{"id":1525,"date":"2026-06-03T14:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T19:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/?p=1525"},"modified":"2026-06-03T14:42:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T19:42:45","slug":"stephanie-stillo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/stephanie-stillo\/","title":{"rendered":"How a centuries-old map led a KU alumna to the Library of Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Portolan charts were some of the first navigational maps of the seas, guiding sailors using networks of rhumb lines and precise, hand-drawn depictions of coastlines and ports. Centuries after mariners first used the charts to navigate, Stephanie Stillo, PhD\u201914, sat captivated in front of one at KU\u2019s Kenneth Spencer Research Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That day in 2012, and the shift in thinking it provoked, would lead Stillo to her current job managing materials at the largest library in the world. As chief of the Library of Congress\u2019 Rare Book and Special Collections Division<\/a>, Stillo now oversees a collection of more than 1 million items. When she encountered the portolan chart, Stillo was a graduate student in history at KU. Though she was used to looking at the past through historical documents, the focus had always been on the text. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had worked in archives in several countries at that point, but it was really at the Spencer Research Library that I first encountered books in a new way,\u201d Stillo says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What brought her to the Spencer that day was a Council on Library & Information Resources grant application to work at the Library of Congress. Applicants were called to design a project that used forensic technologies to analyze the materiality of historical documents. Stillo was intrigued by the idea of looking at library collections in a new way, but she didn\u2019t really know what the task entailed. \u201cCan you just talk to me?\u201d she recalls asking the Spencer librarians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd they did, and they were so lovely,\u201d Stillo says. \u201cThe librarians there in special collections pulled out a bunch of material for me. And we really talked about what it means to look at historical documents, not just in terms of what they are saying as a text, but what they\u2019re saying as an object. And that really sparked something really deep for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Stephanie Stillo (center) speaks with one of the 11 finalists in KU Libraries\u2019 Snyder Book Collecting Contest on April 16.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stillo, who returned to KU on April 16 as the keynote speaker for KU Libraries\u2019 Snyder Book Collecting Contest, says a librarian sat with her for a long time in the reading room at the Spencer. Among the material they explored, it was the portolan chart that most caught her attention. While Stillo doesn\u2019t remember the chart\u2019s location or exact date\u2014which she says was likely from the 14th or 15th century\u2014she clearly recalls the feeling she got looking at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was all hand-done, and it was so beautiful,\u201d Stillo says. \u201cThe hand of the maker in that document was so apparent. When you talk about the materiality of history\u2014it was there. You could see someone hand-writing and drawing on the parchment. You could just feel this very intense connection to the person who created the document. And I just remember that portolan chart really changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The whole spectrum of human history\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Stillo received the fellowship, during which she investigated a world atlas from the 17th century, using pigment and annotation analysis to trace its changes and movement across three centuries. After graduating from KU, she spent two years on the faculty at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, before making her way back to the Library of Congress in 2016. She served as the curator of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection and the Aramont Library, two of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division\u2019s notable collections, before beginning her current role in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As chief of the division, she oversees the largest and most wide-ranging collection of rare books in North America, comprising well over 1 million items. In addition to books, the collection includes pamphlets, theater playbills, title pages, prints, posters, photographs, and medieval and Renaissance manuscripts spanning eras and subjects, as well as President Thomas Jefferson\u2019s library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stillo and her team of reference librarians and curators serve as a general resource for Congress and work with scholars to dig into historical projects and answer questions. Her other duties include strategic planning, acquisitions of new materials and educational outreach. As an example of the latter, at the division\u2019s Rare Book Classroom, Stillo says visitors can see the workings of an actual printing press, write with a quill and learn about the history of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much that\u2019s already at the Library of Congress, which is so exciting, but it\u2019s also really fun to be thinking about where are the silences in our collections, and how do we bring new material in to enlighten the whole spectrum of human history?