Poem, "Hot Pants", 1971

This small collection holds biographical information, correspondence, poems, and publications by Thornton, photographs of Carnegie and the Conservatory libraries, student assistants, library staff, and Thornton’s retirement dinner, and a scrapbook assembled and presented by library staff on the occasion of Thornton’s retirement in 1971.

Included are two handmade children’s books created by Thornton in 1938, with original illustrations. Another handmade book, made by Thornton while she was the librarian at Vassar College in 1955, is illustrated with images from magazines and postcards of cats at work in a fictional library.

For information on Thornton’s work, the records of the Oberlin College Library hold far more than this collection.