Deering Library

Deering Library in 2008

Charles Deering Library is located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Deering Library houses the Government Publications Department and the Northwestern University Archives on the first floor, the Music Library on the second floor, and the Map Collection, the Art Reference Collection and the Special Collections Department on the third floor. The Library is named for Charles Deering, a Northwestern benefactor and chairman of International Harvester, who provided the initial financing for the building.

Construction and the building

King's College Chapel at Cambridge University, the model for Deering Library.

File:Deering Library detail Northwestern.jpg

Detail

Deering Library succeeded Lunt Library (now Lunt Hall) as Northwestern's principal library. Built in 1894, Lunt Library was the university's first library, but had become severely overcrowded by the 1920s. Deering Library, which was planned by Theodore Wesley Koch, University Librarian from 1919 to 1941, served as Northwestern's main library until the completion of University Library in 1970. Deering Library is connected to University Library.

The site chosen for Deering Library had previously been occupied by Heck Hall, a dormitory which burned down in 1914. The Library was built between 1931 and 1933, having been designed by the architect James Gamble Rogers in Collegiate Gothic style. The structure is composed of Lannon stone and was modeled after King's College Chapel at Cambridge University. The building also contains 68 stained glass windows by G. Owen Bonawit and wood and stone carvings by the sculptor Rene Paul Chambellan. The stained glass windows picture shields of other universities.

External links

• Deering Library Site @ http://www.library.northwestern.edu