Widener Library

The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, Widener Library shortly ( German Widener Library) is the main building of the library system of Harvard University Library at Harvard University in Cambridge (Massachusetts ). To her collection also includes a two-volume paper edition of the Gutenberg Bible.

Building

It is located opposite the Memorial Church, on the south side of Harvard Yard on the university campus. With approximately 100 km of bookshelves and 3 million volumes, the Widener Library is one of the largest single building as a repository of books. The entire Harvard University Library is at 16.8 million volumes, the largest university library system in the world, also the third largest library in the United States after the Library of Congress and the Library Network of the Boston Public Library.

The building houses many special collections, including African, American, Asian, Germanic, Jewish, Iberian, Slavic and collections from the Middle East or modern Greece.

History

The Widener Library was officially opened on 24 June 1915. To remind you of Harry Widener (1885-1912), a Harvard graduate of the year in 1907. He was a book collector and victim of the Titanic disaster of. His mother, Eleanor Elkins Widener, the University donated 3.5 million dollars to build a library building that would bear his name. The building was designed by Horace Trumbauer & Associates, who had planned already many private homes of branched far Wilkins and Widener family of Philadelphia. The responsible planner was the chief architect of the company, Julian F. Abele, the first major African-American architect.

The building was extensively renovated by 97 million U.S. dollars between 1997 and 2004. Here, a fire suppression system, air conditioning and light wells have been installed or upgraded as well as the magazines and public spaces remodeled. The donation agreement Widener family prohibits the University to change the exterior of the building, otherwise the building would revert to the City of Cambridge. Therefore, the options were limited during the renovation, but this led to interesting ideas. So a foot bridge was passed by a (former ) Windows built that leads to another building.

The library is under the Office of the Librarian of Harvard College.

Fiction

According to the fictional Cthulhu Mythos of HP Lovecraft, the Widener Library houses one of the few existing copies of the Necronomicon, hidden somewhere in the endless magazines.