Kristi Kolln was born in 1951, she earned a bachelor’s in Art Eduction at Penn State, where both of her parents were on the faculty. She briefly taught art in a public school, but decided she’d rather be an accountant. She earned a bachelors in accounting from San Jose State and a master’s in taxation from Golden Gate University. She worked for about 35 years as a CPA, focusing on tax preparation.

In her free time, she was a serious artist, painting, weaving, dying fabric, throwing pots and fusing glass. She taught young people ceramics in her home studio and attended pottery classes with well-known artists.

She lived in San Jose and Garden Valley, California, with her husband, Ross Popkey, also a CPA. He avidly supported her collecting. Kristi moved to Boise after Ross’s death in 2015. She died in 2024, at 73.

Kolln began collecting books by and about women in the early 1980s, buying from stores on both coasts and in between. Some were gifts, as friends and family learned of her interest in feminist thought, history and literature by women authors. Her collection gradually expanded to include (fill in number) volumes.