How Iowa’s Sandy Boyd Became Collector-In-Chief
PHOTOS COURTESY UI COLLEGE OF LAW
The UI Law Library houses the Boyd Presidential Collection, an eclectic look at the U.S. presidency that was curated by the late law professor and university leader Sandy Boyd.
Willard “Sandy” Boyd’s fascination for presidential collectibles began when he was a law student at the University of Minnesota. Passing by a bookstore window one day, a large portfolio of lithographs featuring U.S. presidents caught his eye. Boyd (81LHD), a history enthusiast, felt compelled to make the purchase, sparking a lifelong hobby.
Boyd went on to become a president in his own right, first at the University of Iowa and then at the Field Museum in Chicago. Over the course of his career, he amassed nearly 2,500 books about U.S. presidents and a diverse assortment of artifacts and ephemera before his death in 2022 at age 95.
In his memoir, A Life on the Middle West’s Never-Ending Frontier (2019, UI Press), Boyd reflected on how his collection grew while leading the UI from 1969-81. “Whenever I was away from Iowa City, I frequented secondhand bookstores,” he wrote.
The Boyd Presidential Collection is featured in an exhibit through August inside the Boyd Law Building and in a digital presentation celebrating the life and legacy of the UI’s 15th president. The collection previously lived in Boyd’s office at the Field Museum, says Noëlle Sinclair (89BA, 93MA, 03JD, 07MA), head of special collections at the Law Library. But when Boyd retired from the museum in 1996 and returned to Iowa City to teach at the UI College of Law, he donated the trove to the library.
“It’s really an eclectic collection that Sandy put together based on things that he was interested in reading,” says Sinclair, who curated the exhibit as a tribute to her former mentor. “I’m almost certain that he read most, if not all, of these books.”
As this year’s presidential election approaches, let’s explore some of the items and oddities in Boyd’s collection, which continues to grow through new acquisitions by the Law Library.
