Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (BRBL) was a 1963 gift of the Beinecke family. The building was designed byPritzker Prize architect Gordon Bunshaft[1] of the firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill,[2] and is the largest building in the world reserved exclusively for the preservation of rare books and manuscripts. It is located at 121 Wall Street in the center of the Yale campus in New Haven, Connecticut, inHewitt Quadrangle, which is more commonly referred to as "Beinecke Plaza".
Architecture
A six-story above-ground glass-enclosed tower of book stacks is surrounded by a windowless rectangular outer shell, supported only on four massivepiers at the corners of the building, which descend 50 feet to bedrock. The outer walls are made of translucent veined marble panels quarried fromDanby, Vermont, which transmit subdued lighting and provide protection from direct sunlight. At night, the stone panels transmit light from the interior, giving the exterior of the building an amber glow. The outside dimensions have "Platonic" mathematical proportions of 1:2:3 (height: width: length). The building has been called a precious "jewel box".[3][4] The building has also been called a "laboratory for the humanities".[5]
A public exhibition hall surrounds the glass stack tower, and displays among other things one of the 48 extant copies of the Gutenberg Bible.[4] Two basement floors extend under much of Hewitt Quadrangle. The first level down, the "Court" level, centers on a sunken courtyard in front of the Beinecke, which features The Garden (Pyramid, Sun, and Cube). These are abstract allegorical sculptures by Isamu Noguchi that are said to represent time (the pyramid), sun (the disc), and chance (the cube).[6] This level also features a secure reading room for visiting researchers, administrative offices, and book storage areas. The level of the building two floors below ground has movable-aisle compact shelving for books and archives.[7]
During the 1960s, the Claes Oldenburg sculpture Lipstick on a Caterpillar Track was displayed in Hewitt Quadrangle. The sculpture has since been moved to the courtyard of Morse College, one of the university's residential dormitories.
The elegance of the Beinecke later inspired the glass-walled structure that holds the original core collection of the British Library (the books gifted byKing George III and referred to as the King's Library within the British Library building in Euston, London).
History
In the late 19th century, the rarer and more valuable books of the Library of Yale College were placed on special shelving at the Old Library (now Dwight Hall). These were moved to the Rare Book Room collection of Sterling Memorial Library when it opened in 1930. When the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library opened its doors on October 14, 1963, it had become the home of the volumes from the Sterling Memorial Library Rare Book Room, and three special collections—the Collection of American Literature, the Collection of Western Americana, and the Collection of German Literature. Shortly afterward, they were joined by the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection.
Beinecke Library became the repository for books in the Yale collection printed anywhere before 1601, books printed in Latin America before 1751, books printed in North America before 1821, newspapers and broadsides printed in the United States before 1851, European tracts and pamphlets printed before 1801, and Slavic, East European, Near and Middle Eastern books through the eighteenth century, as well as special books outside these categories.
Now, the collection spans through to the present day, including such modern works as limited-edition poetry and artists' books. The library also contains thousands of linear feet of archival material, ranging from ancient papyri and medieval manuscripts to the archived personal papers of modern writers.
Notes and references
1. ^ "'Gordon Bunshaft on Beinecke Library'". Som.com. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-01.
2. ^ "Yale University - Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library". www.SOM.com. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-01.
3. ^ "About the Library Building: Online Tour". Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
4. ^ a b Waytkus, Liz. "Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library". docomomo_us. Docomomo US. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
5. ^ Fellman, Bruce (February 2002). "Leading the Libraries". Yale Alumni Magazine. Yale Alumni Publications, Inc.. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
6. ^ "The Garden (Pyramid, Sun, and Cube)". Public Art at Yale. Yale University. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
7. ^ a b Kopley, Emily (Nov 2005). "Beneath the Beinecke". The New Journal: The Magazine about Yale and New Haven, since 1967. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
