2024 Snyder Book Collecting Contest

The collections of 12 finalists will be displayed and winners announced at a celebratory reception for the Snyder Book Collecting Contest, April 30, on the third floor of Watson Library. Allie Alvis (she/they), Curator of Special Collections at Winterthur Library and 2012 Snyder Contest winner, will deliver a keynote address. Alvis works with unique and historic collections every day and brings rare books to the masses via social media, sparking learning and inspiring more than 185,000 followers on Instagram (@Book_Historia).
Elizabeth Morrison Snyder established the Snyder Book Collecting Contest in 1957, endowing the prizes for the future to provide permanent funding for the competition. Though she claimed she was “really not much of a collector,” she built many remarkable collections including one on A.A. Milne, creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, and an H.L. Mencken collection that includes inscribed first editions and letters written by Mencken-Snyder donated both collections to KU Libraries as part of multiple generous donations made over the years. Until her death in 2004, Mrs. Snyder attended the awards ceremony to share her enthusiasm for book collecting.
This year, winners in the undergraduate and graduate divisions will receive a cash prize of $500 and a gift card from co-sponsor Jayhawk Ink, with additional prizes for second place and honorable mention. First place winners in each division are eligible to compete in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, which awards a top prize of $2,500.
More info about the speaker: lib.ku.edu/alv...
More Info on the contest: lib.ku.edu/snyder