Karen Christina Lund

Karen Christina Lund was born on October 8, 1964 at Sibley Hospital in Washington, DC to Betty and Peter Lund of Clinton, MD. She grew up in Clinton, the youngest of their three children, with her sister Louise and brother Mark.

She was devoted to her family, near and far, including members throughout the United States as well as her cousins in Denmark, where her paternal grandfather emigrated from in 1914. She was a loving and devoted aunt to her two nephews and delighted in welcoming their wives and children into the family. She was a kind soul and a caring friend, that kept in touch with friends from many periods of her life, from her younger days through to her meeting new friends. Her love of family and friends was complemented by her love of shopping, and her focus on selecting just the right gifts for every occasion was an obsession for her.

Her parents and grandparents taught her the importance of education and working hard early on, and even in grammar school years she worked in the family recreational vehicle dealership with the rest of her family. She graduated from high school in the Camp Springs Christian School class of 1982. She pursued international studies as an undergraduate at American University, graduating in 1987. Early on, she developed a deep interest in film and film history, and earned a joint Master's degree in film studies and museum studies from New York University in 1993. Karen's love of learning and family was a natural compliment to her love of travel. She traveled throughout Europe, including many trips to Bornholm, the Danish island that was her grandfather's birthplace and is still home to many of her cousins. She did a semester abroad in Copenhagen, and traveled extensively throughout Scandinavia.

Dogs were always a part of the Lund family, and Karen was as devoted to the dogs as they were to her. In addition to Loki, her much loved and mischievous Lundehund who came into her life in 2021, she raised many dogs over the years, including Heidi, a deeply loved German shepherd. Late in Heidi's life, their vet advised that she could live longer with surgery, but it's efficacy rested on the level of post operative care she could provide. Karen and her mother followed his instructions to the letter, and the vet said he'd never seen a better result.

She spent most of her adult life working for the Library of Congress, starting with a college internship in 1985 and eventually joining the Library full time in 1995, where she was employed until her recent death. Her zest for learning, combined with her varied background and interests, made her an invaluable asset in the mission of the Library, and in particular the creation of the Library's groundbreaking "American Memory" project. This many-faceted online project drew on the full variety and breadth of the Library's collections, making countless images, texts, documents, photographs, films, recordings, maps, sheet music and others freely and easily available to the public. True to its name "American Memory" greatly expanded and enhanced this country's understanding of its shared histories. Her colleague Carl Fleischauer wrote elsewhere on this site that throughout this multi-year project "Karen was a steady hand, with one eye on technological requirements and the other on the historical meaning."

It was at the Library of Congress that she met the love of her life, her husband Matthew Barton, now the recorded sound curator at the Library's National Audio Visual Conservation Center. They were married at the St. Peter in the Woods Church in Fairfax in 2013.

She exhibited a strong faith all of her life. She was a devoted church member at Good Samaritan Presbyterian Church in Waldorf, and a member of the St. Peter in the Woods Episcopal Church vestry. A truly lifelong learner, in 2023, she completed the "Education for Ministry" program at St. Peter's, a reflective but intensive four year small group formation program in which her love of church of life and history were combined.

Her marriage to Matthew Barton included many trips abroad, including Italy, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Germany, but also much precious time at home, especially after her cancer recurred early in the pandemic in the spring of 2020. They had much in common, including a great love of classic film, a wide range of musical tastes, an abiding interest in history, and many friends in different areas of the Library of Congress.

In spite of her cancer, and several other ailments that she suffered from childhood on, she was a great lover of life who sought joy and enrichment throughout her life, and shared this love unfailingly among her family and friends.