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40-471: The library is named for John W. Sterling , a lawyer representing Standard Oil , whose huge bequest to Yale required that an "enduring, useful and architecturally beautiful edifice" be built. Sterling Library is elaborately ornamented, featuring extensive sculpture and painting as well as hundreds of panes of stained glass created by G. Owen Bonawit . In addition to the book tower, Rogers' design featured five large reading rooms and two courtyards, one of which

80-516: A collection of 40,000 books in the 1840s, and later expanded to Linsly Hall and Chittenden Hall, the old library could not hold Yale's swelling book collection, which had grown to over one million volumes. In 1918, Yale received a $ 17-million bequest from John W. Sterling , founder of the New York law firm Shearman & Sterling , providing that Yale construct "at least one enduring, useful and architecturally beautiful edifice." The largest bequest in

120-402: A design produced by Lee Lawrie . The scene depicts Cro-Magnon , Egyptian , Assyrian , Hebrew , Arab , Greek , Mayan , and Chinese scholars in low relief , with inscriptions from major works in each writing system. At center is a medieval scholar, and directly above the doors are symbolic representations of major civilizations, which include a Phoenician ship , a Babylonian lamassu and

160-701: A same-sex intimate partnership with cotton broker James O. Bloss . Sterling died July 5, 1918, while staying at the fishing lodge of Lord Mount Stephen in Grand-Métis , Quebec ; he is entombed at Woodlawn Cemetery . Sterling's sister Cordelia donated the Sterling House and its surrounding estate—part of the Sterling Homestead —to Stratford, Connecticut . [REDACTED] Media related to John William Sterling at Wikimedia Commons Berkeley College (Yale University) Berkeley College

200-633: A small collection of 16mm prints acquired for use in teaching film in 1968, was formally established in 1982 and moved to Sterling in 2021. Its collections include original material by filmmakers including Mary Ellen Bute , Frank Mouris , Warrington Hudlin , and Willie Ruff . The Film Archive collects, preserves, and screens films in its collection, and is an Associate of the International Federation of Film Archives . The library houses several special collections: John W. Sterling John William Sterling (May 12, 1844 – July 5, 1918)

240-428: A vaulted nave and commissioned extensive stained glass and stone ornament to decorate the building's exterior and interior. The library's 122,500-square-foot (11,380 m) footprint would take up more than half a city block. Twenty buildings were cleared for its construction, many of them private homes. Although excavation began in the fall of 1927, the construction site was not fully secured until July 1928, when

280-467: Is a residential college at Yale University , opened in 1934. The eighth of Yale's 14 residential colleges, it was named in honor of Bishop George Berkeley (1685–1753), dean of Derry and later bishop of Cloyne , in recognition of the assistance in land and books that he gave to Yale in the 18th century. Built on the site of a group of buildings known from the 1890s until 1933 as the Berkeley Oval ,

320-534: Is a seven-story structure, with eight mezzanine levels interleaved between the main stories. Although encased in a Gothic exterior, the tower's structural system is a welded steel frame , which permits a vertical rise that traditional Gothic techniques would not. The crenelated roof of the tower is elaborately decorated, complete with a castle-like housing for air handling equipment . The tower's shelves are estimated to stretch 80 miles (130 km), contained within 6.5 miles (10.5 km) of aisles. In addition to

360-423: Is decorated with stone gargoyles, reliefs, and inscriptions. The nave is the most ornately decorated library interior, although ornamental features, particularly stained-glass windows, can be found in nearly every room in the building. A relief above the library's main entrance symbolizes the scholarly achievements of ancient civilizations. It is the work of architectural sculptor Rene Paul Chambellan , who executed

400-407: Is flanked by two aisles , which originally held card catalogs for the library bookstacks. Though the original catalog drawers remain in the aisles, the cards have been removed and the aisles converted to seating areas and a computer lab . At its western end it is intersected by a transept , which leads to the library's main reading room on one end and its wing on the other. For many years, smoking

