Sterling Memorial Library - Architectural Details

Architectural Details

The library is one of the most elaborate buildings on the Yale campus. The main entrance is adorned with symbols and writings in various ancient languages, the work of architectural sculptor Rene Paul Chambellan who executed the designs produced by Lee Lawrie. The rest of the sculptures throughout the library; gargoyles and interior panels and ornamental designs were designed and executed by Rene Chambellan. The Nave is decorated with marble reliefs depicting Yale's founding and the history of New Haven and Connecticut. A giant fresco of Alma Mater surrounded by figures representing academic schools greets scholars over the circulation desk. Bosses on the ceiling of Nave represent writing implements. Even the doors of the elevators are handwrought iron, depicting Medicine, Law, Shipping, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Chemistry, Husbandry, and Machine Work. The most famous detail about the construction of the library, however, is its windows. In total, there are some 3,300 hand-decorated windows in the library. They depict everything from fiction to history and even small insects on otherwise unadorned panes created to look real. In 2000, one former librarian published a book about the windows.

In 1997 the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library was constructed in one of Sterling's unused courtyards. It houses one of the largest collections of recordings and scores in the United States.

The library featured in the 2008 film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which appeared in the chase scene with Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Mutt Williams (Shia Labeouf) escaping Russians.

  • The nave

  • Ornamented ceilings

  • Library counter

  • Card Catalog

  • Card Catalog

  • Details above entrance

  • Entrance to library

  • Reliefs above entrance

  • Writings above entrance

  • Sculpture of Greek

  • Sculpture of Roman

  • Sculpture of Worker

  • Sculpture of student

  • Wisdom and Death

  • Stained glass panels

  • Stained glass panels

  • Stained glass

  • Painted glass

  • Stained glass

  • Stained glass

  • Stained glass

  • Stained glass

  • Stained glass

  • Stained glass

  • Stained glass

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