Deirdre Stam to lecture as part of History of the Book seminar series

Deirdre Stam to lecture as part of History of the Book seminar seriesJanuary 31, 2006Sara Millersemortim@syr.edu

At 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, in Room 606 (Hillyer Room) of Syracuse University’s E.S. Bird Library, Deirdre Stam will give a talk, “Growing up With Books: Young Fanny Seward’s Library, Journals and Writing in 19th-Century Auburn, N.Y. “

Stam is executive director of the New York Center for the Book and an associate professor at the Palmer School of Long Island University. She has also held faculty positions in library science at Catholic University of America, SU and Columbia University, as well as administrative positions in libraries and other cultural institutions. She has authored more than 50 articles and presented almost 70 public lectures, conference papers, exhibitions and workshops.

During her short life (1844-1866), Fanny Seward, daughter of William Henry Seward, Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of state, spent considerable time and energy on her personal book collection, her diaries and her creative writing. The evidence of her life with books indicates the growing intellectual maturity of an adolescent girl in New York state during the American Civil War years.

This History of the Book event is free and open to the public. Visitor parking is available in the Marion and Comstock lots.

The History of the Book seminar series at Syracuse University is sponsored by the University Library, the School of Information Studies and The College of Arts and Sciences: the dean’s office and the departments of anthropology, English, history, philosophy, religion, and languages, literatures and linguistics.