[Manuscript notes for] The University of Virginia Library, 1825-1950; story of a Jeffersonian foundation. |
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3. THE ALDERMAN LIBRARY BUILDING |
 | [Manuscript notes for] The University of Virginia Library, 1825-1950; |  |
3. THE ALDERMAN LIBRARY BUILDING
620. See page 25, Section II, this history.
621. See pages 48-50, Section III, of this history.
622. See pages 86-87. Section IV, of this history.
623. The traditional objection to removal from the Rotunda is discussed in
Alumni News, vol. 20, no. 5, February 1932, pp. 103, 104.
624. There seems to have been no fixed date at which agreement on the site
was reached. In the late 1920's a joint committee of faculty and
architeets marked the site of the Alderman Library as "reserved for an
important future building." Several members of the Committee had in mind
a general library. The fact that half a dozen individuals claimed to
have made the original suggestion of that site doubtless expedited its
tacit acceptance.
Among other sites suggested were that of Cabell Hall, of Madison Hall,
and of the President's house. These, however, would have meant the
removal of existing buildings.
625. A letter requesting suggestions was sent to members of the Faculty
on 7 September 1935. There is a file of the replies in the General
Office under the heading Alderman Library Building — Suggestions.
626. The Dartmouth records covered minutes and reports covering a period
from 1912 to 1926 and leading to the erection of the Baker Library.
The Princeton records contained rather revolutionary studies made in
the early 1930's by a committee headed by Prof. Charles Rufus Morey.
627. The Librarian at Dartmouth College was at that time Dr. Nathaniel
Lewis Goodrich; the Librarian at the University of Rochester was Donald
Bean Gilchrist.
628. In the summer of 1932 Dean Metcalf visited the libraries at Dartmouth
College, Williams College, and Yale University, and reported concerning
those libraries at a meeting on 13 October 1932 of the subcommittee on
specifications for a new library building.
629. Careful and constructive replies were received from the Librarians
of the University of Cincinnati, Dartmouth College, Iowa State College,
the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, Princeton University,
and the University of Rochester.
630. Gerould, James Thayer. The College Library Building, its Planning and
Equipment, New York, Scribner, 1932.
631. A copy of those specifications is in the rare book collection of the
Alderman Library.
632. See page 87, Section IV, of this history.
633. This was at a meeting of the Faculty Library Committee held on 15
October 1929.
634. Alumni News, vol. 19, no. 8, May 1931, pp. 175, 176.
635. President Alderman was representing State Universities at the inauguration
of Dr. Harry Woodburn Chase. Doctor Chase had been President of
the University of North Carolina from 1919 to 1930. He left the University
of Illinois in 1933 to become Chancellor of New York University.
636. When the new medical group was dedicated in 1929, Dean Flippin stated
privately that the use of President Alderman's name for the medical
building had been considered, but that it had been deemed more appropriate
to reserve his name for a new general library building. That the library
should be a memorial to him was stated by President George H. Denny of
the University of Alabama at a Finals address to the Alumni in 1931
(Alumni News, vol. 19, no. 9, June 1931, p. 198) and by Dr. John Huston
Finley at the Alderman memorial address in Cabell Hall on 18 November
1931 (Alumni News, vol. 20, no. 3, November-December 1931, pp. 52-57).
When the federal grant was received in 1936, P.W.A. regulations prevented
the naming of the building until its completion. (Faculty Library
Committee Minutes, 26 January 1937.)
637. See pages 3, 4, Section I, of this history.
638. "If you squeeze a cork, you will get but little juice." This was
number 2791 in Thomas Fuller's Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, London
1732. This Thomas Fuller was a doctor of medicine (1654-1734), not the
more famous doctor of divinity (1608-1661).
639. Shakespeare's I Henry IV, act 2, scene 3, line 11.
640. Faculty Library Committee Minutes, 31 May 1935.
641. Visitors' Minutes, 10 June, 12 August 1935.
642. Alumni News, vol. 24, no. 1, September-October 1935, pp. 1, 4, 5.
Faculty Library Committee, 7 October 1935.
