A Brief History of the Scriptorium

This week we enjoyed Safer Internet Day, which made us think about how the way we work has evolved. Take a look at this photo of the Scriptorium from our achieves. The building was founded in 1902, whilst Sir James Murray was a teacher at Mill Hill. At this time, computers did not exist, and work was primarily handwritten. In contrast, most of us now rely on a computer to complete various daily tasks.

Interestingly, the word Scriptorium comes from the Latin meaning ‘place of writing’. Sir James Murray was passionate about writing the first Oxford English Dictionary. To help progress his work, people sent him scraps of paper with definitions written on them. These definitions were then added to the Oxford English Dictionary. The slips were sometimes called scripts as they were pieces of writing sent into the ‘Scriptorium.’

Swipe to see a picture of the Scriptorium today, in which pupils use both paper and computers to assist with their studies! The Scriptorium Building: A History