Susan Barribeau presents the Little Magazine Collection at Grolier Club
UW-Madison Libraries’ Susan Barribeau was recently invited to participate on a panel of private and institutional collectors at the Grolier Club in New York City to speak about the Little Magazines collection. Susan, who is the collection manager for the Little Magazine Collection at UW-Madison, traveled to New York last week and spoke alongside private collectors Philip R. Bishop, David W. Lowden, and Jean-François Vilain at the Collectors’ Forum. The discussion and reception were held in conjunction with the current Grolier Club exhibition “American Little Magazines of the 1890s: A Revolution in Print,” which runs until April 27th.
Susan delighted attendees of the Collectors’ Forum with her descriptions of the history, coverage, and impact of the Little Magazine Collection at UW-Madison, which is held in the Special Collections Department at Memorial Library. Susan’s presentation included examples from early publications in the collections holdings, as well as contemporary publications like Esopus and Forklift, Ohio: A journal of poetry, cooking, & light industrial safety.
Susan also spoke to the vital collection development work done by her predecessors Yvonne Schofer and Felix Pollak and highlighted related collections and programs at UW-Madison. She also noted the work of renowned institutions involved with the history of print culture in Wisconsin. The resources she touched on included:
- Dobbertin Collection of Campus Humor Magazines and Library of Amateur Journalism, both of which are held in the Special Collections Department
- Silver Buckle Press at Memorial Library
- Artists’ Book Collection, held at Kohler Art Library
- Center for the History of Print & Digital Culture at UW-Madison’s School of Library and Information Studies
- Tandem Press in Madison, WI
- Philosopher Press in Wausau, WI
- Walter Hamady’s Perishable Press Limited in Mt. Horeb, WI
- Woodland Pattern Book Center in Milwaukee, WI
- Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers, WI
The Little Magazine Collection at UW-Madison is one of the largest in the U.S. and continues to expand with new issues arriving each week. To learn more about the ever-growing collection, follow the Little Magazine Collection blog and watch the Library News & Events site for a forthcoming resource profile about the collection.
Many thanks to Robin Rider, who was at the event, and has written a great blog post on Susan’s talk at the Special Collections Blog.