Everything about Widener Library totally explained
The
Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, commonly known as
Widener Library, is the primary building of the
library system of
Harvard University. Located on the south side of
Harvard Yard directly across from Memorial Church, Widener serves as the centerpiece of the 15.6 million-volume
Harvard University Library system, the largest university library system in the world. The 320,000-square-foot
Beaux-Arts brick building has 57 miles of bookshelves and 3 million volumes.
Widener includes many special collections, including African, American, Asian, Germanic, Judaic, Iberian, Middle Eastern, Modern Greek, and Slavic.
History
June 24,
1915, commemorates
Harry Elkins Widener (born
January 3,
1885 in
Elkins Park, Pennsylvania), 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 & Associates, the architect of many private houses for the intertwined Elkins and
Widener families of Philadelphia including the renowned
Lynnewood Hall. The Associate responsible for designing the Widener Library was the chief designer of the firm, architect
Julian F. Abele, the first major
African American architect.
From approximately 1997-2004, the 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 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, according to the legend, Harvard has been always been limited and creative in its renovation options, including the building of a causeway to neighboring
Houghton Library through what was a large window (though this bridge existed well before the present renovation).
Popular culture
According to the
fictional
Cthulhu Mythos of
H. P. Lovecraft, Widener Library houses one of the few existing copies of the
Necronomicon in the world, hidden somewhere among its endless stacks.
There is a
legend at Harvard that in order to prevent what befell Widener from happening to another student, all students of
Harvard College are required to prove that they can
swim before they're 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 urban legend website
Snopes.com gives additional details of why this urban myth isn't true.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Widener Library'.
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