![]() In 1993, Bill retired from the University of Texas and returned to Madison to be near family. The committee recognized that, up until then, the Friends of the Libraries had not been a fund-raising body it was concerned instead with library collections and functions. Bill was asked to chair the committee even though he was still at the UT-Austin. – Chancellor Donna Shalala, 1988Īfter extensive discussion with library staff and the Friends, the Dean of Libraries, Kaye Gapen, established a UW Libraries Special Advisory Committee on Financing in 1989. This exhibit celebrates the quality of our library collections and the vital role they play in our university. The process of education and discovery would erode and diminish. Without first-rate libraries, we could not build the future on the past. This project was in support of a major push from Chancellor Donna Shalala, who stated Bill edited the catalog that beautifully demonstrated the breadth and depth of the UW-Madison Library’s Special Collections. The organization and choice of books for the exhibition were made by Tedeschi. An early product of their relationship was the significant exhibition, “ Instauratio Magna,” that was organized in Special Collections in 1988-9. He maintained his friendship with John Tedeschi and his interest in the library continued. In 1978 Bill resigned his professorship at UW-Madison and moved to the University of Texas at Austin where he became Director of the Texas Memorial Museum and professor of Zoology. Their friendship and mutual respect catalyzed their joint efforts through the Friends of the University Libraries for many years. Bill and Tedeschi became good friends during those years. Bill, then and today, strongly believes that libraries and especially Special Collections should be used and appreciated by university students. Bill collaborated on these class trips with librarians John Tedeschi, Robin Rider, and the staff who would ferret out volumes, some containing beautiful woodcuts of animals from expeditions around the globe. Bill’s class on Biology of Vertebrates included trips to Special Collections in the Memorial Library. About 25 graduate students did their theses and dissertations with his guidance. He taught the Biology of Vertebrates, Field Zoology, and Introduction to Zoology. In 1957 Bill was hired as a faculty member by the Zoology Department and later as the Director of the Zoology Museum at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Reeder. Photo courtesy of UW-Madison Special Collections. Gift to Special Collections from the Friends of the UW-Madison Libraries in honor of William G. Kitts), Dominica, and cities in Colombia and Venezuela. Localities mentioned include Cuba, Jamaica, St. One of three studies of West Indian birds and fish by an unknown artist. work in the 1950s at the University of Michigan. Bill became more focused both on animal systematics, zoological museums, and historically important books as he continued through college at UCLA, and during his Ph.D. The stage was set for two of Bill’s major life pursuits.Īnimals and books were only two pieces of diversity that captured his curiosity. His mollusk collection must have been quite good, evinced by the fact that as a high school student, he traded his shell collection for several rare books, one of which had woodcuts from the 1500s. His high school was only a few blocks from the Los Angeles County Museum and a shop where a bookseller sold used books. At an early age, Bill began collecting seashells along the beaches of Los Angeles. Bill’s interest in old books greatly influenced his interest in animals and systematics, and his interest in animals greatly influenced his love of beautiful old natural history books. This confluence of nature and old books proved pivotal. During the same years, his father was a high school teacher of book binding, and Bill accompanied his father and his father’s graphic arts club on trips to museums and libraries. Bill clearly remembers a grade-school teacher who helped the young students provide scientific names for the plants in the school’s garden this seemingly simple event significantly influenced Bill’s relationship to the natural world. Reeder’s interest in animals and natural history, as well as his love of old books and libraries, began in his childhood in Los Angeles, CA.
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