Curator Profiles
Susan Glover – Shakespeare
What do you like most about being a curator? I love working with our amazing collections and discovering something new every day that I either did not know we had, or in some cases, I had never seen before.
What is your favorite piece/section of the collection? As a literature major as an undergraduate, I took all the Shakespeare courses. It was a thrill to find so many of them in this collection that were printed during Shakespeare’s lifetime. But, it still gives me goose bumps to bring out the First Folio to show visitors. The First Folio, published seven years after Shakespeare’s death, gathered all of Shakespeare’s works together for the first time and is still the definitive edition of 18 of his plays.
Describe something surprising in the collection. I think visitors are surprised about many authors there were publishing plays during Shakespeare’s time; Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson to name a few.
What specific audiences might this collection appeal to? It is a rare person who has not been touched by one of Shakespeare’s plays, either through study or popular forms of expression. His work continues to resonate with large portions of the population, his plays are still taught in both in middle school and high school, as well as college and graduate school, and the works themselves continue to be produced as stage productions and movies.
Ronald Grim – Maritime Charts and Atlases
What do you like most about being a curator? I’ve been interested in geography, maps, and traveling since I was a kid. I love constantly learning and exploring. I’ve always been the navigator on family trips since I was little and fascinated by maps.
What is your favorite piece/section of the collection? Frederick Des Barres’ Atlantic Neptune charts were developed just before the Revolutionary War and give a great perspective on that time period (1771-1781). A significant amount of these are digitized and available on the Map Center’s website for all to enjoy.
Describe something surprising in the collection. It includes a 1620 portolan atlas (with seven charts) that was drawn on velum – it’s amazing to think that people sailed hundreds of years ago with the maps we now have here at the Map Center.
What specific audiences might this collection appeal to? The collection really has something for everyone to enjoy, from a general audience to academics interested in the northeastern coast pre-19th century.
Beth Prindle – John Adams Library
What do you like most about being a curator? I find that curating a historic collection provides a very real and powerful link between past and present. When I hold one of John Adams’ books, I know he held that exact book as well several hundred years ago and the book is able to span those centuries and connect us in a very moving way.
What is your favorite piece/section of the collection? I like them all for different reasons, but there are ones that I feel very personally tied to. John Adams’ copy of a book by Plutarch is near and dear to my heart because there were pressed tree leaves between the back pages that had been left undisturbed for two centuries.
Describe something surprising in the collection. I’m still surprised by the sheer volume of John Adams’ book collecting and reading habits. He started in his teens and collected and read avidly throughout his adult life until his death at the age of 90.
What specific audiences might this collection appeal to? I find John Adams much more broadly relatable than many of the Founding Fathers. John Adams is really the embodiment of the quintessential American dream.
Is there something about the collection I didn’t ask that library visitors might want to know? There’s been such a wave of interest in John Adams with David McCullough’s 2001 biography John Adams and the HBO miniseries that people nationwide are really hungering to learn more about him and his family.
Henry Scannell – Local and Family History
What do you like most about being a curator? I enjoy finding surprising items within the collection. It can be like working in the largest attic in the city with all sorts of interesting to discover.
What is your favorite piece/section of the collection? The local town histories are my favorite part. Every town in the area has had something interesting that has happened over the past 300 years or so.
Describe something surprising in the collection. Several government documents in the collection surprise me. My favorite example is the first census from Sitka, Alaska after the US Army took over the territory in the 1860s. It was compiled by the US Army, not the Census Bureau, and is extremely detailed about the residents of Sitka at the time.
What specific audiences might this collection appeal to? I believe this collection appeal to all residents of Massachusetts and New England, or those with ancestors who lived here.
Is there something about the collection I didn’t ask that library visitors might want to know? This collection complements many other Collections of Distinction. Investigating the Local & Family History collection can give viewers clues about customs and ways of life hundreds of years ago and can add interest to your day, especially as you explore Boston by foot.