Dates

• Existence: 1919-2002

Biography

Charlotte Messenger Smith was born on January 27, 1919, to Charlotte (Strochl) and Orville Messenger, in Downey, Iowa. While she was still an infant, her family moved to Newton, Iowa, where she lived the rest of her life. She married Thomas R. Smith on January 27, 1939. The Smiths had two children, Charlotte Ann Smith Adams and Thomas Smith, Jr. Tom had a long and highly successful career as research engineer for the Maytag Company; he died in March 2001. Charlotte died on January 25, 2002 from complications in the course of routine surgery.Both Tom and Charlotte were avid readers, and Charlotte became a collector of rare books until they threatened to overload their home, at which point Tom told Charlotte that he didn't care how many books she collected as long as they fit into one room. A short while before this, Charlotte had become aware of miniature books, and so began the Charlotte M. Smith Collection of Miniature Books. In 1983, the Smiths started their own press, the Tamazunchale Press, Inc., of Newton, Iowa, the first press in the state to publish miniature books. Charlotte described her collecting and documented details of the Press' output in two articles published in Books at Iowa, The Joys of Miniature Books (1984) and The Tamazunchale Press: A Bibliographic Checklist (1990).

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