Book Arts and Rare Books Curator Completes 57 Years of Service
Today on the TXTDS blog, we’re celebrating the career of Sandra Kroupa, Book Arts and Rare Books Curator for UW Libraries Special Collections. Sandra was recently named Librarian Emerita by Provost Dean Simon Neame. In this post, we look back at Sandra’s distinguished career spanning 57 years of service to the UW Libraries, her lasting impact on Special Collections’ holdings, and her time working with students in the UW Textual Studies Program.
Building UW Special Collections
As Book Arts and Rare Books Curator for UW Libraries Special Collections, Sandra helped develop and guide the holdings of the university. Her work was vital in building UW’s nineteenth-century American literature collections, curating its historical children’s literature holdings, broadening its examples of historical bookbinding, and more.
Images of items from the Historical Book Arts Collection. From left: an embroidered seventeenth-century edition of The New Testament, a leather bound seventeenth-century edition of The Faerie Queene, and a nineteenth-century century edition of Sonnets and Lyrical Poems in Roman lettering with page design by William Morris.
Artists’ Books at UW
Sandra showcases rare artists’ books from the UW Libraries collections.
Over the years, Sandra’s influence was instrumental in developing the breadth of UW’s collections, but her special interest was in broadening its Book Arts Collection. Amassing examples of bookmaking that spanned historical practices all the way up to contemporary artists’ books, Sandra’s work grew UW’s Book Arts Collection into one of the largest public collections in the United States. It includes many unique works from now-renowned artists, which experiment with assumptions about the book form while challenging the book’s conceptualization through the mediums with which it’s made.
A selection of artists’ books from UW Libraries Special Collections that play with the conventions of the book form.
Sandra also helped to build the depth of UW’s Historical Children’s Literature Collection, which includes over 3,000 titles spanning works from the seventeenth- to twentieth-centuries, including alphabet books, fables, book series, and more. In addition to these holdings, Sandra oversaw the development of the Authors Collection, which encompasses nearly 10,000 titles. These primarily represent American, British, and European authors. For this collection, Sandra had a special endowment to collect nineteenth-century American literature, which she used to highlight the work of female writers, including Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and more.
Working with the UW Textual Studies Program
Sandra’s achievements in collections development has not only been important for the way it has helped to deepen the UW libraries’ holdings, but for the opportunities it has afforded scores of UW Textual Studies students who have gotten to work with items of her curation during TXTDS courses and Capstone projects.
Bringing her wealth of knowledge to TXTDS courses, like Texts, Publics, and Publication, Book Arts, and many more, as well as her generosity and insistence on ensuring students the experience of working hands-on, Sandra has left an enduring impact on the Textual Studies Program and its countless students who have been introduced to and inspired by the collections she helped to curate. Many of these students have been inspired to go on to pursue careers in librarianship and in related book arts fields. The program has been indelibly shaped by our long collaboration with her. We in the program offer Sandra the most heartfelt thanks for her wonderful service to the UW and the TXTDS program!
Want to learn more about how you could explore and learn with materials in these collections? Check out our upcoming courses and Capstone opportunities. For UW Textual Studies news, upcoming events, and updates on faculty and student research, sign up for the Textual Studies listserv and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and X.