The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, housing some 3.5million books in its "vast and cavernous"
stacks, is the centerpiece of the Harvard College Libraries (the libraries of Harvard's
Faculty of Arts and Sciences) and, more broadly, of the entire
Harvard Library
Harvard Library is the umbrella organization for Harvard University's libraries and services. It is the oldest library system in the United States and both the largest academic library and largest private library in the world. Its collection ...
system.
It honors 1907
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
graduate and
book collector
Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever books are of interest to a given collector. The love of books is ''bibliophilia'', and someo ...
Harry Elkins Widener
Harry Elkins Widener (January 3, 1885 – April 15, 1912) was an American businessman and bibliophile, and a member of the Widener family. His mother built Harvard University's Widener Memorial Library in his memory, after his death on the founde ...
, and was built by his mother
Eleanor Elkins Widener
Eleanor Elkins Widener ( Elkins, later known as Eleanor Elkins Widener Rice or Mrs. Alexander Hamilton Rice; 1937) was an American heiress, socialite, philanthropist, and adventuress best remembered for her donation to Harvard University of th ...
after his death in the
sinking of the RMS ''Titanic'' in 1912.
The library's holdings, which include works in more than one hundred languages, comprise "one of the world's most comprehensive research collections in the
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
and
social sciences
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...
."
Its of shelves, along five miles (8km) of aisles on ten levels, comprise a "
labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...
" which one student "could not enter without feeling that she ought to carry a compass, a sandwich, and a whistle."
At the building's heart are the Widener Memorial Rooms, displaying papers and mementos recalling the life and death of Harry Widener, as well as the
Harry Elkins Widener Collection,
"the precious group of rare and wonderfully interesting books brought together by Mr. Widener",
to which was later added one of the few perfect
Gutenberg Biblesthe object of a 1969 burglary attempt conjectured by Harvard's police chief to have been inspired by the 1964
heist film
The heist film or caper film is a subgenre of crime film focused on the planning, execution, and aftermath of a significant robbery.
One of the early defining heist films was ''The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950), which ''Film Genre 2000'' wrote "almo ...
''
Topkapi''.
Campus legends holding that Harry Widener's fate led to the institution of an undergraduate swimming-proficiency requirement, and that an additional donation from his mother subsidizes ice cream at Harvard meals, are without foundation.
__TOC__
Background, conception and gift
Predecessor
By the opening of the twentieth century alarms had been issuing for many years about Harvard's "disgracefully inadequate"
library, Gore Hall, completed in 1841 (when Harvard owned some 44,000 books)
and declared full in 1863.
Harvard Librarian
Justin Winsor
Justin Winsor (January 2, 1831October 22, 1897) was an American writer, librarian, and historian. His historical work had strong bibliographical and cartographical elements. He was an authority on the early history of North America and was elec ...
concluded his 1892 Annual Report by pleading, "";
his successor
Archibald Cary Coolidge asserted that the
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonweal ...
was a better place to write an
thesis
A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...
.
Despite substantial additions in 1876 and 1907,
in 1910 a committee of architects termed Gore
With university librarian
William Coolidge Lane
William Coolidge Lane (July 29, 1859 – March 18, 1931) was an American librarian and historian. He served for over 45 years in the Harvard College Library at Harvard University.
Background and education
Lane was born in Newtonville, Massachuse ...
reporting that the building's light switches were delivering electric shocks to his staff,
and dormitory basements pressed into service as overflow storage
for Harvard's 543,000 books,
the committee drew up a proposal for replacement of Gore in stages.
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
was approached for financing without success.
Death of Harry Widener
In 1912, Harry Elkins Widenerscion of two of the wealthiest families in America, a 1907 graduate of
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
, and an accomplished
bibliophile
Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. A bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads and/or collects books.
Profile
The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often ama ...
despite his youthdied
in the
sinking of the RMS ''Titanic''.
His father
George Dunton Widener
George Dunton Widener (June 16, 1861 – April 15, 1912) was an American businessman who died in the sinking of the RMS ''Titanic''.
Early life
Widener was born in Philadelphia on June 16, 1861. He was the eldest son of Hannah Josephine Du ...
also perished, but his mother
Eleanor Elkins Widener
Eleanor Elkins Widener ( Elkins, later known as Eleanor Elkins Widener Rice or Mrs. Alexander Hamilton Rice; 1937) was an American heiress, socialite, philanthropist, and adventuress best remembered for her donation to Harvard University of th ...
survived.
Harry Widener's will instructed that his mother, when "in her judgment
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
shall make arrangements for properly caring for my collection of books... shall give them to said University to be known as the Harry Elkins Widener Collection",
and he had told a friend, not long before he died, "I want to be remembered in connection with a great library,
utI do not see how it is going to be brought about."
To enable the fulfillment of her son's wishes Eleanor Widener briefly considered funding an addition to Gore Hall, but soon determined to build instead a completely new and far larger library building"a perpetual memorial"
to Harry Widener, housing not only his personal book collection but Harvard's general library as well,
with room for growth.
As Biel has written, "The
arvard architectscommittee's
Beaux Arts design
or Gore Hall's projected replacement with its massiveness and symmetry, offered monumentality with nothing more particular to monumentalize than the aspirations of the modern university"until the ''Titanic'' sank and "through delicate negotiation,
arvardconvinced Eleanor Widener that the most eloquent tribute to Harry would be an entire library rather than a rare book wing."
Terms and cost of gift
To her gift Eleanor Widener attached a number of stipulations,
including that the project's architects be the firm of
Horace Trumbauer& Associates,
which had built several mansions for both the Elkins and the
Widener families.
"Mrs. Widener does not give the University the money to build a new library, but has offered to build a library satisfactory in external appearance to ''herself,''" Harvard President
Abbott Lawrence Lowell
Abbott Lawrence Lowell (December 13, 1856 – January 6, 1943) was an American educator and legal scholar. He was President of Harvard University from 1909 to 1933.
With an "aristocratic sense of mission and self-certainty," Lowell cut a large f ...
wrote privately.
"The exterior was her own choice, and she has decided architectural opinions."
Harvard historian
William Bentinck-Smith has written that
Though Harvard awarded Trumbauer an honorary degree on the day of the new library's dedication,
it was Trumbauer associate
Julian F. Abele who had overall responsibility for the building's design,
which largely followed the 1910 architects' committee's outline (though with the committee's central circulation room shifted from the center to the northeast corner, yielding pride of place to the Memorial Rooms).
After Gore Hall was demolished to make way, ground was broken on February12, 1913, and the cornerstone laid June16.
By later that year some 50,000 bricks were being laid each day.
Building
At Harvard's "geographical and intellectual heart"
directly across
Tercentenary Theatre from
Memorial Church,
Widener Library is a hollow rectangle of "
Harvard brick
Harvard brick is a technique for building brick facades in imitation of much older ones. It was originated by architect Charles McKim in conjunction with the construction (1889) of the Johnston Gate, the "oldest and grandest" of the gates surround ...
with Indiana limestone
traceries",
250 by 200 by 80feet high (76 by 61 by 24m)
and enclosing 320,000 square feet (30,000m),
"colonnaded on its front by immense pillars with elaborate
">orinthian capitals all of which stand at the head of a flight of stairs that would not disgrace the
capitol in Washington."
