The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, commonly known as Widener Library, is the primary building of the library system of Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. Located on the south side of Harvard Yard

Harvard Yard

Harvard Yard is a grassy area of about , adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University...

 directly across from Memorial Church, Widener serves as the centerpiece of the 15.6 million-volume Harvard University Library

Harvard University Library

The Harvard University Library system comprises about 90 libraries, with more than 16 million volumes. It is the oldest library system in the United States, the largest academic and the largest private library system in the world...

 system, the largest university library system in the world. The 320000 square feet (29,729 m²) Beaux-Arts brick building houses 57 miles (91.7 km) of bookshelves and 3 million volumes. Among them is one of the few remaining perfect copies of the Gutenberg Bible. Widener includes many special collections, including African, American, Asian, Germanic, Judaic, Iberian, Middle Eastern, Modern Greek, and Slavic.

History

Widener Library, which opened with a solemn ceremony on June 24, 1915, commemorates Harry Elkins Widener

Harry Elkins Widener

Harry Elkins Widener was a businessman and book collector from the United States.-Biography:Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was the son of George Dunton Widener and Eleanor Elkins Widener, and the grandson of the extremely wealthy entrepreneur, Peter A. B...

 (born January 3, 1885 in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania

Elkins Park, Pennsylvania

Elkins Park is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is split between Cheltenham and Abington Townships in the suburbs of Philadelphia, roughly from Center City, Philadelphia.-Points of interest:...

), a 1907 Harvard graduate, who was a book collector and victim of the Titanic disaster. His mother, Eleanor Elkins, made a $3.5 million donation to Harvard University to build a library named after him. The library was designed by Horace Trumbauer

Horace Trumbauer

Horace Trumbauer was a prominent American architect of the Gilded Age, known for designing residential manors for the wealthy. Later in his career he also designed hotels, office buildings, and much of the campus of Duke University...

 & Associates, the architect of many private houses for the intertwined Elkins and Widener

Widener family

The American Widener family of Peter Arrell Brown Widener and his wife Hannah Josephine Dunton were from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and were one of the wealthiest families in the United States...

 families of Philadelphia including the renowned Lynnewood Hall

Lynnewood Hall

Lynnewood Hall is a 110-room Neoclassical Revival mansion in Elkins Park, Montgomery County designed by architect Horace Trumbauer for industrialist Peter A. B. Widener between 1897 and 1900...

. The Associate responsible for designing Widener Library was the chief designer of the firm, architect Julian F. Abele, the first major African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 architect.

From approximately 1997 to 2004, Widener Library underwent a comprehensive renovation costing $97 million that included: adding fire suppression systems, adding air conditioning, enclosing light courts, and remodeling the stacks and public spaces. According to a campus legend, under the terms of the Widener family

Widener family

The American Widener family of Peter Arrell Brown Widener and his wife Hannah Josephine Dunton were from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and were one of the wealthiest families in the United States...

 donation, the exterior of the library is never to be altered, or else ownership of the building reverts to the city of Cambridge. Because of this, Harvard has always been limited and creative in its renovation options, including the building of a causeway to neighboring Houghton Library

Houghton Library

Houghton Library is the primary repository for rare books and manuscripts at Harvard University. It is part of the Harvard College Library within the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Houghton is located on the south side of Harvard Yard, next to Widener Library.- History :Harvard's first...

 through what was a large window (though this bridge existed well before the present renovation).

Popular culture

According to the fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

al Cthulhu Mythos

Cthulhu Mythos

The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...

 of H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

, Widener Library houses one of the few existing copies of the Necronomicon

Necronomicon

The Necronomicon is a fictional grimoire appearing in the stories by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story "The Hound", written in 1922, though its purported author, the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, had been quoted a year earlier in...

in the world, hidden somewhere among its endless stacks.

There is a legend

Legend

A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...

 at Harvard that in order to prevent what befell Widener from happening to another student, all students of Harvard College

Harvard College

Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

 are required to prove that they can swim before they are allowed to graduate. While Harvard did implement a swimming test in the 1920s, it had nothing to do with Widener, and the swim test is no longer required of students.

The song "Dreaming" by Weezer

Weezer

Weezer is an American alternative rock band. The band currently consists of Rivers Cuomo , Patrick Wilson , Brian Bell , and Scott Shriner . The band has changed lineups three times since its formation in 1992...

mentions the Widener Stacks.

External links

• Widener Library
• History of the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Collection - online exhibition, Houghton Library, Harvard University
• Information about the Titanic and the Widener family
• Information about the book "Widener: Biography of a Library" by Matthew Battles