Schlesinger Library Opens After Repairs

The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, nestled in Radcliffe Yard, reopened last Wednesday with approximately $7 million worth of completed renovations.

The renovations were aimed at improving the safety and functionality of its valuable collection.

By installing a new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system and reconfiguring library space and traffic flow, library officials said they have ensured the safety and security of Schlesinger’s holdings. The collections include letters from Amelia Earhart and Harriet Beecher Stowe, a cookbook written by a former slave, and the papers of poet June Jordan, according to a recent press release.

While certain documents were openly displayed prior to the renovation, stacks are now closed in an effort to improve climate control and ensure safekeeping of rare documents, said Ellen M. Shea, the library’s head of public services. Now patrons must ask librarians to retrieve requested materials.

Other notable additions to the library include a double-height reading room and expanded exhibit and seminar facilities.

“The renovation marks in a very material way the library’s entry into the twenty-first century, in a new phase of its existence as a special collections library,” said Nancy F. Cott, the Pforzheimer foundation director of the Schlesinger library.

“Finally we have a space that is comfortable and reflects the richness of our collections,” Shea said.

Compared to some other campus libraries, Schlesinger is particularly accessible to the general public, with Harvard affiliated users making up only 50 percent of its patrons, Shea said. Scholars and members of the community make up the other half of users, she said.

During the 2004 renovation the library was forced to move its collection to a much smaller building. But library patron Laura Shapiro ’68 said she did not mind working in the confined space.

“Maybe to truly appreciate the new building you had to have worked for a few months over in the temporary reading room, which in many ways was a hovel,” Shapiro said. “More important than the space is just the honor and bliss of working with this fabulous collection.”

Today Schlesinger Library is part of Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, which is home to forty-five yearlong fellows who are committed to advanced work in various professions, academic disciplines and creative arts, according to the Institute’s website.

The seed of Schlesinger’s present collection is a set of books, papers, and memorabilia donated to Radcliffe College in 1943 by Maud Wood Park, Class of 1898. To house this donation, the Women’s Archives was established. They expanded through the 1940’s and 1950’s to become the Schlesinger Library, which moved to its present location, between Brattle and Garden Streets, in 1967. The library is named after Harvard University Historian Arthur Schlesinger and his wife Elizabeth.