Formerly A Reading Room, Library Now Big Business

Like the chicken and the egg, it's hard to decide which came first in making Harvard University--its library or its classes. First or last, the library today is generally recognized as the core of the University. It is this fact which partially accounts for the case with which the new library grant was obtained, as compared to the difficulties experienced in years past.

Though as early as 1862 librarian John Langdon Sibley began his long (and unsuccessful in his lifetime) campaign for a new building, it was not until 1913 that the cornerstone of Widener was laid. Now, only a short time after President Conant's formal announcement that a new place was needed, plans are underway for the Lamont Undergraduate Library.

Money in 1867

An Overseers' committee in 1867 attempted to raise $150,000 for a new library. To Sibley, the "excitement" about the proposed building was "a great strain on my nerves." There was much more than "strain" connected with the "Titanic" tragedy which caused the death of Harry Elkins Widener, from whom the University received a valuable book and manuscript collection. His gift contained the stipulation that a suitable building be provide, whereupon his mother donated the columned hall. In comparison to this, the $1,500,000 gift of Thomas W. Lamont '92 was revealed in a casual note. And to this, with the same manipulation of zeros, another $1,500,000 will be added as a book and maintenance fund!

Paradox

In the late nineteenth century, the number if books in Harvard's library was estimated to double every 20 years, and a cry was raised for a larger building to supplant overflowing Gore Hall. The total of books has quadrupled in the past 40 years, but the need now is for a smaller building--not so much to house the overflow, but to arrange the existing collection for the greater convenience of students.

Before the pre-Civil War era, it cannot be said that the college grew by leaps and bounds. It is doubtful that there was much of a library at all when Nathaniel Eaton taught his classes in the old Peyntree estate in "Newtowne," for John Harvard's 400 volumes did not receive a permanent location until the first College building was nearing completion in 1642.

Growing Pains

The position of Keyes D. Metcalf, present director of Harvard's collection of almost 5,000,000 books and pamphlets, can be compared in name only to the job held by Solomon Stoddard, the first librarian, who in 1667 had charge of "a library and books then valued at 400lbs." In fact it was not until Gore Hall, fireproof extensions and all, was razed to make way for Widener that the job called for a tactician and administrator rather than a pioneer.

Daniel Gookin, the third librarian, was able to move the collection almost single handed to its new location in Harvard Hall, in 1676, for which "pains" the Corporation paid him 50 shillings. Extant catalogues of the 1750's show the library, which was recognized as the most important in the country, with the sum total of 5,000 volumes.

On a stormy night in January, 1764, Harvard Hall was burned to the ground. The collection was reduced to the immodest total of 404 volumes. Of these, only one, "The Christian Warfare Against the Devil, World, and Flest," can definitely be identified as having belonged to the original John Harvard collection. Another Harvard Hall was erected in 1766, where the library shared floorspace with a kitchen.

Except for a brief period during the revolution when books were scattered to Andover, Concord, and other safer locations, Harvard Hall remained the college library until 1838. Then, Gore Hall, made possible by the unrestricted bequest of Christopher Gore, was built at a cost of $70,000.

Although Widener (including Houghton Extension for rate editions) is the only Harvard building devoted solely to library purposes the entire collection of books is by no means confined within its walls. The "University Library," also includes eight tutorial libraries, nine laboratory collections, 18 departmental libraries, eight house libraries, and 21 other special collections on both sides of the river. Included in this last category is the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library