440-458: Is now a music library. While the library's nave and main reading rooms can be visited on guided tours, its collections are restricted to cardholders. For the ninety years prior to the construction of Sterling Memorial Library, Yale's library collections had been held in the College Library, a chapel-like Gothic Revival building on Yale's Old Campus now known as Dwight Hall. Built to house

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480-695: The Capitoline wolf of Rome . At the western end of the nave is a fresco painted by Eugene Savage, a professor in the Yale School of Art and Architecture . Savage titled it "The Imagination that Directs the University's Spiritual and Intellectual Efforts," but it is commonly known as the Alma Mater mural for its depiction of a personified "University." Savage, an expert in Early Renaissance techniques, painted

520-468: The main approach of a cathedral . At its western terminus is a chancel containing an ornate circulation desk and altarpiece mural painted by Eugene Savage . Constructed of Indiana limestone and Ohio sandstone blocks, the nave is a self-supporting stone structure with none of the steel reinforcement used elsewhere in the library. It is elaborately decorated with stone and wood carving, ironwork, stained glass windows, and ceiling bosses . The main hall

560-465: The blacksmith who shaped most of the ironwork for Yale's Gothic buildings, created handwrought elevator doors for the Stacks depicting major trades , as well as ironwork and gates for the building. Other decorative stonework by Chambellan—gargoyles, corbels , and reliefs—can be found throughout the building. While most of his works depict scholarship and university life, several are humorous interpretations of

600-415: The building's ambition, beauty, and pragmatism. The library is situated on Yale's Cross Campus, the central quadrangle of the university. Surrounding buildings, including Berkeley College , Trumbull College , and Sterling Law Building were designed by Rogers and built in the same period and Gothic Revival style as the library. The entrance hall of the library is known as the "nave" because it imitates

640-559: The building's tower. The bookstacks use two classification systems: the Yale Library system and the Library of Congress system. Adopted in the 1890s, the non-standard Yale system became cumbersome and inefficient for cataloging. Though replaced in 1970 by the Library of Congress system, many of the 5.7 million volumes held by the library at that time remain filed in the Yale system. The card catalogs in

680-545: The college was renovated in 1998. It is distinct for having two courtyards connected by an underground tunnel. Annual traditions include the Berkeley Birthday Dinner for fellows and seniors, Thunder Brunch, Lunar New Year's Feast, a snowball fight (which pits North Court against South Court), GLO (a blacklight party), and the Bishop Bash, which was founded in the spring of 2002 by Ben Reiter and Charles Finch under

720-421: The courtyard with a 5,000-seat chapel facing opposite the library. With the end of compulsory undergraduate chapel services in 1926 and the lack of a financier, the chapel was never built. Expanding on Goodhue's tower concept, Rogers proposed the library take the form of a cathedral, which, in his own words, would be "as near to modern Gothic as we dared to make it." He modeled the library's entrance hall to resemble

760-677: The endowment of new professorships and the establishment of special funds for prizes"—these mandates led to the construction of the Sterling Memorial Library , Sterling Law Building , the Hall of Graduate Studies , and the Sterling Hall of Medicine , and the endowment of the Sterling Professorships . Sterling never married. In 2003, historian Jonathan Ned Katz uncovered evidence that Sterling lived for nearly fifty years in

800-402: The final holdout homeowner agreed to sell. While the new library was planned and constructed, Yale began soliciting gifts from its alumni for the new library. By 1931, the collection had grown to nearly 2 million volumes, many of them rare books and manuscripts. Among the most important of these acquisitions was a Gutenberg Bible donated by Anna Harkness . The bible became the centerpiece of

840-462: The history of any American university, it initiated a major period of construction on Yale's campus. Because of the library collection's growth, the university decided to make the centerpiece of Sterling's gift a new library with a capacity for 3.5 million volumes. The building's original architect, Bertram Goodhue , intended the library to resemble his State Capitol Building in Lincoln, Nebraska , with