Sources describe the building's style as (variously)
Beaux-Arts,
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
,
Hellenistic
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
,
or "the austere, formalistic
Imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imperial, Nebraska
* Imperial, Pennsylvania
* Imperial, Texa ...
r 'Imperial and Classical'style displayed in the Law School's
Langdell Hall
Langdell Hall is the largest building of Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is home to the school's library, the largest academic law library in the world, named after pioneering law school dean Christopher C. Langdell. It is bu ...
and the
Medical School Quadrangle".
The east, south, and west wings house the
stacks, while the north contains administrative offices and various reading rooms, including the Main Reading Room (now the Loker Reading Room)which, spanning the entire front of the building and some 42feet (13m) in both depth and height, was termed by architectural historian
Bainbridge Bunting
Bainbridge Bunting (November 23, 1913 – February 13, 1981) was an American architectural historian, teacher and author.
Bunting received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Beginning in 1948, he was a faculty member of the University of New Mexi ...
"the most ostentatious interior space at Harvard."
A topmost floor, supported by the stacks framework itself, contains thirty-two rooms for special collections, studies, offices, and seminars.
The Memorial Rooms (see
§ Widener Memorial Rooms) are in the building's center, between what were originally two light courts (28 by 110ft or 8.5 by 33m) now enclosed as additional reading rooms.
Dedication
The building was dedicated immediately after
Commencement Day exercises on June24, 1915.
Lowell and Coolidge mounted the steps to the main door, where Eleanor Widener presented them with the building's keys.
The first book formally brought into the new library was the 1634 edition of
John Downame
John Downame (Downham) (1571–1652) was an English Puritan clergyman and theologian in London, who came to prominence in the 1640s, when he worked closely with the Westminster Assembly. He is now remembered for his writings.
Life
He was the youn ...
's ''
The Christian Warfare Against the Devil, World, and Flesh'',
believed (at the time) to be the only volume, of those bequeathed to the school by
John Harvard in 1636, to have survived the 1764 burning of
Harvard Hall
Harvard Hall is a Harvard University classroom building in Harvard Yard, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
First Harvard Hall
The present Harvard Hall replaces an earlier structure of the same name on the same site. The first Harvard Hall was built bet ...
.
In the Memorial Rooms, after a benediction by Bishop
William Lawrence, a portrait of Harry Widener
was unveiled, then remarks delivered by Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 November 9, 1924) was an American Republican politician, historian, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served in the United States Senate from 1893 to 1924 and is best known for his positions on foreign policy. ...
(speaking on "The Meaning of a Great Library" on behalf of Eleanor Widener) and Lowell ("For years we have longed for a library that would serve our purpose, but we never hoped to see such a library as this").
Afterward (said the ''
Boston Evening Transcript
The ''Boston Evening Transcript'' was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941.
Beginnings
''The Transcript'' was founded in 1830 by Henry Dutton and James Wentworth of the firm of D ...
'') "the doors were thrown open, and both graduates and undergraduates had an opportunity to see the beauties and utilities of this important university acquisition."
"I hope it will become the heart of the University," Eleanor Widener said, "a centre for all the interests that make Harvard a great university."
Widener Memorial Rooms
The central Memorial Roomsan outer rotunda housing memorabilia of the life and death of Harry Widener, and an inner library displaying the 3300 rare books collected by himwere described by the ''
Boston Sunday Herald'' soon after the dedication:
Conversely, "even from the very entrance
f the buildingone will catch a glimpse in the distance of the portrait of young Harry Widener on the further wall
f the Memorial Rooms if the intervening doors happen to be open."
For many years Eleanor Widener hosted Commencement Day luncheons in the Memorial Rooms.
The family underwrites their upkeep,
including weekly renewal of the flowersoriginally roses but now carnations.
Amenities and deficiencies
Touted as "the last word in library construction",
the new building's amenities included telephones,
pneumatic tube
Pneumatic tubes (or capsule pipelines, also known as pneumatic tube transport or PTT) are systems that propel cylindrical containers through networks of tubes by compressed air or by partial vacuum. They are used for transporting solid objects, a ...
s, book lifts and conveyors, elevators,
and a dining-room and kitchenette "for the ladies of the staff".
Advertisements for the manufacturer of the building's shelving highlighted its "dark brown enamel finish, harmonizing with oak trim",
and special interchangeable regular and oversize shelves meant that books on a given subject could be shelved together regardless of size.
''The Library Journal'' found "especially interesting not so much the spacious and lofty reading rooms" as the innovation of placing student
carrels and private faculty studies directly in the stack, reflecting Lowell's desire to put "the massive resources of the stack close to the scholar's hand, reuniting books and readers in an intimacy that nineteenth-century
closed-stack' library designshad long precluded".
(Competition for the seventy coveted faculty studies has been a longstanding administrative headache.)
Nonetheless certain deficiencies were soon noted.
A primitive form of air conditioning was abandoned within a few months.
"The need of better toilet facilities
n the stackshas been pressed upon us during the past year by several rather distressing experiences," Widener Superintendent Frank Carney wrote discreetly in 1918.
And after a university-wide search for castoff furniture left many of the stacks' 300 carrels still unequipped, Coolidge wrote to "There is something rather humiliating in having to proclaim to the world that
idener offersunequalled opportunity to the scholar and investigator who wishes to come here, but that in order to use these opportunities he must bring his own chair, table and electric lamp."
(A week later Coolidge wrote again: "Your very generous gift
as helpedpull me out of a most desperate situation.")
Later-built tunnels, from the stacks level furthest underground, connect to nearby
Pusey Library
Nathan Marsh Pusey Library is an underground library located inside of Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its fir ...
,
Lamont Library
Lamont Library, in the southeast corner of Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, houses the Harvard Library's primary undergraduate collection in humanities and social sciences. It was the first library in the United States specifically plann ...
,
and
Houghton Library
Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, is Harvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library system of Harvard's Faculty of Art ...
.
An enclosed bridge connecting to Houghton's reading room via a Widener windowbuilt after Eleanor Widener's heirs agreed to waive her gift's proscription of exterior additions or alterationswas removed in 2004.
(Houghton and Lamont were built in the 1940s to relieve Widener,
which had become simultaneously too smallits shelves were fulland too largeits immense size
and complex catalog made books difficult to locate.
But with Harvard's collections doubling every 17 years, by 1965 Widener was again close to full,
prompting construction of Pusey, and in the early 1980s library officials "pushed the panic button" again, leading to the construction of the
Harvard Depository
The Harvard Depository, in Southborough, Massachusetts, is Harvard University's large-scale storage facility for books, documents, and special media (such as film and video). Opened in 1986 and expanded several times, it holds some 45% of the 16 mi ...
.)
Collections and stacks
The ninety-unit Harvard Library system, of which Widener is the anchor, is the only academic library among the world's five "megalibraries"Widener, the
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
, the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
,
France's Bibliothèque Nationale, and the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
making it "unambiguously the greatest university library in the world," in the words of a Harvard official.
According to the Harvard College Library's own description, Widener's humanities and social sciences collections include
The building's 3.5 million volumes occupy of shelves along five miles (8km) of aisles on ten levels divided into three wings each.
