John de Monins Johnson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John de Monins Johnson ( 1882 – 1956 ), papyrologist, printer of the Oxford English Dictionary, and collector.

• Johnson was born in Lincolnshire in England, the second son of John Henry Johnson and Anna Braithwaite.
• He attended Magdalen College at the University of Oxford.
• He received a scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford.
• He studied the classics and Arabic in preparation for a career in the Egyptian Civil Service.
• In Egypt, he became a papyrologist, discovering a papyrus by Theocritus, 900 years older than any such previously discovered manuscript.
• He returned to Oxford during World War I, physically unfit for military service.
• He became Assistant Secretary to the Delegates of Oxford University Press.
• In 1918 he married Dorothea, the daughter of his supervisor Charles Cannan.
• They had a son named Charles, and a daughter name Paulla.
• In 1925 Johnson became Printer to the University at Oxford.
• In 1928 he was awarded an Hon D.Litt for his work on the Oxford English Dictionary.
• During World War II, in addition to his printing responsibilities, he became responsible for security at Oxford University Press, living on site until his retirement in 1946.
• During this time he became a collector of what he called "Printed Ephemera", establishing "The Constance Meade Collection of Ephemeral Printing" at Oxford University Press. Johnson's definition of printed ephemera was: "Everything which would ordinarily go into the waste paper basket after use, everything printed which is not actually a book."
• He continued to work on the collection until his death.
• His collection is currently held at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.