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880-806: The library collections, the tower houses reading rooms, study carrels, library offices, and special collections, including the Babylonian Collection . Access to the Stacks is restricted to affiliates of the university and library patrons. Four reading rooms sit near the nave on the first floor of the library: The tower holds smaller reading rooms for the library's area studies holdings, including African, East Asian, Latin American, Near East, Slavic and East European, Southeast Asian, and Judaica collections. There are also dedicated reading rooms for several fields of study, including American Studies , History , and Philosophy . Sterling's northern wing, accessed from

920-443: The library's books in a prominent tower. When Goodhue died in 1924, the project passed to James Gamble Rogers , the university's consulting architect. Rogers' work on a "General Plan" for the Yale campus allowed him to incorporate the main library project into his neo-Gothic scheme for Yale's expansion. Roger's campus plan called for the library to sit on a new main courtyard, now called Cross Campus. Originally, he planned to balance

960-519: The lives of students and librarians. Several tributes in the library commemorate pioneering graduates of the university. A portrait of Edward Bouchet , one of Yale's earliest African American graduates, hangs in the nave's transept. Near the Franke Family Reading Room is a statue of Yung Wing , the first Chinese graduate of Yale. In 2016 a portrait of the first seven women to receive Ph.D.s from Yale, which those seven women all did in 1894,

1000-585: The most in number, Bonawit's panels can be found in many of Yale's Gothic Revival buildings of the same period, including the Sterling Law Building , the Hall of Graduate Studies, and the residential colleges . In the nave, ten high relief stone panels by Chambellan depict the history of the Yale University Library up to 1865. Bosses on the nave's ceiling depict writing implements. Samuel Yellin ,

1040-615: The mural in his characteristic style, an Art Deco interpretation of traditional Renaissance composition. Surrounding "Alma Mater" are personifications of academic disciplines . 680 unique stained glass panels by G. Owen Bonawit adorn the nave, reading rooms, offices, and tower of the library. Eighty decorate the nave, depicting scenes from the history of Yale and New Haven. Most reading rooms have stained glass panels that represent themes from their subject matter. Bonawit's firm also designed over 2,000 small outline images to inset in windows without stained glass panes. Although Sterling contains

1080-515: The nave once contained as many as 9.5 million cards, sorted in 8,700 trays. Manuscripts & Archives is the primary archival repository of the university, housing Yale memorabilia, university archives, historical manuscripts, and personal papers donated to the university. Though the archive uses the former Rare Book Room as its primary reading room, most of the collection is held off-site. Significant materials within Manuscripts & Archives include

1120-635: The nave via a cloister hallway , contains the library's offices as well as three major rooms: a lecture hall, the Memorabilia Room, and the Rare Book Room. The Memorabilia Room hosts temporary exhibitions of Yale's archival collections and university history, and serves as an antechamber to the 120-seat lecture hall. The Rare Book Room, designed after English Jacobean architecture , was built to allow library patrons to browse Yale's collection of rare books and manuscripts. A vaulted, octagonal chapel behind

1160-511: The new library was criticized as expensive and retrograde. William Harlan Hale , writing in The Nation , scorned it as a "cathedral orgy," criticized the library's bastardized cathedral aesthetics and the university's timid anti-modernism. Many students of architecture leveled similar criticisms. Others asserted that the project was either sanctimonious or sacrilegious for merging academic purpose and religious architecture. Later critics have praised

1200-459: The new library's Rare Book Room, which allowed students and researchers to browse the most valuable books in the university's collection for the first time, a function later subsumed in part by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library . At the time of its construction, the choice of cathedral architecture attracted criticism. Like much of Yale's revivalist construction of the same era,