643. Visitors' Minutes, 26 October 1935.
644. For Frederic William Scott, see Alumni News, vol. 28, no. 1, September-October
1931, p. 5 and Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942, p. 1094.
He had had one college year at Princeton, but had not been a student at
the University of Virginia. He was appointed a member of the Board of
Visitors in 1920, and in 1930, upon the death of Cyrus HardingWalker, he
was elected Rector. Scott Stadium was donated by him that year, 1930.
645. Visitors' Minutes, 26 June 1936; 16 January 1937. A library fee of
twenty dollars a session was to be collected over a period of thirty years.
646. See footnote 642. A copy of the original drawing is filed with the
specifications.
647. Alumni News, vol. 24, no. 1, September-October 1935, p. 10.
648. Visitors' Minutes, 26 June 1936.
649. Alumni News, vol. 24, no. 1, September-October 1935, pp. 4, 5. This
article is illustrative of material prepared by Mr. Wranek and also of
editorial comment in the newspapers of the State.
650. Senator Glass was reported to have vigorously stated to Secretary Ickes
that he (Senator Glass) disapproved of many of the P.W.A. grants for sewers
and such, and that this one — which would be his sole request — would
bring honor to the Public Works Administration. Professor Sparrow, a member
of the Faculty Library Committee, later commented: "The Senator put
all his begs in one ask-it."
651. The successful bids for the Alderman Library were as follows:
| 11 Nov.'36 Excavation - G. G. Waugh Co., Culpeper | 6,250.00 |
| 24 Nov.'36 Foundation - G. G. Waugh Co., Culpeper | 14,475.00 |
| 15 Jan.'37 General building - Doyle & Russell, Richmond | 586,223.00 |
| 15 Jan.'37 Heating - Reliance Engineering Co., Charlotte, N.C. | 35,553.00 |
| 15 Jan.'37 Plumbing - Williams Co., Norfolk | 22,868.00 |
| 15 Jan.'37 Electric work - L. T. Washington, Washington, D.C. | 19,500.00 |
| 21 Apr.'37 Elevators - Westbrook Elevator Manufacturing Co., Danville |
14,519.00 |
| 21 Apr.'37 Book conveyer - Snead & Co., Jersey City, N. J. | 15,222.00 |
| 15 Feb.'38 Screens, Schedule N - Goode Engineering Sales Co., Lynchburg |
54.00 |
| 15 Feb.'38 Weatherstripping, Schedule O - Goode Engineering Sales Co., Lynchburg |
1,298.00 |
| 15 Feb.'38 Venetian blinds, Schedule P - Gilmore, Hamm & Snyder, Charlottesville |
1,650.00 |
| 15 Feb.'38 Shades, Schedule Q - Flower School Equipment Co., Richmond |
745.51 |
| 15 Feb.'38 Walks, roads, drains, Schedule R - Charlottesville Lumber Co., Charlottesville |
8,220.00 |
| 15 Feb.'38 Landscaping, Schedule S - James F. Williams, Lynchburg |
1,770.00 |
| 15 Feb.'38 Yard wall, Schedule T - Charlottesville Lumber Co., Charlottesville |
5,954.00 |
| 734,301.51 |
649A. The Embree article ("In Order of Their Eminence: An Appraisal
of American Universities") appears on pages 652-664 of the June 1935
issue of the Atlantic Monthly, vol. 155, no. 6. It is based in part
on a study by the American Council on Education, the results of which
were published on pages 10-26 of the January 1934 number of The
Educational Record, vol. 15, no. 1.
The Scott Stadium was erected in 1930, 1931. See note 644.
649B. There is in the Alumni News, vol. 24, no. 4, January 1936, an
illustrated account of the "banquet" held in the Mayflower Hotel in
Washington on the evening of 31 January 1936.
| Force account, Moving. University Buildings and Grounds |
3,380.00 |
| 7 Sept. `38 McGregor Room - John C. Knipp & Sons, Baltimore | 18,200.00 |
| The McGregor Fund Report 1950-51, p. 51, records McGregor Room costs as $26,425.00 plus $6,000.00 for Salisbury portrait |
32,425.00 |
| The Report of the President 1950-51, p. 15, records the total cost of the Alderman Library as $965,877.00. That total did not include the McGregor Room. |
652. Statements from the largest contractor, Doyle and Russell, were an
example of the enthusiasm.