Alone among the "megalibraries", only Harvard allows patrons the "long-treasured privilege" of entering the general-collections stacks to browse as they please, instead of requesting books through library staff.
Until a recent renovation the stacks had little signage"There was the expectation that if you were good enough to qualify to get into the stacks you certainly didn't need any help" (as one official put it)
so that "learning to
ind books inWidener was like a rite of passage, a test of manhood",
and a 1979 monograph on library design complained, "After one goes through the main doors of Harvard's Widener Library, the only visible sign says merely ENTER."
At times color-coded lines and shoeprints have been applied to the floors to help patrons keep their bearings.
As of 2015 some 1700 persons enter the building each day, and about 2800 books are checked out.
Another 3million Widener items reside offsite (along with many millions of items from other Harvard libraries) at the
Harvard Depository
The Harvard Depository, in Southborough, Massachusetts, is Harvard University's large-scale storage facility for books, documents, and special media (such as film and video). Opened in 1986 and expanded several times, it holds some 45% of the 16 mi ...
in
Southborough, Massachusetts
Southborough is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It incorporates the villages of Cordaville, Fayville, and Southville. Its name is often informally shortened to Southboro, a usage seen on many area signs and maps, though ...
, from which they are retrieved overnight on request. A project to insert
barcode
A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or o ...
s into each book, begun in the late 1970s, had some 1million volumes yet to reach as of 2006.
Harry Elkins Widener Collection
The works displayed in the Memorial Rooms comprise Harry Widener's collection at the time of his death, "major monuments of English letters, many remarkable for their bindings and illustrations or unusual provenance":
Shakespeare
first folio
''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...
s;
a copy of ''Poems written by Wil.Shake-speare, gent.'' (1640) in its original sheepskin binding;
an inscribed copy of
Boswell's ''
Life of Samuel Johnson
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy tran ...
'';
Johnson
Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...
's own Bible ("used so much by its owner that several pages were worn out and Johnson copied them over in his own writing");
and first editions, presentation copies, and similarly valuable volumes of
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
,
Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel '' Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and t ...
,
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature.
She enlisted i ...
,
Blake
Blake is a surname which originated from Old English. Its derivation is uncertain; it could come from "blac", a nickname for someone who had dark hair or skin, or from "blaac", a nickname for someone with pale hair or skin. Another theory, presuma ...
,
George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank (27 September 1792 – 1 February 1878) was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached ...
,
Isaac Cruikshank
Isaac Cruikshank ( bapt. 14 October 1764 1811) was a Scottish painter and caricaturist, known for his social and political satire.
Biography
Cruikshank was the son of Andrew Crookshanks ( 1725 c. 1783), a former customs inspector, dispossess ...
,
Robert Cruikshank
and
Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
including the petty cash book kept by Dickens while a young law clerk.
Book collector
George Sidney Hellman, writing soon after Harry Widener's death, observed that he was "not satisfied alone in having a rare book or a rare book inscribed by the author; it was with him a prerequisite that the volume should be in immaculate condition."
Harry Widener "died suddenly, just as he was beginning to be one of the world's great collectors,"
said the Collection's first curator.
"They formed a young man's library, and are to be preserved as he left it"except
that the Widener family has the exclusive privilege of adding to it.
Harvard's "greatest typographical treasure"
is one of the only thirty-eight perfect copies extant of the
Gutenberg Bible
The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42) was the earliest major book printed using mass-produced movable metal type in Europe. It marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of printed b ...
,
purchased while Harry was abroad by his grandfather
Peter A.B. Widener (who had intended to surprise Harry with it once the ''Titanic'' docked in New York) and added to the Collection by the Widener family in 1944.
Like all Harvard's valuable books, works in the Widener Collection may be consulted by researchers demonstrating a genuine research need.
Parallel classification systems and dual catalogs
Like many large libraries, Widener originally classified its holdings according to its own idiosyncratic systemthe "Widener" (or "Harvard") systemwhich (writes Battles) follows "the division of knowledge in its
arly twentieth-centuryformulation. The ''Aus'' class contains books on the
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
; the ''Ott'' class serves the purpose for the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
.
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
,
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...
, and
Montaigne
Michel Eyquem, Sieur de Montaigne ( ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), also known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a liter ...
each gets a class of his own."
In the 1970s new arrivals began to be classified according to a modified version of the
Library of Congress system.
The two systems' differences reflect "competing theories of knowledge... In a sense, the
ldWidener system was
Aristotelian; its divisions were empirical, describing and reflecting the languages and cultural origins of books and highlighting their relations to one another in language, place, and time;
he Library of Congress system by contrast, was
Platonic
Plato's influence on Western culture was so profound that several different concepts are linked by being called Platonic or Platonist, for accepting some assumptions of Platonism, but which do not imply acceptance of that philosophy as a whole. It ...
, looking past the surface of language and nation to reflect the idealized, essential discipline in which each
tem Tem or TEM may refer to:
Acronyms
* Threat and error management, an aviation safety management model.
* Telecom Expense Management
* Telecom Equipment Manufacturer
* TEM (currency), local to Volos, Greece
* TEM (nuclear propulsion), a Russian ...
might be said to belong."
Because of the impracticality of reclassifying millions of books, those received before the changeover remain under their original "Widener" classifications. Thus among works on a given subject, older books will be found at one shelf location (under a "Widener" classification) and newer ones at another (under a related Library of Congress classification).
In addition, an accident of the building's layout led to the development of two separate card catalogsthe "Union" catalog and the "Public" cataloghoused on different floors and having a complex interrelationship "which perplexed students and faculty alike." It was not until the 1990s that the electronic
Harvard On-Line Library Information System was able to completely supplant both physical catalogs.
Departmental and special libraries
The building also houses a number of special libraries in dedicated spaces outside the stacks, including:
There are also special collections in the
history of science
The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal.
Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...
,
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
,
Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
ern languages and civilizations,
paleography
Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...
, and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
.
The contents of the Treasure Room, holding Harvard's most precious rare books and manuscripts (other than the Harry Elkins Widener Collection itself) were transferred to newly built
Houghton Library
Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, is Harvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library system of Harvard's Faculty of Art ...
in 1942.
In literature and legend
Swimrequirement, icecream, and other legends
Legend holds that to spare future Harvard men her son's fate, Eleanor Widener insisted, as a condition of her gift, that learning to swim be made a requirement for graduation.
(This requirement, the ''
Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at ...
'' once elaborated erroneously, was "dropped in the late 1970s because it was deemed discriminatory against physically disabled students".)
"Among the many myths relating to Harry Elkins Widener, this is the most prevalent", says Harvard's "Ask a Librarian" service. Though Harvard has had swimming requirements at various times (e.g. for
rowers on the
Charles River
The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...
, or as a now-defunct test for entering freshmen)
Bentinck-Smith writes that "There is absolutely no evidence... that
leanor Widenerwas, as a result of the Titanic disaster, in any way responsible for
nycompulsory swimming test."
Another story, holding that Eleanor Widener donated a further sum to underwrite perpetual availability of ice cream (purportedly Harry Widener's favorite dessert) in Harvard dining halls, is also without foundation.
