I wanted to go for a PhD in history, but I finished the master's and thought maybe I'd work for a while. And so I looked around and the one place I really wanted to work in Worcester was the American Antiquarian Society because it focuses on the history of books, so that kind of history of writing, publishing these books--how do we know history and so much of what we know is from written words and so often these words come through books. I became really interested in the history of the book which I first learned about at grad school at UConn and then when I realized there's a place that's like a center for this that's going to be in the place where my husband is working, you know, it was perfect.
Elizabeth Watts Pope was born in Manchester, Connecticut. She met her future husband in third grade and they married in 2003. They moved to Quinsigamond Village in Worcester, Massachusetts when her husband became a pastor there. Elizabeth studied at Gordon College and the University of Connecticut and found her dream job as curator at the American Antiquarian Society. In this interview she describes growing up with her family and her love of history, books, and the written word.