Kenneth Spencer Research Library

This is the latest installment in a series of posts introducing readers to student employees who make important contributions to the work of Spencer Research Library. Today’s profile features Ceres Botkin, a Public Services student assistant.

Please provide some brief biographical information about yourself.

My name is Ceres Botkin (they/them) and I’ve been working in Public Services at Spencer since the spring of my freshman year in 2022. I am currently completing the fifth and final year of my undergraduate program, and I will graduate with degrees in mathematics, physics, and computer science. I hope after graduation to either go to graduate school in physics or library science.

What does your job at Spencer entail?

I work in the Public Services department, which entails helping library patrons find and access library materials germane to their research interests. This involves being familiar with the collections and the several strengths of our library. I’ve also worked with several curators on numerous projects from sorting and cataloging donations to helping with research for temporary exhibits.

In addition, I have also helped out in other departments as needed. For example, I have worked in Conservation Services with construction of glass plate housings along with making Mylar book jackets. I have also helped in the cataloging department by aiding the process of integrating newly cataloged material into the wider library collection.

Why did you want to work at Spencer Research Library?

My previous on-campus job involved staffing the front desk of a residence hall between the hours of 3am and 7am. I wanted a job that felt more fulfilling and had better hours. In addition, I had a friend who worked at Spencer who enjoyed the work.

When my friend recommended the position to me, I was reminded of my previous desire when I was a teenager to work at my local public library. The library held a special place in my heart, as I would frequent it over the summers as a third place to go that was separate from my home and school. I would meet up with friends and do research for upcoming debate tournaments there. I always thought it would be nice to give back to my community by also working at a library and supporting one of the few remaining institutions in the U.S. that provides free resources, education, and entertainment.

What has been most interesting to you about your work?

I would definitely say that sorting and cataloging donations is the most interesting part of my job. My first project working at the library, in fact, was sorting 20th-century Star Trek zines. Zine culture is very interesting, and it was wonderful to peek into another world. In addition, it was really cool to see all of the various pieces of art and read the stories that were contained inside.

In addition, I love exploring the different collections and talking with the curators about how we started some of them. For instance, the Literary Ephemera collection in Special Collections is always fascinating to browse because it is mostly comprised of outsider art and poetry. They’re not only interesting to read in a vacuum, but they also provide interesting commentaries on the times they were created in.

What are you studying, and what do you hope to do in your future career? Has your work at Spencer changed how you look at your studies or your future career plans in any way?

As mentioned previously, I am currently studying mathematics, physics, and computer science. Originally I planned on going into graduate school in order to pursue a Ph.D. in physics, but working at the library has made me consider going into library work as well. It would be interesting to get a master’s degree in library science and work at a library after graduation. In addition, I have also considered using my computer science degree and going into the field of digital archives – archiving material which is only digital. For example, I was considering working at the Internet Archive, which houses numerous websites, books, recordings, videos, and software.

What piece of advice would you offer other students thinking about working at Spencer Research Library?

Never assume that any resources available to you will always be available to you. First get familiar with what resources are provided by your local community, government, and university. Second, never stop fighting for those resources. In the context of the library, never stop fighting for the open access of information, funding, and a place to study and relax without having to pay first. Also please donate to your local library if you are in a position to do so.

Ceres Botkin
Public Services student assistant

This Monday is “Bloomsday,” an annual celebration of the day (June 16, 1904) on which James Joyce’s novel Ulysses is set. “Bloomsday” takes its name from one of the book’s central characters, Leopold Bloom, and each June 16^th fans of Joyce and Ulysses often celebrate with marathon readings of the novel and other events. In honor of Bloomsday 2025, we’re highlighting a figure without whom Ulysses might not have been published—Sylvia Beach (1887-1962)—and Beach’s connection to an equally-interesting (though less well-known) Lawrence resident, Jane van Meter (1906-1992).

