William Rainey Harper Memorial Library
William Rainey Harper Memorial Library Soundex Code L166
Wikipedia page about the William Rainey Harper Memorial Library
The dedication of the William Rainey Harper Memorial Library on Tuesday, June 11, 1912, represented a major milestone for the University of Chicago. With its elegant Gothic architecture and advanced technology—the building featured telephones and a system of pneumatic tubes to transmit book orders—the new library was, according to the Chicago Tribune, “the largest and most important building yet erected on the campus of the University of Chicago.”
Architects Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, who had come to prominence in Chicago for their work on the Art Institute of Chicago, designed the new building. The library took inspiration from King’s College Chapel at Cambridge, as well as Magdalen College and Christ Church College at University of Oxford. It featured other architectural nods to colleges and universities in Europe and the United States, including stone carvings of the coats of arms of University of Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale University, Stanford University, and the University of California, among many others.
