The Iowa Bibliophiles - Origins
Sid Huttner, then Head of Special Collections, was a past member of the Caxton Club of Chicago and facilitated formation of the Book Collectors Club of Tulsa (Oklahoma) while he was curator of Special Collections at the University of Tulsa. David Schoonover, then Curator of Rare Books, had also long been interested in forming an Iowa City collectors club. It was, however, Arthur Bonfield's strong expression of interest and support that galvanized formation. After tossing the idea around for a couple of months, Sid obtained approval from the Libraries' administration to offer meeting space in Main Library, with the entirely reasonable understanding that the group would be self-supporting and not become a drain on Libraries' resources. With that in place, a meeting was scheduled in October 2002 and word sent around to various University listservs. Seven stalwart conspirators turned up: Bonfield, Huttner, and Schoonover joined by JoAnn Castagna (College of Liberal Arts & Sciences administration), Shari DeGraw (printer), Christine Pawley (School of Library & Information Science), and Larry Yerkes (bookbinder in private practice). We looked at each other and said, "Go for it!" The rest of our history is the programs described on the "Previous Meetings" page -- and a growing list of email addresses! |