As those well-versed in lore surrounding Ulysses will know, Sylvia Beach was an American living in Paris who ran a bookshop and lending library named Shakespeare and Company. The bookshop served as a hub for expatriate literary life on Paris’s Left Bank during the years between the two world wars. It was Beach and Shakespeare and Company who published Ulysses in 1922. Beach had stepped in following the obscenity case in New York courts which saw the editors of The Little Review fined for the magazine’s serialization of episodes from Ulysses. This ruling left publishers, including Joyce’s US publisher Huebsch, wary of the legal troubles and financial risks involved in publishing a novel that would likely be seized before its costs could be recouped in sales. Though not normally a publisher, Beach, working in the more permissive publishing environment of France, volunteered to take on the task in order to champion a writer and a novel she admired.

To help offset the costs of production, Shakespeare and Company sold copies of Ulysses by subscription in advance of its printing, offering the novel in three different paper formats at different price points (350, 250, and 150 Francs).  Of the 1000 copies of first edition of Ulysses, Spencer Research Library holds examples of all three different paper issues (four copies in total), including the scarcest issue, which was numbered from 1-100 on Dutch handmade paper and signed by Joyce. 

Much has been written about the publication history of Ulysses, so we won’t re-tread that ground here, and instead we’ll turn to a Lawrence figure with deep ties to Beach and Shakespeare and Company: Jane van Meter.  Van Meter moved to Lawrence in 1960 with her then husband, the Shakespearean scholar, Charlton Hinman.  Though the couple later divorced, van Meter remained in Lawrence until her death in 1992. She was a memorable figure on campus, known by some as “the Blue Lady,” for her habit of always wearing a powder blue outfit.[2]  Before her marriage, however, van Meter had worked as an assistant to Sylvia Beach at Shakespeare and Company. Hired in 1932, ten years after the publication of Ulysses, van Meter nevertheless found herself amidst the various writers still living in and passing through Paris, including Joyce. 

At the shop, van Meter quickly made herself an indispensable and highly trusted employee.  In her memoir, Shakespeare and Company, Beach wrote of her, “The first and only really professional assistant I ever had was Miss Jane van Meter […]. I had put an ad in the Paris Herald Tribune, and Miss van Meter answered it. I couldn’t wish anybody better luck than to have her as an assistant.”[2]  As the correspondence now housed at Spencer Library shows, van Meter was even trusted to handle operations of the bookstore and lending library while Beach traveled to Savoie for the summer with her partner, Adrienne Monnier, who ran a French language bookshop/lending library La Maison des Amis des Livres across the street on the rue de l’Odéon. After van Meter left Paris and the job in late 1935, Beach continued to write to her, often updating her, especially in the early years, on goings on in and around the bookstore. In a March 6^th, 1936 letter, Beach was clearly feeling the loss of her right-hand woman, writing to van Meter, “You are still and always will be a part of the Firm [i.e. Shakespeare and Company] and one of the best friends I ever had. And I miss you so.”  Beach then continues by outlining some of the shortcomings of the woman helping out in van Meter’s absence:

…she has done her best (or worst) to help me but there is nothing on which we see ‘eye-to-eye.’  You ought to hear her disparaging remarks about the ‘seances’ which everyone else has found so interesting.  She says “living is better than to bury ones nose in silly stuffy books” etc., that [French writer] Jules Romain (looking at his portrait) has an ignoble mouth and his eyes give one an impression that he is positively ‘louche’; that Joyce’s head is terrifying, and that she doesn’t see why Adrienne and I treated [André] Gide with such respect when he came one day to talk about his reading and where he was to sit. So we shall soon have to part. […]

In the same letter, Beach also reports on the various literary goings on around the shop, including readings at Shakespeare and Company by the French writers André Gide (February 1^st) and Paul Valéry (February 29^th), with James Joyce in attendance:

Jane I wish you could have been here for Gide and Valéry!  They went off beautifully, as Agnes has probably told you. Gide read passages from his next novel Geneviève in a remarkable way, in spite of a bad cold and chills & fever from which he complained he was suffering. […] And Valéry read some fascinating unpublished prose pieces on the alphabet, and ‘Narcisse’ – then at Joyce’s request, ‘Le serpent.’ It was so fine – everybody was carried away by it.  The Paulhans were there, and the Churches and a M. Lu[??]gneaux director of the TSF, and Destin & Clive Bell, and Joyce brought his son Georgio [sic] and his wife, and Carlotta sat with the Valéry family who was ‘au complet’ but he had asked them not to sit where he could see them – he had seen them so often he couldn’t read with them in front of him, which amused them very much.  They came to hear Gide too, also Joyce. These readings, in spite of having to move all of the furniture out of the shop every time, are really interesting and a pleasure.  I think you would have enjoyed them.

