Lynne is responsible for coordinating and organizing programming based in the Kislak Center. She arrived at Penn Libraries in 1992 and since 1995 has been a curator in Penn's Rare Book and Manuscript Library, now part of the Kislak Center, where her responsibilities include the acquisition of manuscripts, print materials, including books, pamphlets, prints, and ephemera, and archival collections. Over the years, Lynne has worked to develop collections as varied as artists' and fine press books; cookery; early English fiction; history of chemistry; history of material texts; children's books and their creators; graphic materials, including photographs, prints, drawings, and book illustrations; world's fairs and expositions; and comic books and graphic novels. In addition, she works closely with faculty, students, and other researchers; curates exhibitions based in the collections; organizes symposia and conferences; develops collection-related projects; fields reference queries; writes grants; engages with donors; and gives presentations on the collections to classes and other interested groups.

Before coming to Penn, Lynne lectured in Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and worked in Special Collections at Cornell University. She holds a BA in English and Philosophy from Wellesley College, where she worked in the college archives, and an M.Phil. in Philosophy from Yale University. She has taken graduate courses in English at the Bread Loaf School of English (Middlebury College) and book history courses at Cornell University and Rare Book School (University of Virginia). In fall 2019 she co-taught the English course Travelling with Gulliver: The Many Lives of a Novel with Professor Toni Bowers and since 2016 she has assisted Professor Peter Stallybrass with teaching the popular Rare Book School course The Bible and Histories of Reading.

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Library
Department
Professional Affiliation
  • Consortium for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM)
Areas of Expertise
  • Modern manuscripts & archives
  • Rare books & printed materials