A Widener curator's compilation of "fanciful oral history" recited by student tour guides includes "Flowers mysteriously appear every morning outside the Widener Room" and "Harry used to have
carnation
''Dianthus caryophyllus'' (), commonly known as the carnation or clove pink, is a species of ''Dianthus''. It is likely native to the Mediterranean region but its exact range is unknown due to extensive cultivation for the last 2,000 years.Med ...
s dyed crimson to remind him of Harvard, and so his mother kept up the tradition" in the flowers displayed in the Memorial Rooms.
Literary references
In
H. P. Lovecraft's fictional universe
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a mythopoeia and a shared fictional universe, originating in the works of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The term was coined by August Derleth
August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971) was an ...
, Widener is one of five libraries holding a 17th-century edition of the ''
Necronomicon
The ', also referred to as the ''Book of the Dead'', or under a purported original Arabic title of ', is a fictional grimoire (textbook of magic) appearing in stories by the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first menti ...
'', hidden somewhere in the stacks.
Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist of the early 20th century.
Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly origin ...
, who earned a Harvard
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. in 1922, told
Max Perkins
William Maxwell Evarts "Max" Perkins (September 20, 1884 – June 17, 1947) was an American book editor, best remembered for discovering authors Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and Thomas Wolfe.
Early life and e ...
that he spent most of his Harvard years in Widener's reading room. He wrote of through the stacks of that great library like some damned soul, never at restever leaping ahead from the pages I read to thoughts of those I want to read"; his
alter ego
An alter ego (Latin for "other I", " doppelgänger") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a differen ...
Eugene Gant read with a watch in his hand, "laying waste of the shelves."
Historian
Barbara Tuchman
Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (; January 30, 1912 – February 6, 1989) was an American historian and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for ''The Guns of August'' (1962), a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of World ...
considered "the single most formative experience" of her career the writing of her undergraduate thesis, for which she was "allowed to have as my own one of those little cubicles with a table under a window" in the Widener stacks, which were "my
Archimedes' bathtub, my
burning bush
The burning bush (or the unburnt bush) refers to an event recorded in the Jewish Torah (as also in the biblical Old Testament). It is described in the third chapter of the Book of Exodus as having occurred on Mount Horeb. According to the bib ...
, my
dish of mold where I found my personal penicillin."
Burglary and other incidents
Over the years, Widener has been the scene of various criminal exploits "infamous for their
fecklessness and
ignominity."
Joel C. Williams
In 1931 former graduate student Joel C. Williams was arrested after attempting to sell two Harvard library books to a local book dealer.
Charles Apted and other Harvard officials visited Williams' home
where (posing as "book buyers" to spare the feelings of Williams' family)
they found thousands of books which Williams had stolen over the years, many badly damaged. The "absolutely crazy" Williams would "go to students studying in Widener and ask them what course they were taking. He would then borrow all the books for that course in the library. Then no one could get any to study", library official John E. Shea later recalled.
Despite the misleading implication of bookplates placed in the 2504 recovered books, Harvard's charges against Williams were dropped after he was indicted on book-theft charges in another jurisdiction, which imposed a sentence of hard labor. After the unrelated arrest of a book-theft ring operating at Harvard, there was a "noticeable increase in the number of missing books secretly returned to the library", the ''Transcript'' reported in 1932.
Gutenberg Bible theft
On the night of August 19, 1969 an attempt was made to steal the library's Gutenberg Bible, valued at $1million (equivalent to $ million in ).
Equipped with a hammer, pry bar, and other burglarious implements,
the 20-year-old would-be thief hid in a lavatory until after closing, then made his way to the roof, from which he descended via a knotted rope to break through a Memorial Room window.
But after smashing the bible's display case and placing its two volumes in a knapsack, he found the additional 70 pounds (32kg) made it impossible for him to reclimb the rope.
Eventually he fell some to the pavement of one of the light courts, where he lay semiconscious
until his moans were heard by a janitor;
he was found about 1a.m.
with injuries including a fractured skull.
"It looks like a professional job all right, in the fact that he came down the rope," commented
Harvard Police Chief
Robert Tonis. "But it doesn't look very professional that he fell off."
Tonis speculated that the attempt may have been modeled on a similar caper depicted in the 1964 film''
Topkapi'',
though a retired Harvard librarian later commented that the thief (who was later judged insane) "evidently knew nothing about booksor, at least, about selling them... There was no explanation of what he expected to do with the Bible."
Only the books' bindings (which were "not valuable
nddid just what a good binding is supposed to do: they protected the inside contents") were damaged.
Since the incident only one or the other Bible volume is on display at any given time
and a replica has been substituted at times of heightened security concern.
"The Slasher"
Around 1990, empty bindings stripped of their pages began to appear in the Widener stacks. Eventually some 600 mutilated books were discovered, the vandal particularly targeting works on early Christianity in Greek, Latin, or unusual languages such as
Icelandic.
Notes left at Widener, and later at
Northeastern University
Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...
, threatened graphically described mutilations of library workers, cyanide gas attacks,
and bombings of libraries and a local bank.
Other notes instructed that $500,000 be left in a Northeastern library, demanded that Northeastern "terminate all Jew personnel", and directed that $1million be left in the Widener stacks:
These "ransom drops" were staked out by the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
,
and surveillance cameras installed in ersatz books, without result.
In 1994 police connected an incident at Northeastern, in which a library worker there (a former Widener employee) was caught stealing chemistry books, with the fact that chemistry texts had been among the works mutilated at Widener.
Officials found "a kind of renegade reference room" in the worker's basement,
including library books, piles of ripped-out pages, a
microfilm
Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either photographic film, films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the origin ...
camera, and hundreds of unusable microfilms he had haphazardly made of the books (worth $180,000) he had destroyed.
At trial "The Slasher" said he had acted in revenge for the eighteen months he had been detained in a state
psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
after expiration of a six-month jail term he had received for a minor offense.
Artwork
Two of Gore Hall's granite pinnacles were preserved, and flank Widener's rear entrance.
In the 1920s the university commissioned
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...
to paint, within the fourteen-foot-high arched panels flanking the entrance to the Memorial Rooms, two murals giving tribute to Harvard's
World WarI dead: ''Death and Victory'' and ''Entering the War''.
The accompanying inscription, by Lowell, reads: "Happy those who with a glowing faith/ In one embrace clasped Death and Victory".
With
Memorial Church, which directly faces Widener, these constitute what the Boston Public Library calls "the most elaborate World WarI memorial in the Boston area."
Above the Memorial Rooms entrance is inscribed:
(Eleanor Elkins Widener became Eleanor Elkins Rice when, in October 1915, she married Harvard professor and surgeon
Alexander Hamilton Rice, Jr.,
a noted South American explorer whom she had met at the library's dedication four months earlier. She died in 1937.)
On the second floor is a bronze bust by
Albin Polasek
Albin Polasek (February 14, 1879 – May 19, 1965) was a Czech-American sculptor and educator. He created more than 400 works during his career, 200 of which are displayed in the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens in Winter Park, Flori ...
of sculptor and muralist
Frank Millet, who had also died on the ''Titanic''.
In the main reading room is a sculpture of
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
; on the stairs to the third floor a sculpture of
John Elbridge Hudson
John Elbridge Hudson (August 3, 1839 – October 1, 1900) was a United States, U.S. lawyer, telephone businessman, and president of AT&T from 1889 to 1900.