The more than 80 letters from Beach in the van Meter collection are often full of such fascinating details of writers, literature, and Paris life. Many of Sylvia Beach’s letters to van Meter are from the 1930s and 1940s, but the two women continued to correspond into the 1950s, even sending books and other gifts to one another from time to time. Shakespeare and Company closed in 1941, during the German occupation, though Adrienne Monnier’s La Maison des Amis des Livres remained in business until 1951. The collection includes a letter, dated October 22, 1955 (MS 383, Box 1, Folder 29), that Beach sent discussing Monnier’s death:

 I don’t know whether you have heard the news of Adrienne’s death in June. My sister who lives in Greenwich, as you know, was making me a visit [in Paris] at the time. Adrienne suffered dreadfully. I am glad that it is over. But no use in trying to be happy without Adrienne, as you know. […] 

It was a profound loss for Beach; the couple had been together for over 35 years. Monnier killed herself after being in poor health for some time, including a 1954 diagnosis of Ménière’s disease, which was (and remains) incurable. The last dated letter from Beach to van Meter in the collection is from November of 1955, however they must have continued to correspond beyond that since van Meter’s collection includes a copy of Les années vingt: les écrivains Américains a Paris et leurs amis, published in 1959, that is inscribed “For Jane with love from Shakespeare and Company, Sylvia.”  Beach died in Paris in 1962, and her papers are housed at Princeton University. Van Meter’s care in preserving Beach’s letters and materials related to her studies in France suggest the importance that period held for her.

The story of how these materials came to be housed at Spencer Research Library is an interesting one, too. In 1967, Jane van Meter met Wayne Propst at the Kansas Union while he was a student at KU. Despite their age difference, the two developed a long-running friendship, and Propst helped to care for van Meter in her later years. Propst, a writer and artist (and a countercultural figure around Lawrence in his own right), recently published a remembrance of van Meter in the volume Embattled Lawrence Kansas: The Enduring Struggle for Freedom (2022).  Materials used for this piece also appear in the collection.

It is thanks to Propst that Spencer Research Library houses Sylvia Beach’s letters to Jane van Meter. Propst donated them, alongside other materials related to Jane van Meter’s time in France, to the library on June 16^th (Bloomsday), 2022. It is only fitting, then, that we celebrate Bloomsday 2025 by highlighting the correspondence of two women, Sylvia Beach and Jane van Meter, who had been at the center of literary life on Paris’s Left Bank during the interwar years.

Want to learn more? 

• Visit Spencer Research Library and explore the Jane van Meter Collection (MS 383)
• Read Sylvia Beach’s account of the publication of Ulysses (1922) and other stories of Paris life in her memoir, Shakespeare and Company (1959). Copies are available at Spencer Research Library and in KU’s circulating Collections.
• Read Wayne Propst’s piece on Jane van Meter in Embattled Lawrence Kansas: The Enduring Struggle for Freedom (2022), edited by Dennis Domer.  The volume includes articles outlining different and overlooked aspects of Lawrence’s history by various authors, including current and retired KU faculty and staff.
• Read  works by Wayne S. Propst in Spencer Research Library’s collections.
• Check out two past Bloomsday Spencer Research Library blog posts from 2012 and 2013.

Elspeth Healey
Special Collections Curator

[1] Indeed, van Meter was featured in a 2019 UDK article by Liam Mays titled “5 Lawrence legends from ‘Tan Man’ to ‘White Owl:’ Names that stand the test of time”: https://www.kansan.com/arts_and_culture/5-lawrence-legends-from-tan-man-to-white-owl-names-that-stand-the-test-of/article_274676c0-12df-11ea-a220-735c1d0bde70.html, though some of the details about Van Meter in the article are more accurate than others.

[2] Beach, Sylvia. Shakespeare and Company. New York: Harcourt, Brace, [1959]: 209. Call #: Joyce Y316.

