Tisch Library, originally Wessell Library, is the principal library for the Medford/Somerville campus of

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

Description

The library holds 2.7 million volumes and serves as the main branch of the Tufts library system.July 16, 2016 Tufts University Fact Book"
/ref> Tisch Library has two branches focused on the arts: Lilly Music Library at the Granoff Music Center in Medford, and the W. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Library at the

School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusett ...

in Boston. , the library houses stacks and the Tufts Archival Research Center on Level G; stacks, study rooms, and the Mark Computer Lab on the first floor; circulation, the Hirsh Reading Room, the Data Lab, and the Tower Café on the second floor; and classroom space and the Digital Design Studio on the third floor. The Tisch Library is a member of the

Boston Library Consortium The Boston Library Consortium (BLC) is a library consortium based in the Boston area with 23 member institutions across New England. Membership The Boston Library Consortium is an academic consortium of twenty-three institutions: sixteen in M ...

, a

library consortium A library consortium is any cooperative association of libraries that coordinates resources and/or activities on behalf of its members, whether they are school, public, academic, special libraries and/or information centers. Consortia exist on a v ...

of academic libraries located in New England.

History

The building was originally designed in a

brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...

style by Campbell and Aldrich. Construction started in January 1964, and the library was originally named after Tufts' eighth president

Nils Yngve Wessell Nils Yngve Wessell (April 14, 1914 – March 4, 2007) was an American psychologist and the eighth president of Tufts University from 1953 to 1966, overseeing its transformation from a small liberal arts college to an internationally known resear ...

. The $2.9 million library was dedicated in September 1965. Wessell Library succeeded Eaton Memorial Library as the main library on campus, and was constructed next to it. The original 1965 structure contained stacks and offices on the first floor; circulation, a reference desk, and study space on the second floor; and special collections, including the Crane School collection, the Tufts collection, and audio-visual aids, on the third floor. From August 1994 to October 1996, the library was enlarged in a $21 million renovation, designed by

Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge was a successful architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, operating between 1886 and 1915, with extensive commissions in monumental civic, religious, and collegiate architecture in the spirit and style of Henry ...

. The project added to Wessell, and renovated the original structure. Upon completion of the renovation, the library was renamed after Jonathan and

Steve Tisch Steven Elliot Tisch (born February 14, 1949) is an American film producer and businessman. He is the chairman, co-owner and executive vice president of the New York Giants, the NFL team co-owned by his family, as well as a film and television pr ...

, who had donated $10 million for the project. The rechristened library was formally dedicated on October 10, 1996. As the library's collections continued to grow, unfinished space beneath the first floor was converted to stacks and study space, opening to the public as "Level G" in 2004. That same year, the Tower Café opened on the second floor.

W. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Library

The Clark Library, located at the

(SMFA) in the Fenway-Kenmore district of Boston, is the fine arts branch of the Tisch Library. It is ''not'' affiliated with the Fenway Library Organization, a consortium of several other nearby university and museum libraries. The Clark Library collection is focused "on contemporary art and studio practice, our collections encompass exhibition catalogs, monographs, theoretical and art historical texts, technical manuals, periodicals, media, artists' books, zines, and more". With the late-2022 opening of the

Green Line Extension The Green Line Extension (GLX) was a construction project to extend the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line (MBTA), Green Line light rail system northwest into Somerville, Massachusetts, Somerville and Medford, Massachu ...

of the

MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...

Green Line E branch The E branch (also referred to as the Huntington Avenue branch, or formerly as the Arborway Line) is a light rail line in Boston, Cambridge, Medford, and Somerville, Massachusetts, operating as part of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Auth ...

light rail transit route, there is a one-seat direct connection between the SMFA and the main campus of Tufts University in Medford.

References

External links

*
Library Digital Collections
Library buildings completed in 1965 University and college academic libraries in the United States Buildings at Tufts University Brutalist architecture in Massachusetts Libraries in Middlesex County, Massachusetts {{library-stub