University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Magazine 2017 Summer Libraries Magazine | Page 16

Uncovering the
A Fluke Find Leads to a Treasured Collection:
Hoopes Sisters’
Collection
W
hen University of Wisconsin–Madison
English Language and Humanities
Librarian Susan Barribeau acquired 25
sketchbooks of Florence and Margaret Hoopes
in 2008, she didn’t know they would become
one of Special Collections’ most heart-
warming treasures. Already familiar with the
Hoopes’ prolific illustrations from her own
collection of early 20th-century children’s
readers, Barribeau jumped at the opportunity
to add the working sketchbooks to the Cairns
Collection of American Women Writers
manuscripts.
“It was a complete fluke that I saw them
advertised, and another fluke that I knew who
[the Hoopes sisters] were,” she said.
Family members look through the Hoopes Sisters’ Collection in
the Department of Special Collections (above). The Hoopes sisters
relax with an unidentified woman (above right).
16 | LIBRARIES Summer 2017
In time, that fluke would lead to a rich
new archive and to some roots right in
Madison.
Florence and Margaret Hoopes were two
sisters who lived together in Philadelphia
during the 20th century. They both went
to art school before pursuing careers in
illustration.
“I always particularly noticed and liked
their illustrations because they were so
detailed, varied, and alive,” Barribeau noted.
Margaret and Florence began illustrating
commercially in the 1920s and continued
throughout their lives. The sketchbooks
reflect their research, meticulously
documented, and their sketches of people,
often neighbors and neighborhood children.
They include technical drawings of items
such as telescopes and stagecoaches.
Barribeau said it is difficult to tell exactly
how many books they worked on because
different editions have been produced over
the years. Some of the most successful books
were part of a widely used children’s reading
series: Alice and Jerry.
Once she had acquired the Hoopes
sisters’ sketchbooks, Barribeau published the
University of Wisconsin–Madison | 17