Brittany Murray (she/her) recently joined the UVA Library as the Charlottesville and Virginia Collections Conservator. She is responsible for the conservation and preservation of collection items from local communities in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. She graduated from New College of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in art history (in 2016) and recently completed her master’s degree in art conservation at the University of Delaware. Brittany has previously interned at the Library of Congress, the American Philosophical Society, and the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts. In her spare time, she enjoys watching horror movies, making affordable versions of New York Times recipes, and finding cute coffee shops.
Read on to learn more about Brittany!
What was your first ever job with books or libraries?
My first ever job working with books or libraries was during my first summer in undergrad. I interned in the research library at the Wolfsonian-Florida International University, located in the Art Deco District in Miami Beach. The building is beautiful, and the collection focuses on art and design. I made tons of enclosures that summer.
What was the first thing you collected as a child? What do you collect now? (oh, c’mon, admit it).
As a 90s kid, I collected Beanie Babies. They are now in a plastic tub under my bed, currently depreciating in value. They make fabulous paper weights if you remove the PVC pellets and replace them with buckshot.
Hopefully you’ve been roaming Grounds and Charlottesville a bit since your arrival. What’s your favorite new discovery other than Special Collections?
I am really enjoying the bakery scene! MarieBette, Belle, and Cou Cou Rachou make delicious pastries. There are also a ton of bookstores—my favorite so far is New Dominion.
Tell us what excites you about your job?
What excites me about my job is that I get to handle historical materials, and I get to see the parts of a book that are usually unseen (for example, the spine linings of a book are often printers waste, contemporary to the time of binding). Compared to other art conservation specializations, what makes library conservation so interesting and important is that we are preserving items that will be handled and read by students and researchers, with the ultimate goal of improving accessibility.
Tell us something about Special Collections or UVA that is different from what you expected.
I am a huge fan of children’s books, and I did not expect us to have such a large collection!
If you could be locked in any library or museum for a weekend, with the freedom to roam, enjoy, and study to your heart’s content, which one would you choose?
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historic Medical Library is above the Mütter Museum. They have an amazing collection of anatomical texts, with flaps! They are kinda like the precursor to pop-up books. The prints in these books are also finely illustrated and fun to study.