History
The first volume purchased by the library was John James Audubon's Birds of America, acquired in 1838 for $970. That same year, Asa Gray, known as the "father of American botany" and the first faculty member of the university, was entrusted with a $5,000 budget to establish the first collection of books for the University Library. His decision to purchase materials from a broad array of disciplines helped establish the University Library's ongoing commitment to depth and breadth in every field of study.
Before the first separate library building was opened in 1883, books were kept in various locations around campus, including the law school and in professor's homes. Within twelve years this facility was deemed inadequate and a fire hazard. After two additions, in 1920 an entirely new building, what is now known as the north building of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library and designed by the architect Albert Kahn, was completed. In 1970, an eight-story addition was built, where much of the print collections are housed, along with the Library's administration offices, the Map Library, Special Collections, and Papyrology. In 1959 the Shapiro Undergraduate Library was built, with a policy of open access to the stacks for students. In years to come the principle of access to materials would become the standard and goal for all libraries and initiatives.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Man watches his history on the screen with apathy and an occasional passing flicker of horror or indignation.”
—Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)
“What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“America is, therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World’s history shall reveal itself. It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of Old Europe.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)