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I thought that I wanted be a professor,
but one of my grad school professors told me I’d have ulcers
before I was 30 because I insisted on correcting spelling
and grammar errors as well as those in the subject matter.
So maybe I didn’t want to be a professor, and after
completing the M.A. I spent a year or so doing a bit of this
and a little of that. Then I discovered the American
Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass. How was it that an
American Studies major at Mount Holyoke did not know of the
existence of a “national library of American history” just
down the road apiece? One day I marched through the door and
asked if I could talk to someone about a job. The associate
librarian set aside whatever it was he was doing and talked
with me for nearly an hour. Would anyone still do that? The
upshot was that I moved to Worcester (just days before the
Blizzard of '78), was hired as a cataloging assistant, and
promptly enrolled at Simmons College to earn a masters in
library science. More than 30 years later I’m still at the
Antiquarian Society, risen to the position of senior
cataloger for rare books, and still loving my job. I
continue to be amazed by parallels between the past and the
present (for example, the arguments made against the War of
1812 could have been used verbatim to express opposition to
the war in Iraq), and I continue to be challenged by the
conundrums of bibliography (a nurse friend calls it forensic
librarianship).
Outside of work I continue (as I did at MHC) to swim
regularly, and list photography and travel as my two
passions. I’ve often combined the two, spending my vacations
in the company of fellow shutterbugs on photo tours. As well
as crossing the U.S. and Canada, my passport shows that I’ve
been to Ireland (many times), England, Scotland, and Wales,
New Zealand, France, Morocco, Peru, Mexico, and my new
favorite, Iceland.
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