Early life
Hudson was born in Lynn, Massachusetts to John Hudson and Elizabeth C. (née Hi ...
; and on the ground floor a sculpture of
Henry Ware Wales,
as well as vaulted hallways"just like the
Oyster Bar at Grand Central... astounding", according to historian Thomas Gickby
Rafael Guastavino
Rafael Guastavino Moreno (; March 1, 1842 February 1, 1908) was a Spanish building engineer and builder who immigrated to the United States in 1881; his career for the next three decades was based in New York City.
Based on the Catalan vault, ...
, who (with his son) also designed and built domes and vaults in buildings such as
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
, the
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and the
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonweal ...
.
Three dioramasdepicting the grounds, buildings, and vicinity of Harvard Yard in 1667, 1775 and 1936were installed behind the main stairs in 1947, but removed during renovations in 2004.
A six-foot-square bronze tablet, featuring a
bas relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
of Gore Hall, is at the exterior northwest corner. Its inscription reads in part:
Restrictions on women
The building originally included a separate
Radcliffe
Radcliffe or Radcliff may refer to:
Places
* Radcliffe Line, a border between India and Pakistan
United Kingdom
* Radcliffe, Greater Manchester
** Radcliffe Tower, the remains of a medieval manor house in the town
** Radcliffe tram stop
* ...
Reading Room behind the card catalogs"barely large enough for a single table"to which female students were restricted "for fear their presence would distract the studious Harvard men" in the main reading room.
In 1923 a sequence of communications between Librarian
William Coolidge Lane
William Coolidge Lane (July 29, 1859 – March 18, 1931) was an American librarian and historian. He served for over 45 years in the Harvard College Library at Harvard University.
Background and education
Lane was born in Newtonville, Massachuse ...
and another Harvard official dealt with "the incident of Miss Alexander's intrusion into the reading room",
and
Keyes Metcalf
Keyes DeWitt Metcalf (April 13, 1889 – November 3, 1983) was an American librarian. He has been identified as one of the 100 most important leaders in librarianship by the journal ''American Libraries''. In a career spanning over 75 years, he w ...
, Director of University Libraries from 1937 to 1955, wrote that early in his tenure a
Classics
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
professor "rushed into my office, looking as if he were about to have an apoplectic stroke, and gasped, 'I've just been in the reading room, and there is a Radcliffe girl in there! By then female graduate students were permitted to enter the stacks, but only until 5p.m., "after which time it was thought they would not be safe there".
"Even the ever-present problem of inadequate lavatories worked to deny functional access to women", wrote Battles. "Patrons requesting directions to a women's restroom were routinely misled, denied access, or simply told that such things did not exist at a college for men such as Harvard."
By World WarII (
Elizabeth Colson
Elizabeth Florence Colson (June 15, 1917 – August 3, 2016) was an American social anthropologist and professor emerita of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. She was best known for the classic long-term study of the Ton ...
recalled years later) "we could go into the
ain Reading Roomand use the encyclopedias and things like that there, if we stood up, but we couldn't sit down",
and only by special permission (which even female faculty members had to request in writing) could a woman work in the building in the evening.
Renovation
A five-year, $97million renovation completed in 2004
(the first since the building opened) added fire suppression and environmental control systems, upgraded wiring and communications, remodeled various public spaces, and enclosed the light courts to create additional reading rooms
(beneath which several levels of new offices and mechanical equipment were hidden).
"Claustrophobia-inducing" elevators were replaced,
the bottom shelves on the lowest stacks level were removed in recognition of chronic seepage problems,
Widener's "olfactory nostalgia... actually the smell of decaying books" was addressed,
and unrestricted light and airseen as desirable when Widener was built but now considered "public enemies one and two for the long-term safety of old books"were brought under control.
Some changes required that the Widener family grant relief
from the terms of Eleanor Widener's gift, which forbade that "structures of any kind
eerected in the courts around which the
ibraryis constructed, but that the same shall be kept open for light and air".
The need to relocate each of the building's 3.5million volumes twicefirst to temporary locations, then to new permanent locations, as work proceeded aisle by aislewas turned to advantage, so that by the end of the renovation related materials in the library's two classification systems (see
§ Parallel classification systems) were physically adjacent for the first time;
the chart showing the floor and wing location, within the stacks, of each subject classification was revised sixty-five times during construction.
The project received the 2005 Library Building Award from the
American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...
and the
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
.
Notes
Sources and further reading
Further reading
*
Other sources cited
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, title = At 100, Widener Opens Its Arms Wider
, date=June 24, 2015, magazine=Harvard Magazine, last=Zhang , first=Zara
, url=http://harvardmagazine.com/2015/06/at-100-widener-opens-its-arms-wider
{{refn, name=artillery, {{cite news
, title=New field piece arrives{{snd155 mm. G. P. F. Rifle Now In Battery In Front of Widener
, date=September 23, 1919
, work=Harvard Crimson
{{refn, name=buck, {{cite book
, title=Libraries & universities: addresses and reports
, last=Buck, first=Paul Herman, publisher= Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
, year=1964, page=50, isbn=9780674530508, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AlP1vz267AC&pg=PA50
, editor-last=Williams, editor-first=Edwin E.
{{refn, name=burke, {{cite report
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(Oral history conducted in 2000–2001 by Suzanne Riess.)
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, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rLWxGQAACAAJ , year=1980
{{refn, name=deficit,
{{cite news
, date= December 4, 1965 , title=Widener Space Deficit Reaching Danger Point, work=Harvard Crimson
, url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1965/12/4/widener-space-deficit-reaching-danger-point
* {{cite news
, date=November 30, 1967 , title=Stop-Gap Measures Ease Pinch in Widener Library, work=Harvard Crimson
, url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/11/30/stop-gap-measures-ease-pinch-in-widener/
{{refn, name=mooney, {{cite journal
, last=Mooney , first=Carolyn J. , title=Swim or Sink, journal=Chronicle of Higher Educa{{shytion
, date=October 12, 1994, pages=A35–A36
{{refn, name=legends,
{{cite news
, title=The First Abridged Dictionary of Harvard Myths, work=The Harvard Independent
, date=December 9, 1993 , pages=10–11 , last=Mann, first=Elizabeth
* {{cite news
, work=Harvard Gazette , title=The Widener Memorial Room, url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/04/the-widener-memorial-room
, publisher = The President and Fellows of Harvard College, last=Ireland, first=Corydon, date=April 5, 2012
{{refn, name=crime_wolfe, {{cite news
, title=Thomas Wolfe at Harvard: Damned Soul in Widener, date=October 18, 1958 , work=Harvard Crimson
, url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1958/10/18/thomas-wolfe-at-harvard-damned-soul
{{refn, name=potier, {{cite news , title=Widener Library renova{{shytions: On time, on budget
, first= Beth , last= Potier , work=Harvard Gazette , date=September 30, 2004
, url=http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/09.30/13-widener.html
{{refn, name=weds, {{citation , url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/10/07/105041887.pdf
, title= Explorer Rice Weds Mrs. G. D. Widener{{sndLaw Requiring Five Days' Delay After Securing License Waived by a Court Order{{sndPlans for Secrecy Fail{{sndBishop Lawrence Officiates at Ceremony in Emmanuel Church Vestry Witnessed by Twelve Persons, work=New York Times , date=October 7, 1915
{{refn, name=dienstag, {{cite news
, url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/5/3/widener-reading-room-reopens-the-penultimate
, title=Widener Reading Room Reopens, last=Dienstag, first=John, date=May 3, 2004, work=Harvard Crimson
{{refn, name=divinity, {{cite book
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, title=Harvard Divinity School. Andover-Harvard Theological Library. The New Library
, year=2016, publisher = The President and Fellows of Harvard College
{{refn, name=grace, {{cite news
, url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19690821&id=KUtSAAAAIBAJ&pg=7292,611808
, title=Cat Burglar Steals Bible Before Fall From Grace, work=St. Petersburg Times, date=August 21, 1969, page=2-A
{{refn, name=kent, {{cite book
, title=Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oprd7AefXFwC&pg=PA318
, volume=19, year=1976, publisher=CRC Press, isbn=978-0-8247-2019-3, page=318, editor1-last=Kent , editor1-first=A.