653. Visitors' Minutes, 23 October 1937. The dates for moving were announced
in Alumni News, vol. 26, no. 4, January 1948, p. 76.
654. Virginia, Acts of the General Assembly, Extra Session 1936-1937,
chap. 4, pp. 28-30.
655. The eight additional collections which "came into being" between 1925
and 1938 were:-
Colonnade Club collection - Pavilion VII, West Lawn
Current newspaper files - Madison Hall
Extension collection - Extension building
Extension drama collection - Extension building
Institute for Research in the Social Sciences - Old medical building
Music collection - Music room, West Range
Public Administration collection - Old medical building
Rural Social Economics collection - Old medical building
656. The subcommittee "on the transfer of department and school libraries
and special collections to the new building" was composed of Dean Rodman,
Chairman, Dean Metcalf, and the Librarian. Its report was recorded in
Faculty Library Committee Minutes, 8 February 1938.
657. The eight separate collections from which some books, but not all, were
transferred to the Alderman Library were the Astronomy, Fine Arts, Geology,
Law, Mathematics, Music, Physics, and Public Administration Libraries.
658. The calendar of the moving was as follows:-
| April 20 Wed. Fair. Rotunda, public documents | 11 loads |
| April 21 Thurs. Showers. Rotunda, documents, Virginia collection | 14 loads |
| April 22 Fri. Showers. Rotunda, documents, Virginia collection | 22 loads |
| April 23 Sat. Fair Rotunda, documents, Virginia collection | 27 loads |
| April 25 Mon. Fair Rotunda, documents, Virginia collection Minor Hall |
24 loads |
| April 26 Tues. Fair Minor Hall | 27 loads |
| April 27 Wed. Fair Clark Hall, newspapers | 27 loads |
| April 28 Thurs. Fair Rotunda, periodicals, newspapers; Minor Hall office |
23 loads |
| April 29 Fri. Fair Rotunda, periodicals, newspapers, Reference office |
30 loads |
| May 2 Mon. Fair Rotunda, periodicals, lower hall | 29 loads |
| May 3 Tues. Fair Rotunda, periodicals, lower hall | 27 loads |
| May 4 Wed. Fair Rotunda, periodicals, Clark Hall, newspapers | 24 loads |
| May 5 Thurs. Fair Rotunda, exchange material; Cabell Hall, Virginia documents |
28 loads |
| May 6 Fri. Fair Rotunda, Exchange material, national catalogues; Cabell Hall, Virginia documents; Museum, Ryan books |
21 loads |
| May 19 Mon. Fair Peabody Hall material | 22 loads |
| May 10 Tues. Fair Rotunda, reference and reserved books | 21 loads |
| May 11 Wed. Showers. Rotunda, books; Biology collection | 23 loads |
| May 12 Thurs. Fair Rotunda, books | 29 loads |
| May 13 Fri. Fair Rotunda, books | 23 loads |
| May 16 Mon. Fair Rotunda, books | 24 loads |
| May 17 Tues. Fair Rotunda, books | 24 loads |
| May 18 Wed. Rain Rotunda, books | 16 loads |
| May 19 Thurs. Fair Extension Library, Madison Hall collection | 28 loads |
| May 20 Fri. Fair Extension collection, Extension drama collection |
14 loads |
| May 23 Mon. Fair Astronomy Library, Classical Library, Public Administration Library |
19 loads |
| May 24 Tues. Showers. Rotunda, Miss Dinwiddie's office, Classical, Geology, Physics, and Public Administration Libraries |
20 loads |
| May 26 Thurs. Rain. Graduate House, Bruce Library | 3 loads |
| 600 loads |
the number of books in a box.
659. Alderman, Edwin Anderson. Woodrow Wilson. Memorial address
delivered before a joint session of the two houses of Congress December
15, 1924, in honor of Woodrow Wilson, late President of the United States.