Well-loved children’s books spark the magic from the thrill of adventure to imagination of far-off, enchanted places. Beloved by generations, children’s classic stories remain with us throughout life, whether it’s re-reading childhood favorites or sharing our most loved stories with young people in our lives. These classics ignite imaginations and impart timeless lessons. They become some of our most cherished friends that stay with us throughout our lives.

Spencer Research Library has a vast children’s book collection to be explored. Some works have multiple editions published throughout the years. Different editions often have different illustrations, annotations, and even adaptations. This is the first post in a series highlighting various children’s book titles in Spencer’s holdings. First up, we bring you Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Spencer Research Library has seven holdings of Treasure Island. The publisher, publication date, and call number of each volume are listed below:

• Cassell & Company, Limited: London, Paris, New York & Melbourne, 1886 (O’Hegarty B2959).
• Scribner’s Sons: New York, 1913 (SC Annex 326).
• Rand McNally: New York and Chicago, copyrighted 1916, published 1928 (Children C623).
• Grosset & Dunlap: New York, 1934? (Children 5948).
• Limited Editions Club: New York, 1941 (D7309).
• Award Books: New York, 195-? (Children B2846).
• Franklin Watts: New York, 1964 (C18419).

This introduction appears in most editions of the book:

To the Hesitating Purchaser

If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons
And Buccaneers and buried Gold,
And all the old romance, retold
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of to-day:

–So be it, and fall on! If not,
If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
So be it also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where these and their creations lie!

The first edition of Treasure Island – published by Cassell & Company in 1883 – featured no illustrations. Three years later, the publisher released a new edition with 18 pages of illustrations and 26 leaves of plates.

Maps of the island do not appear in every edition. Those that are included vary in detail, from topography and landmark descriptions.

The 1941 edition of Treasure Island, published by the Limited Editions Club, was limited to 1,500 copies.  Spencer Library’s edition is numbered 1,426. Colored Illustrations signed by Edward A. Wilson – which includes a signed lithograph of Long John Silver – and the unique binding of dark blue sailcloth and gold-stamped red leather spine label makes this edition a highly sought collectible.

Rand McNally published several editions of Treasure Island over the years. Kenneth Spencer Research Library holdings include a 1928 edition copyrighted in 1916. This edition features a durable hardback binding with full-page color illustrations along with black and white drawings. 

Details are scarce for many cover images. Several editions from this period featured Jim Hawkins or Long John Silver, given their key roles in the story. 

Meredith Phares
Operations Manager

This is the latest installment in a recurring series of posts introducing readers to the staff of Kenneth Spencer Research Library. Today’s profile features Grace Brazell, who joined Spencer Research Library in January 2025 as an Administrative Associate in the Public Services unit. 

Where are you from?

I was born in Roswell, New Mexico, during the 50th anniversary of the alleged alien crash, but we moved to Lawrence when I was just turning two. I’ve lived in and just outside of town for most of my life, aside from the years I spent in Chicago doing my undergraduate degree.

How did you come to work at Spencer Research Library?

I applied to library school in a fit of pique after a particularly frustrating week at the bakery I worked in while finishing my bachelor’s degree. I have always loved rare materials, but didn’t think I’d have an opportunity to work with or near them. I loved the public library and my team there, but when I spotted the job at the Spencer it checked several boxes for me. I’m excited to learn the collection and see what sparks my interest moving forward, and I love getting to talk with our different curators about the parts of the collection they find particularly special.

What does your job at Spencer entail?

I primarily work with our team of student employees to support our Public Services department. Our students are responsible for paging, shelving, and general maintenance around the building, and I work with them to make sure our patrons and reference staff have the support and materials they need to do their jobs. I also assist Operations Manager Meredith Phares with some building management tasks like facilities requests and room organization.

What part of your job do you like best?

In every job I’ve worked, I’ve loved the tasks themselves to a certain degree. I love being able to solve a problem or find the right tool for the job. My favorite thing in the world is being able to eliminate a small point of friction. That being said, my favorite thing about my job is and has always been the people I get to work with. I love getting to see someone’s eyes light up when you ask about their favorite part of the collection, and I’m always interested to hear what captures someone’s attention.

What is one of the most interesting items you’ve come across in Spencer’s collections?

