Library
Established in 1834 upon the founding of the Institute, the RIBA Library, otherwise known as the British Architectural Library, is one of the most important architectural libraries in the world with over four million items. As well its holdings of books and journals (including the 'Early Imprints Collection' of books dating between 1478 and 1840) it has very extensive collections of photographs that include the work of 20th century masters such as Eric de Maré, John Maltby, John Donat and Henk Snoek. The collections of drawings and manuscripts include many architectural drawings by leading British and international architects such as Andrea Palladio, Pugin, Ernő Goldfinger, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Charles Holden and Sir Christopher Wren. The Library also has portraits and architectural models. It also holds the Goodhart-Rendel Index of 19th century church builders, a card index. The biography files on various architects are also a useful resource.
Items from the collections are on permanent display at the Victoria & Albert Museum in the Architecture Gallery. Material from the Library have been seen in museums and galleries across the world, most recently in the exhibition Palladio and His Legacy: A Transatlantic Journey at the Morgan Library and Museum, New York.
The Library is located on the third floor of the RIBA headquarters and is open to the public without charge. It retains the original Art Deco interior designed by the building's architect, George Grey Wornum.
Read more about this topic: Royal Institute Of British Architects
Famous quotes containing the word library:
“... as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the ideal library is in the wish of its maker.”
—Carolyn Wells (1862–1942)
“Our civilization has decided ... that determining the guilt or innocence of men is a thing too important to be trusted to trained men.... When it wants a library catalogued, or the solar system discovered, or any trifle of that kind, it uses up its specialists. But when it wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the ordinary men standing round. The same thing was done, if I remember right, by the Founder of Christianity.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“The fear of failure is so great, it is no wonder that the desire to do right by one’s children has led to a whole library of books offering advice on how to raise them.”
—Bruno Bettelheim (20th century)