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Her favorite aspect of her job is working with the antiquarian book market to purchase new material for the Library of Congress. Stillo and her team seek to deepen existing collections and address underrepresented areas, such as material by women. Recent acquisitions have included an illustrated Bible from the 15th century, a new portfolio by modern artist Sonia Delaunay, children\u2019s literature, and historic and contemporary poetry. All told, she says they make hundreds of acquisitions per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat can range from new medieval manuscripts to 18th-century American broadsides,\u201d Stillo says. \u201cThere\u2019s so much that\u2019s already at the Library of Congress, which is so exciting, but it\u2019s also really fun to be thinking about where are the silences in our collections, and how do we bring new material in to enlighten the whole spectrum of human history?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going from a history classroom to browsing antiquarian book fairs in the U.S. and Europe isn\u2019t necessarily a typical path. Stillo credits KU with being the \u201cspringboard\u201d that helped her make the leap from a university setting to libraries and archives. She says her KU adviser in the history department, Luis Corteguera, was supportive of her branching out and thinking about her career in new spaces. Through it all, that moment at the Spencer, when the everyday humans behind historical documents came to life, continues to resonate in her career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese were people who were making things with their hands,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was just so much labor and intense care, and it brought me into closer communion with the past. And that was a really striking moment for me, and that\u2019s something that I continue to chase in my life\u2014is to find those stories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collecting stories<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Stories are a key element of KU\u2019s Snyder Book Collecting Contest<\/a>. As part of the annual competition, students submit a description of their collection, an annotated bibliography and a personal essay. Beth Whittaker, c\u201992, g\u201994, director of the Spencer Research Library and associate dean of distinctive collections at KU Libraries, says she always tells students that the competition is a book collecting contest, but also an essay contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe books by themselves are just books,\u201d Whittaker says. \u201cIt\u2019s only when they tell their story of how they came to have the books that it becomes a collection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Collections from some of Snyder Book Collecting Contest finalists, on display April 16 at Watson Library.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Whittaker says the contest encourages students to think about their books and texts more broadly. That includes considering the theme of the collection and reflecting on their own relationship with the material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great marriage of informal, self-education but also self-reflection,\u201d Whittaker says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s all done in the context of printing and books and texts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, the topics of winning collections have included Shakespeare and early modern occult theater, music and identity in the post-industrial Midwest, and Crimea and the Crimean Tatars. While entries must be organized around a particular topic, they do not need to be rare or expensive. For instance, one recent winner\u2019s collection was free books found on four college campuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finalists in this year\u2019s contest, which had 22 entrants, set up their collections April 16 in Watson Library, standing attentively behind their displays and discussing them with visitors. After Stillo\u2019s address, the winners were announced. Riley Verdict won first place for his collection, \u201cGaudiya Vaishnavism: A History and Living Theology,\u201d in the undergraduate division, and Jessina Emmert, g\u201922, won first place for her collection, \u201cAfrican American History in Children\u2019s Literature: Slavery to Civil Rights,\u201d in the graduate division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Snyder Book Collecting Contest first-place winners Jessina Emmert (left), graduate division, and Riley Verdict, undergraduate division, are eligible for the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first-place winners are eligible for the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, and first place, second place and honorable mention in both divisions received cash awards. They all join a decades-long KU tradition: The first Snyder Book Collecting Contest was held in 1957 thanks to a gift from Elizabeth Morrison Snyder of Kansas City. Snyder later established an endowment to provide permanent funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whittaker says the contest has been fortunate to host great keynote speakers over the years. She says Stillo\u2019s experience provides students an example of both an interesting career trajectory and an impressive achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a really outstanding person in the field,\u201d Whittaker says, adding that providing examples for students of where their KU education can take them is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For her part, Stillo says she was delighted to return to where it all began for her and to support young collectors, as well as the faculty and libraries that helped her evolve to where she is now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s so exciting about this trip is that I\u2019m coming back as my most realized self,\u201d she says. \u201cI get to talk about the things that I am doing now at the Library of Congress and encourage young collectors with the Snyder Book Collecting competition to continue on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Rochelle Valverde, c\u201908, j\u201915, is staff writer for Crimson & Blue.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos courtesy of Stephanie Stillo
Snyder Book Collecting Contest photos courtesy of KU Libraries<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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