The Isis is a student publication at the University of Oxford, where the magazine was established in 1892. Traditionally a rival to the student newspaper Cherwell, Isis was finally acquired by the latter's publishing house, Oxford Student Publications Limited, in the late 1990s. It now operates as a termly magazine and website, providing an outlet for features journalism, although for most of its life it appeared weekly. The two publications are named after the two rivers in Oxford, "Isis" being the local name for the River Thames. Since 2014, the magazine's name has often been confused with ISIS, the translated abbreviation of a terrorist organization operating in Iraq and Syria. However, whereas the latter is an abbreviation and is always capitalized, the magazine's is a proper noun distinguished by its lowercase characters. History The Isis was founded by Mostyn Turtle Piggott, the first of the student editors, on 27 April 1892. In his first editorial he wrote: "We have no politics and fewer principles, and should we last until the General Election we shall use our influence for neither side. We shall endeavour to be humorous without being ill-humoured, critical without being captious, militant without being malevolent, independent without being impertinent, and funny (as Mr Albert Chevalier says) without being vulgar." In its early days, The Isis was owned and published by the Holywell Press. Students were given complete independence, as long as the paper they produced was profitable and within good taste. Oxford welcomed the addition to its scene wholeheartedly, and was more than prepared to pay the weekly sixpence. The Isis was an accurate recorder of proceedings in the Oxford Union - enough of a function to maintain sales. The same price (2.5p in modern money) lasted into the 1960s. One of the features of the magazine that survives today is the "Icons" section (then known as "Idols"). In the 1890s, being President of OUDS (the Oxford University Dramatic Society) seemed to guarantee an appearance in print. Some of the Idols featured pre-1939 were Lord David Cecil and T. E. Lawrence; it was not until 1935 that the editors judged a woman worthy of being featured as an Idol – Lady Katharine Cairns being the first. After the beginning of World War I, The Isis ceased publication for four years, until it was resurrected in 1919 by Beverley Nichols, who produced the opening issue entirely by himself:"the great