, editor2-last=Lancour , editor2-first=Harold , editor3-last=Daily, editor3-first=Jay E. , editor4-last=Nasri , editor4-first= W.Z., display-editors = 3
{{refn, name=rolbein , {{cite news
, title=Deep in the stacks: Besides 3.5 million books, Harvard's Widener Library harbors scholars, thieves, eccentrics and a tale or two
, first=Seth , last=Rolbein , work=The Boston Globe Magazine , date=April 13, 1997 , page=14
{{refn, name=transcript, {{cite news , author=
, url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2249&dat=19150624&id=GzknAAAAIBAJ&pg=6483,4969905
, date = June 24, 1915 , work=Boston Evening Transcript , page=2
, title= Harvard Commencement. Widener Is Dedicated – Senator Lodge Makes the Speech of Presenta{{shytion{{sndPresident Lowell Accepts Gift for Harvard{{sndIn Presence of Many Distinguished Guests{{sndMrs. Widener, Donor, Delivers the Keys{{sndBishop Lawrence in Benedic{{shytion and Prayer{{sndExercises are in Library Memorial Room{{sndUniver{{shysity Marshal Warren Is in Charge
{{refn, name=near_best, {{cite news, work=Harvard Crimson
, title=Widener Gutenberg Bible Near Best – Outstanding Specimen In Harvard Scarce Volume Collec{{shytion
, url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1949/11/10/widener-gutenberg-bible-near-best-pthe
, date=November 10, 1949
{{refn, name=dies_paris, {{citation
, title=Mrs. A. H. Rice Dies in a Paris Store{{sndNew York and Newport Society Woman, Wife of Explorer, Noted for Philanthropy{{sndA Survivor of Titanic{{sndLost First Husband and Son in Disaster{{sndGave Library to Harvard Univer{{shysity
, work=New York Times , date=July 14, 1937
{{refn, name=metcalf1980, {{cite book
, first=Keyes DeWitt , last=Metcalf , author-link=Keyes Metcalf , year=1980 , publisher=Readex Books
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26465
, isbn=9780918414021
{{refn, name=metcalf1988, {{cite book
, title=My Harvard Library years, 1937–1955: A sequel to Random recollections of an anachronism
, first=Keyes DeWitt , last=Metcalf , author-link=Keyes Metcalf , year=1988 , publisher=Harvard College Library{{nbsp/ Harvard University Press
, editor-last=Williams, editor-first=Edwin E. , pages=24–30
{{refn, name=metcalf1965, {{cite book
, last=Metcalf, first=Keyes DeWitt , author-link=Keyes Metcalf , title=Planning academic and research library buildings
, publisher=McGraw-Hill, url=https://archive.org/details/planningacademic0000metc, url-access=registration, year=1965
, isbn=9780070416574
{{refn, name=rotunda, {{cite web , title = The Memo{{shyrial Library. The Rotunda
, author = Harvard College Library , date = 2009 , access-date = 2014-05-15
, website= History of the Harry Elkins Widener Memo{{shyrial Collec{{shytion
, publisher = The President and Fellows of Harvard College
, url=http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/widener/library/5_5.cfm
{{refn, name=newpusey, {{cite news
, title=The New Pusey Library: Yard Beautification, work=Harvard Crimson
, first=Nicholas, last=Lemann, date= March 26, 1973
{{refn, name=bunting, {{cite book
, author=Bainbridge Bunting , editor=Margaret Henderson Floyd
, title=Harvard: An Architectural History
, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nlaE3-XfmJwC&pg=PA152
, year=1985 , publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard Univer{{shysity Press
, isbn=978-0-674-37291-7 , pages=152–57
{{refn, name=hearst, {{cite web
, website=Encyclo{{shypaedia Britannica , title=William Randolph Hearst, access-date=June 17, 2014
, date=July 29, 2013, url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/258328/William-Randolph-Hearst
{{refn, name=zoll , {{cite news
, date=April 14, 1996 , first=Rachel, last=Zoll
, url=http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19960415/LIFE/304159968&emailAFriend=1
, work=South Coast Today , title=Libraries throw the book at their abundant looters
{{refn, name=HEW_history, {{cite web , website = hcl.harvard.edu
, title = Houghton Library. Collec{{shytions. Harry Elkins Widener Collec{{shytion. History.
, author = Harvard College Library , date = June 10, 2014 , access-date = 2014-05-15
, publisher = The President and Fellows of Harvard College
, url=http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/widener/
{{refn, name=pollet, {{cite book
, last1=Pollet, first1=Dorothy, last2=Haskell, first2=Peter C., url=https://archive.org/details/signsystemsforli00poll
, url-access=registration, title=Sign systems for libraries: solving the wayfinding problem, year=1979, publisher=Bowker, page
16971
, isbn=9780835211499
{{refn, name=widener_history, {{cite web
, website = hcl.harvard.edu, title = Widener Library. History. , author = Harvard College Library
, date = September 26, 2014 , access-date = 2015-01-11, publisher = The President and Fellows of Harvard College
, url=http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/widener/history.cfm
{{refn, name=relieve,
{{cite news
, title=Legendary Librarian Dies, Planned Lament
ic?and Pusey
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, isbn=978-0-8240-5787-9
{{refn, name=goins, {{cite news , title =Needed Renova{{shytions Planned For Widener
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{{refn, name=crime_1951, {{cite news
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{{refn, name=meister, {{cite book , title=Architecture and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Boston: Harvard's H. Langford Warren
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{{refn, name=mrsw, {{cite web , title = The Memo{{shyrial Library. Mrs. Widener to President Lowell
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, isbn=978-0-674-00869-4, pages=72–73
{{refn, name=offsite, {{cite book , title=Library Off-site Shelving: Guide for High-density Facilities
, editor1=Danuta A. Nitecki , editor2=Curtis L. Kendrick, page=129, publisher=Libraries Unlimited , year= 2001
, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v2aD9piTIFoC&pg=PA129 , isbn=978-1-56308-885-8
{{refn, name=lb_ad, {{cite journal
, journal=The Library Journal , date=May 1915, at=Advertising supplement, p. 7
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, title=Special card catalog cases, volume=40, number=5
, last1=Martel, first1=Charles
{{refn, name=tlj_may1915, {{cite journal
, journal=The Library Journal , date=May 1915, page=305
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, title=The preparations for the A.L.A. conference at Berkeley, volume=40, number=5
, last1=Martel, first1=Charles
{{refn, name=snead_ad, {{cite journal
, journal=The Library Journal , date=December 1915, at=Advertising supplement, p. 9
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, title=The Newly Completed Widener Memorial Library, Harvard Univer{{shysity is equipped with Snead Standard Stack and Snead Standard Steel Shelving
, last1=Martel, first1=Charles
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{{refn, name=tomase , {{cite news
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{{refn, name=histcambridge, {{cite book
, chapter-url=http://www.mocavo.com/A-History-of-Cambridge-Massachusetts-1630-1913/488593/315 , author=Samuel Atkins Eliot
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, title=A history of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630–1913{{sndtogether with biographies of Cambridge people
, location=Cambridge, Massachusetts , publisher=Cambridge Tribune , year=1913
{{subscription required
{{refn, name=movement, {{cite web
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{{refn, name=british, {{cite book
, title=British Univer{{shysities Encyclo{{shypaedia: pt. 1–2. World's libraries and librarians
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{{refn, name=bpl_sargent,
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* {{cite web, title=Sargent's Harvard Murals. Entering the War.