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1925. The address was also published
as a book by Doubleday, Page & Company in 1925, An account of the
circumstances surrounding the address is given in Dumas Malone's Edwin
A. Alderman: a Biography, New York, 1940, pages 339-345.
660. Alderman, Edwin Anderson. Virginia: address delivered in response
to the toast "Virginia", at the banquet given by the citizens of Petersburg,
Va., to the President of the United States and the Governor of Pennsylvania
on May 19, 1909. Charlottesville, The Michie Company, 1909. This was also
published, in 1916, by Charles Scribner's Sons. There is mention of it in
the Malone biography, pages 262, 263.
661. Dumas Malone was Associate Professor of History at the University of
Virginia from 1923 to 1926 and Professor of History from 1926 to 1929.
During the last session, 1928-1929, the title was Richmond Alumni Professor
of History. He was a member of the Faculty Library Committee for the
whole period, that is, from 1923 to 1929. In 1944 (Visitors' Minutes,
27 May 1944) he was named Honorary Consultant in Biography.
662. There is a fuller description in the Alumni News Special Issue on
the Alderman Library, vol. 26, no. 10, which appeared in the summer of
1938.
663. Examples were the addition of a partition in order to form the
McGregor Room in 1938 and the addition of a partition to form an entrance
to the Taylor Room in 1949.
664. Architect R. E. Lee Taylor's original drawings and those developed
in 1944 and 1945 are preserved in the General Office of the Alderman
Library; so are the minutes of a subcommittee of the Faculty Library Committee
which in 1944 and 1945 discussed the proposed additions.
665. The seven feet, six inches, is the distance between the top of one
floor to the top of the next floor. The thickness of the floor should
therefore be subtracted in order to ascertain the actual open space.
666. That "cardinal aim" is indicated in the specifications prepared for
the use of the Architect. See footnote 631.
667. For the effect on one visitor see page 268 of "The Alchemy of Books"
by Lawrence Clark Powell in A.L.A. Bulletin, vol. 46, no. 8, September
1952.
668. An account of the Garnett Library, with photographs of "Elmwood" in
Essex County, by William H. Wranek, Jr., was printed in the Alumni News,
vol. 26, no. 7, April 1938, pp. 138, 139.
669. There were fourteen seminar or conference rooms and twenty-seven
studies.
670. As previously stated (on page 131) the preliminary study "stressed
both needs and economy."
671. The pressure for stack space became increasingly heavy not only for
processed books and manuscripts but also for shelving of unprocessed gift
materials and for exchange materials.
672. The Chemical Library had acquired new space in the additions to the
Cobb Chemical Laboratory in 1932. Remodeling of Fayerweather Hall in
1938 had expanded the space for the Fine Arts Library. With the acquisition
of Adolph Lomb collection on Optics in 1934 (Visitors' Minutes,
7 November 1934) there came additional equipment.
673. Professor Gee had made application to President Newcomb for the
second floor in Minor Hall when that building was vacated by the Department
of Law. His request, however, had been about an half hour after the
request from the Library for the same space! Therefore when the Library's
"nucleus" collection was moved to the Alderman Library in 1938, Professor
Gee was able to transfer to the Minor Hall second floor the collections
for both the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences and the School
of Rural Social Economics.
674. A collection of books for the nurses was actively carried on by
Miss Josephine McLeod, Superintendent of Nurses, about 1930, and an effort
to catalogue the collection was made by an extension class in cataloguing
conducted by Miss Dinwiddie. It was in 1944, however, that a special
room and appropriate equipment were secured, and at that time Miss Mabel
Cook Wyllie, Medical Librarian, single handed catalogued the whole collection.
675. The transfer of the books in Music was made not long after the opening
of the Alderman Library. The transfer of the collection of the Bureau
of Public Administration was effected in 1948, books to be borrowed back
temporarily as needed.
676. Extensive additions to Clark Hall were made in 1950 and 1951.
| [Manuscript notes for] The University of Virginia Library, 1825-1950; | |