Phillips Exeter Academy Library - History and Services

History and Services

The first library at Phillips Exeter Academy was a single small room. A member of the class of 1833 remembered it as containing "old sermons and some history, scarcely ever read". Even as late as 1905 the library had only two rooms and 2,000 volumes.

In 1912 the Davis Library was added to the campus with space for 5,000 volumes. Although a major improvement, its atmosphere was inhospitable by the standards of later generations. Stacks were locked to students, for example, and the librarian's office was located at the entrance to the stacks to maximize control over entry. Decisions about book selections and the library's program were in the hands of an all-male faculty committee instead of the female librarian.

In 1950 Rodney Armstrong became librarian, the first with a graduate degree in library science. One of his first moves was to open the stacks to students. That solved one problem, but the real difficulty was the lack of space. The library contained 35,000 volumes at that point, many of them stored in cardboard boxes for lack of shelf room. After years of effort, Armstrong eventually succeeded in bringing a new library to the academy.

Architect Louis Kahn was chosen to design the new library in 1965, and it was ready for occupancy in 1971. Architectural historian Vincent Scully acknowledged its architectural significance by using a photo of it as the frontispiece for his book Modern Architecture and Other Essays.

On November 16, 1971, classes were suspended for a day, and students, faculty, and staff moved books (the library had 60,000 volumes by this time) from the old Davis Library into the new library.

Henry Bedford, who became librarian shortly after the new library was occupied, supervised the transition not only to the new building but also to a new way of operating a library. Staff librarians were encouraged to see themselves as co-instructors with the regular faculty and to put less emphasis on shushing library patrons. A piano was installed and the library began sponsoring lectures and concerts.

In 1977 Jacquelyn Thomas became librarian, the first with full faculty status. By 2006 she oversaw a staff of seven, all with graduate degrees in library science. During Thomas' tenure the library's collection and programming grew to a size appropriate to a small liberal arts college. Today the library houses 160,000 volumes on nine levels and has a shelf capacity of 250,000 volumes, making it the largest secondary school library in the world. The library also contains a collection of works by alumni as well as the Academy Archives.

The library was the first building on campus to be computerized thanks to the foresight of Armstrong and Kahn, who supplied the library with sufficient conduit space for the cabling needed by the coming computer revolution.

In 1995, the library was officially named the Class of 1945 Library, honoring Dr. Lewis Perry, Exeter's eighth principal, who served from 1914 to 1946.