ABOUT ME

I am a librarian in the Chicago suburbs that has held a fascination with "The Wizard of Oz" and the Ruby Slippers since I was a child.  I have spent decades researching and recreating the original slippers, and at this point, I am widely considered to be a slipper historian and expert level replicator.  I have spent the last 13 years having supplies custom made across the globe to create the most authentic looking replica slippers.  In 2016 I created a limited number of pairs for the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's #KeepThemRuby campaign which raised the funds necessary to conserve the museum's pair of slippers for decades to come.  I am in regular contact with the entertainment curator of the museum, and have spoken to the conservator that worked on the shoes a number of times. I have provided all of my research to them.

 

I have been researching the unaccounted for pair of Ruby Slippers from "The Wizard of Oz" since 2012.  I have been inching my way towards actually locating them, and I have been able to verify their existence through a number of people as well as in a single scene in the movie.  It is my hope that with enough social media attention the missing pair can be located and documented. I have spoken to numerous members of the family that had the slippers in 1970, all the way up to the person who claimed to have them in 2015. At that time, I was asked if I wanted the slippers left to me in the person's will, and eventually said yes, after a number of phone conversations and letters back and forth. Unfortunately, the slippers have not been accounted for since that time, and I have to find them before I can document them, and possibly arrange for them to be displayed around the country in a traveling exhibit named after the original owner from 1970.

If the slippers are able to be located and documented, I plan to publish a book of my research, and possibly include the information in a slipper documentary being planned by a production company in Minnesota.

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