Sterling Memorial Library
Encyclopedia
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, containing over 4 million volumes. It is an example of Gothic revival architecture
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
, designed by James Gamble Rogers
James Gamble Rogers
James Gamble Rogers was an American architect best known for his academic commissions at Yale University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, and elsewhere....
, adorned with thousands of panes of stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
created by G. Owen Bonawit
G. Owen Bonawit
G. Owen Bonawit was an artist whose studio created thousands of pieces of stained glass for Yale, Duke, and Northwestern universities; Connecticut College; and at private homes. There are, by one count, 887 pieces in Yale's Sterling Memorial Library. Bonawit worked often and closely with the...
.
The Library has 15 levels, each with its own category of books. In 1971, the adjoining underground Cross Campus Library was built. It was renovated and renamed to Bass Library
Bass Library
Anne T. & Robert M. Bass Library, formerly Cross Campus Library, is Yale University's main library for frequently used materials in the humanities and social sciences, with an especially large literature collection. In addition, Bass contains many reading and studying spaces, a large computer lab,...
in 2007 and connects to Sterling via an underground tunnel. Bass Library currently contains an additional 150,000 volumes.
History
Although the original architect, Bertram GoodhueBertram Goodhue
Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was a American architect celebrated for his work in neo-gothic design. He also designed notable typefaces, including Cheltenham and Merrymount for the Merrymount Press.-Early career:...
, originally intended Sterling to be taller and resemble the State Capitol Building in Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
, plans changed under the new architect James Gamble Rogers
James Gamble Rogers
James Gamble Rogers was an American architect best known for his academic commissions at Yale University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, and elsewhere....
.
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
. He even required that the library be seen from the street. As a result, Berkeley College
Berkeley College (Yale)
Berkeley College is a residential college at Yale University, constructed in 1934. The eighth of Yale's 12 residential colleges, it was named in honor of Reverend George Berkeley , dean of Derry and later bishop of Cloyne, in recognition of the assistance in land and books that he gave to Yale in...
was divided into two sections in order to create an unobstructed view of the cathedral-like library. It was designed as a memorial to John William Sterling
John William Sterling
John William Sterling was a corporate attorney and major benefactor to Yale University.-Biography:John William Sterling was born in Stratford, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1864 and was a member of Skull and Bones. He was admitted to the bar three years later. He...
(Yale 1864), name partner in the New York law firm Shearman & Sterling
Shearman & Sterling
Shearman & Sterling LLP is a law firm headquartered in New York City with 20 offices located in major financial centers around the world founded in 1873. It is well known for both its litigation and transactional capabilities, especially in International Arbitration, Capital Markets, Finance, and...
, who donated around US$29 million to Yale upon his death. Sterling Memorial Library, which Rogers remarked was "as near to modern Gothic as we dared to make it," is made up of fifteen stack levels and eight floors of reading rooms, offices, and work areas. Work on the library was completed in 1931.
The amount of stone transported for the construction exceeded the amount used, and as a result, myths and legends abound on the Yale campus regarding fanciful structures claimed to exist on the roof, built of surplussed stone and metal. One story has a small castle hiding the air-conditioning system. Another claims that there exists an entire miniature city up there, complete with its own stone golf course. In reality much of the fanciful design that exists on the roof was present in the original design.
Architectural details
Rene Paul Chambellan
Rene Paul Chambellan was an American sculptor, born in West Hoboken, New Jersey.Chambellan studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian in Paris and with Solon Borglum in New York City. Chambellan specialized in architectural sculpture...
who executed the designs produced by Lee Lawrie. The rest of the sculptures throughout the library; gargoyles and interior panels and ornamental designs were designed and executed by Rene Chambellan. The Nave is decorated with marble reliefs depicting Yale's founding and the history of New Haven and Connecticut. A giant fresco of Alma Mater surrounded by figures representing academic schools greets scholars over the circulation desk. Bosses on the ceiling of Nave represent writing implements. Even the doors of the elevators are handwrought iron, depicting Medicine, Law, Shipping, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Chemistry, Husbandry, and Machine Work. The most famous detail about the construction of the library, however, is its windows. In total, there are some 3,300 hand-decorated windows in the library. They depict everything from fiction to history and even small insects on otherwise unadorned panes created to look real. In 2000, one former librarian published a book about the windows.
In 1997 the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library was constructed in one of Sterling's unused courtyards. It houses one of the largest collections of recordings and scores in the United States.
The library featured in the 2008 film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which appeared in the chase scene with Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Mutt Williams (Shia Labeouf) escaping Russians.
Reading Rooms and Collections
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Main Reading Rooms
| Area Studies Collections and Reading Rooms
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Special Collections and Reading Rooms
| Editorial Projects
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