Richard H. F. Lindemann died on November 9, 2025, in Brunswick, Maine.
Director of the George G. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives, 1999 – 2015; Emeritus 2015; Special Collections Cataloger, 2017-2025

Announcement from President Zaki:

I write to inform the Bowdoin community that Richard H. F. Lindemann, the Director of the George G. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives Emeritus, died on November 9, 2025, at his home in Brunswick, only weeks after receiving a diagnosis of multiple myeloma.

During his tenure as director of Special Collections and Archives at the College, from 1999 until his retirement in 2015, Richard changed the perception of the department from a simple repository of historical documents to an important component of the curriculum and an endless source of insight and inspiration for students, faculty, and outside researchers.  Richard was always a mentor and an educator.

Richard was born in Nicollet, Minnesota, on March 3, 1949, to John and Charlotte Lindemann.  He graduated with an A.B. degree from the University of Georgia in 1971 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.  He went on to receive an M.A. (1975) and a Ph.D. (1981) from the University of Virginia, with a primary focus on Medieval European History.  His love of research and his work as an archivist at the University of Virginia led him to earn a Master of Librarianship degree from Emory University in 1988.

From 1991 to 1999, Richard was a special collections librarian, associate director, and head of technical services at the Mandeville Special Collections Library at the University of California- San Diego.  In 1999 he was hired as the director of the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives at Bowdoin.

Richard’s background as an academic and an educator was evident in his impeccable scholarship, in the exhibits he curated, and in his encouragement of students and faculty to use the resources of Special Collections and Archives to enrich the curriculum.  A sample of his own published works show the breadth and depth of his interests.  The Dr. Seuss Catalog: An Annotated Guide to Works by Theodor Geisel in All Media, Writings About Him, and Appearances of Characters and Places in the Books, Stories and Films (2007) is a standard reference. He edited a manuscript autobiography by Joshua Chamberlain, ‘Blessed Boyhood!’: The Early Memoir of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (2013).  Working with Rowman & Littlefield publishing company, Richard undertook the editing of the two-volume Plants and Flowers of Maine: Kate Furbish’s Watercolors (2016), which reproduced all of Furbish’s botanical illustrations from Special Collections and Archives. The diverse exhibits he curated demonstrate the range of his expertise: “ABC: Abecedariums and Early Writing Books;” “Pop Ups, They’re Not Just for Kids: The Harold M. Goralnick Pop-up Book Collection;” “A New Vitality: Celebrating 40 Years of Coeducation at Bowdoin;” “Bowdoin Boys in Blue and Gray: An Exhibit Commemorating the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War;” and “BookART: Artists’ Books at Bowdoin.”

Richard arrived at Bowdoin at a time of expanding technological possibilities in library science.  He wrote grants for the digitization of the Civil-War-era Howard family papers, planned and organized the George J. Mitchell Oral History Project (which won the Oral History Association’s Major Project Award in 2012), developed ongoing procedures for archiving the College’s administrative records in a digital age, and trained and mentored colleagues, relying on his “high standards, clear goals, good humor, and great baking.” He was voted emeritus status by the Board of Trustees upon his retirement in 2015, and he returned in 2017 to work as a Special Collections Cataloger in 2017, a position he held until his death.

Richard is survived by his wife, Harriet, and by his daughter, Kate.  We extend our sympathies to them, to Richard’s colleagues in the Library, among the faculty, staff, and alumni, and all others who were inspired by his example as a scholar, an educator, and a friend.