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Notable Notables
Name the Library
"You're the inspiration"
100
This library is an example of an 18th and early-19th century architectural style inspired by buildings in ancient Greece and Rome.

What is Neoclassical style? Neoclassical architecture reflected an American interest in ancient ideals of democracy and reason brought about by the Enlightenment and the Revolution. The Redwood Library and Athenaeum of Newport, Rhode Island, is reminiscent of a Roman Doric temple. It was constructed 1748-1750 and is considered the oldest continuously occupied library building in the US.
100
The Rotunda at the University of Virginia was designed by this "founding father" of the United States.

Who was Thomas Jefferson? Constructed 1822-1826, the Rotunda was designed as a multi-function building and included a library.
100
Better known for his classification system, this librarian formed the Library Bureau Company in 1888 to provide furniture and supplies specifically designed for libraries.

Who was Melvil Dewey?
100
This major west coast library, completed in 1926, was constructed of concrete and features a central tower.

What is the Los Angeles Public Library? Designed by architect Bertram Goodhue, LAPL incorporated various architectural influences and features including, Mediterranean and Spanish mission-style elements, mosaics and murals (Oehlerts 88-89).
100
Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda at the University of Virginia was inspired by this ancient Roman structure.

What is the Pantheon? Jefferson was also influenced by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio for both the Rotunda and his home, Monticello.
200
This medieval architectural style was first popular in America from about 1840 to 1870.

What is Gothic Revival? Gothic Revival, inspired by educational models at Oxford and Cambridge was popular during this time period at northeastern Colleges and Universities and remained in use thereafter. Gore Hall at Harvard University (seen here) was completed in 1841 (razed 1913) and is considered one of the first buildings in the US constructed solely for use as an academic library (Kaser 15-16). The Sterling Memorial Library at Yale, constructed in 1927, is another example of Collegiate Gothic.
200
An example of Romanesque Revival architecture, the Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy, Massachusetts was designed by which architect?

Who was Henry Hobson Richardson? While he only designed six libraries, Richardson's style remained popular throughout the 1880s and 1890s and was widely imitated (Oehlerts 11-12; Breisch 264).
200
This Scottish-born, Pittsburgh industrialist and philanthropist funded the construction of hundreds of public libraries between 1886 and 1917.

Who was Andrew Carnegie? Carnegie's support helped to construct 1,679 public libraries throughout the US from big-city public libraries and branch libraries to small-town public libraries. In contrast he only funded 93 academic libraries (Van Slyck 22; Kaser 77).
200
This "national" library, completed in 1897, features a domed, circular reading room.

What is the Library of Congress? Designed by Smithmeyer and Pelz, the Library of Congress is modeled on the Paris Opera house and was influenced by Italian Renaissance architecture.

200
This French library's interior, completed in 1868, influenced subsequent American libraries.

What is the Bibliotheque Nationale? Designed by Henri Labrouste, the library featured an open plan with cast-iron supports and free-standing, cast-iron shelving stacks (Oehlerts 5-6).
300
Boston Public Library, opened in 1895, is considered an exemplar of what French-inspired architectural style?

What is Beaux Arts style? The Beaux Arts style features classically inspired elements from Italian Renaissance architecture, including a flat roof, symmetrical floor plan, grand entrances, and arched windows. BPL was designed by the noted American architectural firm, McKim, Mead, and White.

300
The central branch of the District of Columbia Public Library was designed by this architect who believed "form follows function".

Who was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe? The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, completed in 1972, features a glass covered steel structure with little ornamentation that is typical of International style architecture.
300
The first American library to make use of self-supporting iron book stacks was located at this university library?
What is Harvard University? Harvard Librarian Justin Winsor made use of self-supporting iron book stacks in an 1877 renovation to the Harvard library, Gore Hall (Oehlerts 22-23). Seen here are surviving examples of iron stacks from Cornell University's 1891 library.

300
This library, opened in 1890, was the first public library constructed with funds from Andrew Carnegie.

What is the Carnegie Library of Allegheny City, Pennsylvania? Designed by the firm of Smithmeyer and Pelz, this library later merged with the Carnegie Library System of Pittsburgh. This building was severely damaged by a lightning strike in 2006 and no longer houses the library.
300
This 1893 event in Chicago inspired the widespread use of Beaux Arts style classical architecture for the next 50 years.

What was the World's Columbian Exposition? Beaux Arts became a predominant style for grand public buildings including major big-city libraries such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit and Philadelphia.
According to one source, approximately 68% of small Carnegie-funded public libraries also utilized classical elements such as arches, pediments, pilasters and columns in their designs between 1890 and 1920 (Van Slyck 147).

400
This revival style, most popular in the 1920s through the 1940s, harkened back to Early-American architecture.

What is Colonial Revival style? The Fackenthal Library at Franklin and Marshall College constructed in 1937-1938 by Philadelphia architect William Lee includes colonial neoclassical elements on the outside and contemporary Art Deco elements inside.

400
One of the most prolific library architects of the early 20th century, he designed libraries for Springfield, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Durham, North Carolina.
Who was Edward Tilton? Edward Tilton (1861-1933) was one of a few architects specifically interested in library buildings who also contributed to literature on library building design (Oehlerts 71,75; Van Slyck 57).
400
Placing readers and books in one large, open room, most American libraries were of this layout type prior to 1880.

What is the hall-type? The Cincinnati Public Library (built in 1874) and the Peabody Library (Baltimore, constructed in 1878) are two major examples of the hall-type (Oehlerts 19).
400
This Maryland library, built in the 1930s, was innovative for street-level display windows emulating a department store.

What is Enoch Pratt Free Library? Designed by Edward Tilton and Alfred Githens, the Enoch Pratt Library was also notable for its use of subject departments that became a model for later libraries (Oehlerts 77-79).
400
This librarian, who was better known as an indexer of periodicals, advocated the alcove plan which featured separate rooms located off of a main reading room.

Who was William Poole? The Newberry Library in Chicago, completed in 1893, is an exemplar of the alcove plan. In an era when artificial lighting was dirty and expensive, alcoves often made use of natural lighting by siting each alcove around an exterior window. Libraries using the alcove plan typically reserved different alcoves for different subjects, presaging the subject department plan that would become popular in large, urban libraries decades later (Oehlerts 25-26).

500
This modernist-style building is the largest library in the world devoted exclusively to rare books and manuscripts.

What is the Beinecke Library? Located at Yale University, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of the firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. Completed in 1963, the building features translucent marble wall panels that allow diffused natural light into the building.

500
Modernist Chinese-American architect who designed the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts

Who was I.M. Pei? The JFK Library was completed in 1979.
500
The use of "delivery rooms" vs. "charging desks" in library interior design reflected these two types of stacks management schemes.

What is closed vs. open stacks? Many libraries in the 19th century kept their stacks closed to browsing and retrieved books for patrons. John Cotton Dana was an early proponent of the open stacks system that evolved in the 20th century (Oehlerts 53-54).
500
Opened to the public in 2004, this northwest library won numerous architectural awards.

What is Seattle Central Library? Among other innovations, the Seattle Central Library features conveyor belts for returned books and a "book spiral" of continuous shelving for hundreds of thousands of titles.
500
This philanthropist funded the construction of hundreds of public schools and libraries for African-Americans in the South.
Who was Julius Rosenwald? Rosenwald (1862-1932) was an executive of Sears and Roebuck and believed that race prejudice was the most serious social problem in the United States at the time. Andrew Carnegie also funded African-American libraries. His first academic library grant was awarded in 1900 to the Tuskegee Institute (Kaser 65).