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{{refn, name=Harvard's_new, {{cite news
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, url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/09/22/100594028.pdf
{{refn, name=HEW_Livingston, {{cite letter
, first = Harry Elkins
, last = Widener
, recipient =
Luther Samuel Livingston
, subject = Just a few lines to tell you that I am about to take a quick trip to England
, date = March 10, 1912
, type = manuscript
, url = http://hollisclassic.harvard.edu/F/?func=find-b&find_code=SYS&request=008653030
{{refn, name=hellman, {{cite news
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, isbn=9780914630067
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, title=Harvard A to Z, publisher= Harvard Universi{{shyty Press, year=2004
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, date=June 1916, page=iv, journal=The Engineering Magazine
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{{refn, name=bearings ,
{{cite news
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* {{cite news
, title=Dazed and Confused In Widener Library, last=Marks, first=Stephen M., date=October 24, 2002, work=Harvard Crimson
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, work=Harvard Crimson , date=September 18, 1969
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}
Part{{nbspA
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, journal=Harvard Magazine , last= Reed , first=Christopher, date= March{{endashApril 1997
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, publisher=Random House Publishing Group, isbn=978-0-307-79855-8
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{{refn, name=lib1892, {{cite book, author=Harvard Univer{{shysity. Library, title=Fifteenth Report (1892) of Justin Winsor, Librarian of Harvard Univer{{shysity, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YlkZAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA15, year=1892, pages=1–15
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, {{cite journal, last=Lane, first=William Coolidge, author-link=William Coolidge Lane
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, journal=The Library Journal, date=May 1915, page=325, volume=40, number=5
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{{refn, name=dedication, {{cite book
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{{refn, name=sanders, {{cite book
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, {{cite journal, last=Lane, first=William Coolidge, author-link=William Coolidge Lane
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, journal=The Library Journal, date=May 1915, page=672–77, volume=40, number=5
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, {{cite journal, pages=23–25, date=September 1903, volume=12, number=45, title=From a Graduate's Window
, journal=Harvard Graduates Magazine, publisher=Harvard Graduates' Magazine Associa{{shytion
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{{refn, name=crime_1928, {{cite news
, title=New Addition Affords Widener Shelving Room – Recent Gift of Mrs. Hamilton Rice Increases Stack Space – Two Levels Added Below Present Stack
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{{refn, name=alumni_19130616_collection, {{cite journal, journal=Harvard Alumni Bulletin, pages=668–70
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, date=June 16, 1915 , publisher=Harvard Alumni Associa{{shytion, volume=XVII, number=36
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, date = June 4, 1998
, last = Hanke
, first = Timothy
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, archive-date = July 5, 2012
{{refn, name=beefs, {{cite news, title=Widener Beefs Up Security
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{{refn, name=contract, {{cite news
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, date=December 9, 1912
{{refn, name=bridge,
{{cite news
, work=Harvard Gazette
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, author=HCL Communica{{shytions, url=http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/11.06/19-bridge.html
* {{cite news, title=Widener Library Bridge Coming Down
, first=Zachary M. , last=Seward, date=November 18, 2003 , work=Harvard Crimson
, url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2003/11/18/widener-library-bridge-coming-down-the/
{{refn, name=bust, {{cite news, url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1920/6/4/memorial-bust-of-titanic-victim-placed
, title=Memorial Bust of Titanic Victim Placed in Widener – Francis Davis Millet '69 Honored by His Classmates—Was Prominent Mural Decorator
, date=June 4, 1920 , work=Harvard Crimson
{{refn, name=gazette2012A, {{cite web
, work=Harvard Gazette , title=Widener Library rises from Titanic tragedy
, url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/04/as-result-of-titanics-sinking-widener-library-rose/
, publisher = The President and Fellows of Harvard College
, last=Ireland, first=Corydon, date=April 5, 2012
{{refn, name=snead, {{cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kr9XAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA153
, pages=11, 68, 152–58 , publisher=Snead{{nbsp& Company Iron Works , year=1915
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{{refn, name=valve_abele, {{cite web, title=Julian Abele, date=February 18, 2014
, work=Sprinkler Valve Through Door: A peek inside Harvard's Widener Library
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{{refn, name=stam, {{cite book
, first=David H. , last=Stam
, title=International Dictionary of Library Histories
, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zoq_TtEN54IC&pg=PA351
, year=2001 , publisher=Taylor & Francis
, isbn=978-1-57958-244-9
{{refn, name=ask_wolfe, {{cite web
, url=http://asklib.hcl.harvard.edu/a.php?qid=40496 , work=Harvard Library. Ask a Librarian
, title=Who was the Harvard student who famously was stunned to realize that he couldn't read all the books in Widener Library?
, last=Kelley-Milburn , first=Deborah , date=April 1, 2014 , access-date=June 5, 2014
{{refn, name=ask_mrsw_inscription, {{cite web
, url=http://asklib.hcl.harvard.edu/a.php?qid=101140 , work=Harvard Library. Ask a Librarian
, title=What is the inscrip{{shytion over the door to the Widener Library in memory of Mrs. Hamilton Rice?
, last=Kelley-Milburn , first=Deborah , date=October 8, 2011 , access-date=June 14, 2014
{{refn, name=ask_furniture, {{cite web
, url=http://asklib.hcl.harvard.edu/a.php?qid=99069 , work=Harvard Library. Ask a Librarian
, title=Did the furniture in the Widener Memorial Room belong to Harry Elkins Widener?
, last=Kelley-Milburn , first=Deborah , date=October 3, 2011 , access-date=June 15, 2014
{{refn, name=ask_lamp, {{cite web
, url=http://asklib.hcl.harvard.edu/a.php?qid=99055, work=Harvard Library. Ask a Librarian
, title=Is the lamp in the Widener Memorial Room a real Tiffany?
, last=Kelley-Milburn , first=Deborah , date=October 3, 2011 , access-date=June 15, 2014
{{refn, name=ask_rug, {{cite web
, url=http://asklib.hcl.harvard.edu/a.php?qid=99053 , work=Harvard Library. Ask a Librarian
, title=What is the rug that's in the Widener Memorial Room?
