printing and publishing in Scotland had been a cottage industry with the printing done on wooden presses and it was only in 1800 that the iron press had been invented.[6][7]
In the years 1811–1841, Oliver and Boyd issued a number of catalogues for the firm's juvenile books "selling from a halfpenny upwards"[3] and also printed and published "abridged histories in fancy covers and songbooks".[1]
When Thomas Oliver retired and George Boyd died in 1843, the firm remained under family control with George's nephew Thomas Jamieson Boyd[8] being appointed as managing partner in 1843 and then acting as senior partner from 1869 to 1894.[2] In this period the firm gained a reputation in the fields of education [9][10] and medical textbook publishing and had a strong presence in the British colonial markets.[1][2] When Benjamin Disraeli visited the firm in 1885 he found the firm did 'everything but making paper'. They were printers, publishers and binders.[11]
In 1896, Oliver and Boyd was taken over by three "well-established"[2] Edinburgh booksellers, George and James Thin and John Grant.[7][1]
During the 20th century, the firm maintained its reputation as "educational and general publishers of high standing".[12]
In 1962, the firm was acquired by the Financial Times group and, later, Longmans acquired its publishing operations.[7][1] In 1984, a public library known as the Scottish Poetry Library was set up in what had previously been a storage area of Oliver and Boyd's Tweeddale Court offices.[13] Oliver and Boyd ceased operations in 1990.
^ abcdeDavid Finkelstein, "Publishing 1830-80", in: Bill Bell, ed., The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, Volume 3: Ambition and Industry 1800–1880, Edinburgh University Press, p. 97. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
