{"id":7343,"date":"2025-03-24T17:44:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T22:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/?p=7343"},"modified":"2025-03-24T17:44:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T22:44:39","slug":"remembering-pam-spitzmueller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/2025\/03\/24\/remembering-pam-spitzmueller\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Pam Spitzmueller"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We are saddened by the news of Pamela Spitzmueller passing on March 13, 2025. Pam was the University of Iowa Libraries\u2019 second conservator, serving from 1989\u20131999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After leaving Iowa, Pam was the chief conservator for Special Collections in the Harvard University and College Libraries where she directed the Special Collections Conservation Lab in the Weissman Preservation Center until she retired. Pam also spent time at the Library of Congress and the Newberry Library in Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/03\/Pam-Spitzmueller-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"776\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/03\/Pam-Spitzmueller-776x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Pamela Spitzmueller, the UI Libraries\u2019 second conservator, serving from 1989\u20131999.\" class=\"wp-image-7345\" style=\"width:250px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/03\/Pam-Spitzmueller-776x1024.jpg 776w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/03\/Pam-Spitzmueller-227x300.jpg 227w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/03\/Pam-Spitzmueller-768x1014.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/03\/Pam-Spitzmueller-scaled.jpg 909w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pam Spitzmueller served as the University of Iowa Libraries\u2019 second conservator from 1989\u20131999.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Pam\u2019s inquisitive nature is well known by the staff, interns, and students who worked with her. It is said that Pam\u2019s classes, workshops, or tutorials were about asking questions and \u201ctrying things out.\u201d She inspired investigation that required making and specifically making models. Pam\u2019s creative work was largely inspired by historical structures, and she was constantly experimenting. Her artist book work and conservation work merged, creating hypothetical books with \u201cwhat if?\u201d elements that continue to delight and amuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pam created book models while studying book structure and Conservation and Collections Care at the UI Libraries is pleased to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/\">house many of them in the Book Model Collection<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can learn more about Pam and her life as a conservator and book binder <a href=\"https:\/\/aspace.lib.uiowa.edu\/repositories\/2\/resources\/4375\">in her archive at the UI Libraries<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lib.uiowa.edu\/sc\/\">some of her artist books<\/a> can be found Special Collections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are saddened by the news of Pamela Spitzmueller passing on March 13, 2025. Pam was the University of Iowa Libraries\u2019 second conservator, serving from 1989\u20131999. After leaving Iowa, Pam was the chief conservator for Special Collections in the Harvard University and College Libraries where she directed the Special Collections Conservation Lab in the Weissman<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/2025\/03\/24\/remembering-pam-spitzmueller\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;Remembering Pam Spitzmueller&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"syndication":[75],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7343"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7343"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7349,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7343\/revisions\/7349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7343"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=7343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}