In Memoriam

INDEXER: Kabelac’s work helped scholars find the right information. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

“You know the question, if a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one there, does it make a sound? I often think, if someone wrote an article years ago and no one knew where it was”it would be as if it hadn’t existed at all.”

This observation of Karl Kabelac, who died last October, was not a hypothetical one. As manuscript librarian in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections for 30 years, he ensured that researchers knew those articles existed. He accomplished this by creating and publishing indexes that brought together information about Rochester, his native Cayuga County, and the Genesee region.

You might think that these pre-Google-era indexes, containing over 30,000 often annotated entries culled from hundreds of unindexed books and journals, would be obsolete today, but to paraphrase Neil Gaiman’s observation about librarians, “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. The Kabelac indexes bring you back the right one.”

Beyond the indexes, Karl shared the breadth and depth of his knowledge in the reading room, through exhibitions, and in his own publications on topics including 19th-century horticulture, William Henry Seward, and Lewis Henry Morgan. In addition to local history, his curatorial responsibilities included the University Archives, and generations have learned our institutional history through his articles and presentations.

After retiring in 1998, Karl continued to assist researchers and staff and added online research to his expertise. To his list of publications, he added a series of 54 short biographies of US women bank presidents of the 19th and early 20th centuries. And his donations of books, prints, and manuscripts”many found on eBay”to Rochester and other institutions numbered in the thousands. Karl also established an endowed fund to support professional development for nonprofessional and early-career library staff, perhaps inspired by a similar library policy in place when he arrived in 1968.

As Karl’s indexes (now online) ensure those articles will be remembered by researchers, the authors of more than 200 dissertations, books, and articles have made sure Karl will be remembered by acknowledging his curatorial assistance and citing his publications for over 50 years: the most recent will appear in a book to be published in 2022.

—Melissa Mead

Mead is the John M. and Barbara Keil University Archivist and Rochester Collections Librarian.