Erin McGuirl

As Curator of Rare Books, Erin McGuirl (she/her) stewards the Mortimer Rare Book Collection (MRBC). The collection scope is chronologically and geographically broad, with substantial holdings in English and American literature (including a strong collection of Lesbian pulp fiction), botany, the history of science, early children’s literature, fine press books, and artists’ books. The MRBC also holds important literary manuscripts, notably those of Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, and Mary Shelley. Erin seeks to build on the MRBC’s strengths and expand the collection into new areas to support the expansive and diverse curriculum of the College, both for researchers and faculty teaching in Smith Special Collections from across the Five Colleges.

Prior to joining Smith College Special Collections staff in July 2025, Erin served as Executive Director of the Bibliographical Society of America, Special Collections Librarian at the New York Society Library, and as a curatorial consultant to a private collector of screenplays. Her research focuses on the labor of the secretaries and typists who produced and edited texts in 20th century American offices. A member of the Grolier Club, Erin collects The Whole Earth Catalog and its “offspring” – books put together following instructions printed in the last Catalog, or otherwise published by and for people living in rural areas and on communes in the latter half of the 20th century. When not at work, she takes great pleasure in her garden, seeing movies in the theater, and dancing to her spouse’s collection of soul, glam, and country 45s. Her miniature poodle, Mona, is the best girl.

Research & Professional Interests

Book history, feminist bibliography, film & media studies

Publications

"Women's Work in Film Production and the Documents of Film History," Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, forthcoming September 2025

"Office Practices" and "Sales Catalogs" in Information: A Historical Companion, ed. Ann Blair, Paul Duguid, Anja Goeing, and Anthony Grafton (Princeton University Press, 2021)

“Printing the Screenplay in Hollywood and Beyond," Printing History 25 (2018), 28-40. https://works.hcommons.org/records/nr7yv-c0k90

Professional Affiliations

The Bibliographical Society of America, The Grolier Club, Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP)