The Old Library is a college

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Previously named the M. Carey Thomas Library after Bryn Mawr's first dean and second president, it was formally renamed in 2018 as a result of controversy surrounding Thomas's history of racism and anti-Semitism. The building was in use as a library until 1970, when the Mariam Coffin Canaday Library opened. Today, it is primarily a space for performances, readings, lectures, and public gatherings.

History and description

The Great Hall, the reading room of the old library, was designed by Walter Cope (of

Cope and Stewardson Cope and Stewardson (1885–1912) was a Philadelphia architecture firm founded by Walter Cope and John Stewardson, and best known for its Collegiate Gothic building and campus designs. Cope and Stewardson established the firm in 1885, and were jo ...

) in 1901 and built by Stewardson and Jamieson in 1907.

M. Carey Thomas Martha Carey Thomas (January 2, 1857 – December 2, 1935) was an American educator, suffragist, and linguist. She was the second president of Bryn Mawr College, a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Biography Early life ...

played a large part in its planning, particularly by taking photographs and doing architectural research on the library's

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

inspirations, and by helping the library's construction survive many hardships, such as Cope's death and financial troubles. Built with

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

gray stone and lined with

coffered A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also c ...

oak paneling, the Great Hall was inspired by the dining hall at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

and features a

king post truss A king post (or king-post or kingpost) is a central vertical post used in architectural or bridge designs, working in tension to support a beam below from a truss apex above (whereas a crown post, though visually similar, supports items above fro ...

ceiling painted by Lockwood de Forest with geometric

renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

patterns that continue down the wall, ending with tulip-bordered corbels situated between large, arch-shaped lead-paned windows, which flood the space with light. The tracery of the windows is also modeled after Wadham College's dining hall, albeit without Wadham's

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

. This area was renovated and conserved by Voith & Mactavish Architects LLP. Carey Thomas asked Cope specifically not to "copy the interior plan at any other college, as it was a plan worked out by us at Bryn Mawr for us own individual needs and so far as he and I knew absolutely unique." The Great Hall was once the home of an

Athena Lemnia The ''Lemnian Athena'', or ''Athena Lemnia'', was a classical Greek statue of the goddess Athena. According to geographer Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias (1.28.2), the original bronze cast was created by the sculptor Phidias circa 450–440 BCE, ...

statue (damaged in 1997) that is now located in a high alcove in the Rhys Carpenter Art and Archaeology Library. A plaster cast of that Athena now stands in her place at the Great Hall. The library encloses a large open courtyard called "The Cloisters", which is the site of the College's traditional Lantern Night ceremony. The

cremated Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...

remains of

and Emmy Noether are in the courtyard cloister. According to her 1985 graduation address, alumna

Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...

used to go

skinny dipping Nude swimming is the practice of swimming without clothing, whether in natural bodies of water or in swimming pools. A colloquial term for nude swimming is ''skinny-dipping''. In both British and American English, to swim means "to move through ...

in the Cloisters' fountain. A popular

tradition A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

is for undergraduates to skinny dip before graduating, and conveniently the fountain contains

chlorinated In chemistry, halogenation is a chemical reaction that entails the introduction of one or more halogens into a compound. Halide-containing compounds are pervasive, making this type of transformation important, e.g. in the production of polymers, ...

water. The building was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1991. In 2017, the College established a working group to address M. Carey Thomas's legacy of racism and anti-Semitism and began phasing out the use of her name. The following year, the Board of Trustees formalized the decision to use the names “The Old Library” and “The Great Hall” in connection with the building. A set of signs contextualizing Thomas and the renaming of the building were installed by the Bryn Mawr Histories Group in 2019.Old Library Signs
BrynMawr.edu. Retrieved on 2019-10-26.

Gallery

File:Great Hall Bryn Mawr College PA.jpg, Great Hall File:Carey Thomas Ceiling PA.jpg, Ceiling in the Great Hall Image:Bryn Mawr College Cloisters.JPG, Cloisters

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Library buildings completed in 1922 National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania Libraries in Pennsylvania Bryn Mawr College Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Cope and Stewardson buildings