Brynn Kramer and Meagan Trott: Conrad Collection on Dutch Waterways
Amongst our map team here at Stanford Libraries, we have several part-time members who we just wish so badly were full-time. Their dedication and contributions are invaluable, undoubtedly being the individuals behind the curtain keeping this show on the road.
Brynn Kramer and Meagan Trott have long been two of these employees, and it is with great excitement that the entire map team welcomes and presents them as our project team for processing and cataloging the cartographic portion of the Conrad Collection on Dutch Waterways.
The Conrad Collection was purchased by Stanford University in 1903, with the family papers and pamphlets portions of the collection being accesible via Special Collections. The cartographic and technical drawing portion remained unprocessed, so after 118 years of meetings and discussions, we were ecstactic to finally establish a two-year, two-person project to process and catalog these nearly 2,500 items in late 2021.
Enter Brynn and Meagan.
With Meagan beginning in November 2021 and Brynn in February 2022, they quickly applied their expertise in processing, tracking, handling, cataloging, and accessioning cartographic materials in a manner that says just one thing: this project will be done and it will be done well. The portion of their completed processing and cataloging work that has been digitized to date can be viewed in SearchWorks - we 10/10 recommend a gander at this intriguing collection!
Brynn Kramer, Cartographic Project Metadata Librarian, began working as an assistant cataloger at the David Rumsey Map Center in 2018, aiding in the accessioning and cataloging of thousands of maps. Along with this core contribution, Brynn additionally assisted with the conferences and exhibits held at the DRMC. Brynn was also a librarian at the San Francisco Public Library and volunteers at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park Research Center. Brynn is an expert at sleuthing the complexities woven into cartographic materials in order to enhance their discoverability, and it has been fascinating to watch her unlock the mysteries of our Conrad materials. She easily balances creating robust, comprehensive records for each item with the constraints of a time-bound project.
Meagan Trott, Cartographic Project Assistant, began working as a digitization lab assistant for the map program in 2015 and her technical prowess quickly became the heartbeat of making our digitized maps accessible via SearchWorks. She goes where the rest of us do not, the darkest, deepest corners of our digital repository, and is behind the digitization metadata for literally tens of thousands of maps. Meagan is also an artist, creating digital illustrations used in video and tabletop games - experience that has contributed to her eyeing the most unique and smile-inducing elements of the Conrad materials. Meagan inventoried the nearly 2,500 cartographic items in a blink of an eye and has now taken command of copy cataloging and creating stub records for Brynn to complete, while also managing the accessioning of our digitized maps.
It is a great privelege and honor to work with this dream team, and we cannot wait to see where they take the Conrad project during these two years!
Image of Brynn Kramer courtesy Wayne Vanderkuil, 2022.
L'Admiral, Jan. Bedroefde watervloed, voornamentlyk van het Land van Heusden, van Althona, de Alblasserwaard, Crimperwaard, en Tielerwaard, waar door meer dan 33500 morgen lands onder water staan. 1741. https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/14048121.