1240-550: The papers of Charles Lindbergh , Eero Saarinen , Eli Whitney , John Maley and the audio library of Osama bin Laden . The archives hosts a notable collection of diplomatic papers, including those of Dean Acheson , Henry Kissinger , Henry Stimson , and Cyrus Vance . Audio, visual, and paper materials related to music are retained in the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, a facility converted from one of Sterling's courtyards. The collection

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1280-518: The room was specially constructed to house a copy of the Gutenberg Bible . The completion of the Beinecke Library in 1963 provided a more secure, climate-controlled repository for rare books, and the room and chapel now serve as a browsing room for the library's Manuscripts & Archives department. The library originally had two courtyards designed and landscaped by Beatrix Farrand . In 1997,

1320-521: The time the "largest sum of money ever donated to an institution of higher learning in history"—equivalent to about $ 200 million in 2011 dollars. After the estate appraisal was complete a year later, the Yale bequest was "about $ 18 million." He required Yale to fund "at least one enduring, useful and architecturally beautiful building, which will constitute a fitting Memorial of my gratitude to and affection for my alma mater " and "the foundation of Scholarships, Fellowships or Lectureships,

1360-529: The valedictorian of the class of 1867 and was admitted to the bar in that year. He obtained an M.A. degree in 1874. He became a corporate lawyer in New York City , and in 1871 helped found the law firm of Shearman & Sterling , which represented Jay Gould , Henry Ford , the Rockefeller family , and Standard Oil . On his death in 1918, Sterling left a residuary estate of $ 15 million to Yale, at

1400-577: The western courtyard was enclosed and renovated to become the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library. Sterling's remaining courtyard, named the Selin Courtyard, features motifs from the history of printing. The library is one of the most elaborate buildings on the Yale campus. Rogers commissioned artisans, including stained glass artist G. Owen Bonawit and blacksmith Samuel Yellin , who worked with Rogers on many of his buildings, sculptor Rene Paul Chambellan , and painter Eugene Savage . The building's exterior

1440-523: Was a founding partner of Shearman & Sterling LLP and major benefactor to Yale University . John William Sterling was born in Stratford, Connecticut , the son of Catherine Tomlinson (Plant) and John William Sterling. He graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1864 and was a member of Skull and Bones and president of Brothers in Unity during his senior year. He graduated from Columbia Law School as

1480-464: Was allowed in the nave, which left a layer of soot on its upper levels. Beginning in 2013, the nave underwent a $ 20-million, yearlong renovation to clean its surfaces, restore its architectural details, overhaul building systems, and reconfigure visitor circulation and services. Fifteen levels of library materials, primarily books, are housed in the building's tower, commonly referred to as the "Stacks". Originally intended to house 3.5 million volumes, it

1520-495: Was established in the mid-19th century under Gustave J. Stoeckel , and was expanded by the acquisition of Lowell Mason 's papers and library in 1873. Its collections include one of the largest catalogs of recordings and scores in the United States, including the papers of Charles Ives , Carl Ruggles , Quincy Porter , Horatio Parker , Virgil Thomson , Clarence Watters , Richard Donovan, and J. Rosamond Johnson . The collection

1560-559: Was moved to Sprague Hall of the Yale School of Music in 1955, then to Sterling after the Gilmore Library was completed in 1997. The seventh floor of Sterling Memorial Library holds the Yale Film Archive , which holds collections of more than 7,000 film elements, including hundreds of unique 35mm and 16mm prints and original negatives, as well as more than 50,000 items in its circulating video collection. The archive, which grew from

1600-475: Was placed in the library. The women include Mary Augusta Scott , Elizabeth Deering Hanscom, Margaretta Palmer , Charlotte Fitch Roberts, Cornelia H.B. Rogers, Sara Bulkley Rogers, and Laura Johnson Wylie. The portrait is the first painting hanging in the library to have women as subjects. Brenda Zlamany was the artist. The large majority of materials in Sterling are housed in the bookstacks, which are contained in

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