The OED's first Oxford home

On 21 October James Murray's former house at 78 Banbury Road, Oxford, was honoured with a 'Blue Plaque'. This house, named 'Sunnyside' by Murray when he and his family moved there from Mill Hill in 1885, remained Murray's residence in Oxford until his death in 1915; he and his staff worked in a specially constructed Scriptorium erected in the garden. This was not the Dictionary's only Oxford home even during Murray's lifetime: the other Editors of the Dictionary - Henry Bradley, William Craigie, and Charles Onions - and their assistants were accommodated in a large room on the ground floor of the Old Ashmolean Building (now the Museum of the History of Science), in Broad Street adjacent to the Sheldonian Theatre.

In the photograph, Oswyn Murray, great-grandson of James, is seen giving the plaque a final polish. He is flanked by John Simpson, the OED's current Chief Editor, and the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, Sir Hugo Brunner. Behind John Simpson is the pillar box which was placed outside 'Sunnyside' by the Post Office for the convenience of James Murray, who wrote many thousands of letters in the course of his work on the OED.