, last=Kelley-Milburn , first=Deborah , date=October 3, 2011 , access-date=June 15, 2014
{{refn, name=printers,
{{cite journal
, url=http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/2573358?n=17602&s=6
, title=A Carved Tablet Showing Early Printers' Marks on the Widener Library
, journal=Harvard Library Bulletin , author=Mason Hammond
, volume=XXXVI , number=4 , date=Fall 1988 , pages=373–80
* {{cite web
, url=http://asklib.hcl.harvard.edu/a.php?qid=55788, work=Harvard Library. Ask a Librarian
, title=Over the front door of Widener there is a carving.
, last=Kelley-Milburn , first=Deborah , date=April 1, 2011 , access-date=June 16, 2014
{{refn, name=ask_gutenberg, {{cite web
, url=http://asklib.hcl.harvard.edu/a.php?qid=48156 , work=Harvard Library. Ask a Librarian
, title=Does Harvard have a Gutenberg Bible?
, last=Kelley-Milburn , first=Deborah , date=Feb 7, 2012 , access-date=June 15, 2014
{{refn, name=ask_portrait, {{cite web
, url=http://asklib.hcl.harvard.edu/a.php?qid=99093 , work=Harvard Library. Ask a Librarian
, title=What can you tell me about the portrait in the Widener Memorial Room?
, last=Kelley-Milburn , first=Deborah , date=February 25, 2013 , access-date=June 15, 2014
{{refn, name=mitchell, {{cite book
, last=Mitchell, first=Ted
, title=Thomas Wolfe: An Illustrated Biography, isbn=978-1-933648-10-1, pag
78
, url=https://archive.org/details/thomaswolfe00tedm, url-access=registration, year=2006, publisher=Pegasus Books
{{refn, name=necro,
{{cite web
, url=http://asklib.hcl.harvard.edu/a.php?qid=29612 , work=Harvard Library. Ask a Librarian
, title=Does Harvard have a copy of the Necronomicon?, date=June 12, 2012, access-date=June 13, 2014, author=David Cort
* {{cite web
, title=History of the Necronomicon, date=April 1, 2014, work=Sprinkler Valve Through Door: A peek inside Harvard's Widener Library
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* {{cite web
, title=April Fools, date=April 2, 2014, work=Sprinkler Valve Through Door: A peek inside Harvard's Widener Library
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* {{cite book
, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MevMCyh7hRUC, title=The Lovecraft Necronomicon primer: a guide to the Cthulhu mythos
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* {{cite book
, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=soWOpwAACAAJ, title=A history of the Necronomicon , last=Lovecraft, first=H. P.
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{{refn, name=bentinck1976, {{cite book , title=Building a great library: the Coolidge years at Harvard
, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zYYaAAAAMAAJ
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, publisher=Harvard Univer{{shysity Library , isbn=978-0-674-08578-7
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{{cite news
, url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1917/9/26/tablet-erected-to-gore-hall-pthe/
, title=Tablet Erected to Gore Hall – Placed by Library Committee on Front of Widener.
, work=Harvard Crimson, date=September 26, 1917
* {{cite news
, url=http://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/cgi-bin/cambridge?a=d&d=Tribune19170915-01.2.54
, work=Cambridge Tribune , volume=XL , number=29, date=September 15, 1917
, title=Widener Library Tablet Commemorates Gore Hall
{{refn, name=thieves, {{cite book
, author=Travis McDade , page=117 , isbn=978-0-19-992266-6
, title=Thieves of Book Row: New York's Most Notorious Rare Book Ring and the Man Who Stopped It
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, year=2013, publisher=Oxford Univer{{shysity Press
{{refn, name=whitehill, {{cite book
, last=Whitehill , first=Walter Muir , author-link=Walter Muir Whitehill
, title=Analecta biographica; a handful of New England portraits
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, year=1969 , publisher=Stephen Greene Press , pages=1–14
, chapter=George Parker Winship
, isbn=9780828901031
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{{cite book
, last=Wilkie, first=Everett C., isbn=978-0-8389-8592-2, page=27, year=2011
, title=Guide to Security Considerations and Practices for Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collection Libraries
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* {{cite news
, title=HUPD Dept. Focuses on Investigations, first=Laura, last=Semerjian, date=November 16, 1996
, url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1996/11/16/hupd-dept-focuses-on-investigations-pthe
{{refn, name=bookplates, {{cite web
, title=The bookplates of Harvard men , date=May 29, 2013
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, title=Don't Steal These Books, 1932 Inscriptions Warn, author=Katherine P. States , date=October 15, 1977
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, journal=Harvard Magazine , author=Primus IV , date=September–October 1998
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, title=Indict Book Thief on Twenty Counts – Former Prepara{{shytory School Teacher, Arrested Two Weeks Ago, Had Home Stocked With Library Books
, work=Harvard Crimson, date=November 4, 1931
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, last=Potter , first=Alfred Claghorn , year=1915, pag
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, work=Harvard Crimson, title=Fifteen Minutes: Breaking the Rules at Widener
, first=B.C. , last=Wilkinson, date= October 21, 1999
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{{refn, name=bigdoings, {{cite journal
, url=http://harvardmagazine.com/1999/07/jhj.doings.html , title=Big Doings at Widener Library
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, author=A. Edward Newton, work=The Atlantic Monthly, title=A Remembrance of Harry Elkins Widener
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{{refn, name=panic, {{cite news
, title=Weeding Out in Widener , work=The Harvard Crimson , author=Charles T. Kurzman , date= May 25, 1983
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, title=The Widener Memorial Library, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sFM6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA650
, volume=36, date=December 1915, page=650, work=Stone, number=12
{{refn , name=shocks , {{cite letter
, first = William Coolidge , last = Lane , recipient = W. S. Burke
, subject = Persons about the library report , date = November 8, 1909 , type = manuscript
, location = Records of Harvard College Library, William Coolidge Lane, 1877–1929, "Harvard Inspector of Grounds and Buildings", UAIII 50.8.10.2, Harvard University Archives
{{refn , name=snopes , {{cite web
, title=The Swim Test: Did a university implement swim tests at the behest of a benefactor whose child had drowned?
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, website= snopes.com
{{refn , name=furniture , {{cite book
, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mam_AAAAIAAJ&pg=RA4-PA31 , page=31
, title=Report of Archibald Cary Coolidge, Director of the University Library. Reprinted, with additions from the Report of the President of Harvard University for 1914–1915
, year=1915
{{refn , name=lane_snead
, 1=Records of Harvard College Library, William Coolidge Lane, 1877–1929, "Snead Co.", UAIII 50.8.10.2, Harvard University Archives.
External links
{{commons category
History of the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Collection{sndHoughton Library, Harvard University
Sprinkler Valve Through Door: A peek inside Harvard'd Widener Library{sndLibrarians' blog highlighting Widener's collections, history and architecture
Virtual tour
{{Harvard, state=collapsed
{{Authority control
1915 establishments in Massachusetts
Harvard Library
Harvard Square
Harvard University buildings
Libraries in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Library buildings completed in 1915
University and college academic libraries in the United States
Widener family
Horace Trumbauer buildings