I have a strange fascination with the modernists, and in particular I find Ezra Pound to be one of the most interesting. He’s such an influential figure in the creation of some of the most iconic modernist works, it seemed like he had a hand in pretty much everything produced during that time. Copies of some letters to Pound from James Joyce (Call Number: MS 134) are here at the Spencer as well as a copies of the BLAST! manifesto (Call Number: D138) and a scattering of The Cantos (Call Numbers: C6331, C6332, and C6341). BLAST! is probably my favorite, if I’m being honest.

What are some of your favorite pastimes outside of work?

I spend a lot of time working on my yard and house, both of which are true fixer uppers and require a lot of labor as well as, shall we say, creative problem solving. I run and play in a few Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, which are a source of never-ending entertainment. When not dealing with the baffling construction choices of my home’s previous owner or wrangling adults through a sea of kobolds, I spend a lot of time over-engineering costumes for my kindergartener and waffling over patterns in the Symington fashion collection.

Grace Grazell
Administrative Associate

This is the latest installment in a recurring series of posts introducing readers to the staff of Kenneth Spencer Research Library. Today’s profile features Warren Lambert, who joined Spencer Research Library in September 2024 as a Digitization Specialist.  

Where are you from? 

I am new to living in Lawrence. I grew up in Illinois around the Metro East area of greater St. Louis. I first went to college around the greater St. Louis area. I graduated from the Master of Science in Library and Information Science (MSLIS) program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in August 2019.

How did you come to work at Spencer Research Library? 

I started digitizing archival and rare book collections as a graduate student in St. Louis. I worked as a Digital Imaging Technician at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for many years, and then at the Penn State University Libraries for fifteen months before returning to the Midwest at the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) in July 2023. I worked with genealogical records for the Choctaw Indian Nation at NARA; publications documenting the LGBTQ+ community in the Mid-Atlantic region during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s at the Penn State University Libraries; and civil rights collections at WHS. This position combines my passion for history alongside my desire to enhance access to historical materials for future generations to discover.  

What does your job at Spencer entail? 

Digitization is the creation of digital surrogates for physical collection items to be accessed remotely, included in publications, or placed in physical or digital exhibits. The main purpose is to create a digital photograph of the item that reproduces a lifelike image. I determine the best image quality properties for the items that I digitize, and those selections become part of the image in its technical metadata. All this is to expand awareness of archival and rare collections to visitors who want to learn more about the past. 

What part of your job do you like best? 

I enjoy learning about new techniques and applying them to digitizing collections. I am currently digitizing nitrate negatives from the Jellison Collection that documents the lives of Kansans in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. There are over five hundred images in the collection, and they reveal the social relationships people forged with each other in their communities. I am also digitizing Japanese falconry manuscripts from the Edo Period (1603-1868) that provide insights into how the Japanese understood the natural world through illustrations of birds, seals, and bunny rabbits among many other animals. I always have something new to discover which keeps me from ever getting bored.  

What is one of the most interesting items you’ve come across in Spencer’s collections?

Oh gosh, I have come across many fascinating items through my work since I started at Spencer. When I helped digitize John Gould’s A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains from 1831, I discovered his vivid and detailed illustrations of birds that lived in the Himalayas. Each plate allows the viewer to get a sense of what the bird would look like in its natural habitat. The male Lophophorus Impeyanus (Himalayan monal, Impeyan monal, or Impeyan pheasant) has an amazing crest and a multicolored plumage designed to attract a mate. They are the national bird of Nepal. What made this project challenging was the size of the bound volume, but I succeeded in reproducing a faithful digital image of this print and the rest of the edition.  

What are some of your favorite pastimes outside of work? 

I’ve been passionate about traveling for most of my life due to the fact that I grew up in a military family. I have visited Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York City, where I explored many museums and historical sites. I love that I got to visit Galway, Derry, Belfast, Dublin, and the Ring of Kerry as part of a two-week tour of Ireland in 2011, learning more about its rich cultural and political history. I am always planning to travel to new places to explore historical sites and the wonders of natural landscapes. Not surprisingly as a library professional, I am passionate about reading and listening to books. My favorite genres are science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, and historical fiction. I love it when I discover a new author as it expands my literary horizons. 

Warren Lambert 
Digitization Specialist