Everything about The Low Memorial Library totally explained
The
Low Memorial Library is the administrative center of
Columbia University. Built in
1895 by University President
Seth Low in memory of his father,
Abiel Abbot Low, and financed with $1 million of Low's own money due to the recalcitrance of university alumni, it's the focal point and most prominent building on the university's
Morningside Heights campus. The steps leading to the library's columned facade are a popular hangout and meeting place for Columbia students, as well as home to
Daniel Chester French's sculpture,
Alma Mater, a university symbol that's the subject of many rumors. Low Library was officially named a
New York City landmark in
1967, then a
National Historic Landmark 20 years later.
It is capped by the largest freestanding granite dome in the United States.
Architecture
Designed by the acclaimed firm of
McKim, Mead, and White, Low's design melds elements of Athens'
Parthenon and the Roman
Pantheon, especially the latter's dome. In addition, the library is in the shape of a Greek Cross and it features windows modelled on those of the
Baths of Diocletian. The columns on the library's front facade are in the
Ionic order, suited to institutions of arts and letters. An inscription on the building's
attic describes the history of the university. It reads:
King's College Founded in the Province of New York
By Royal Charter in the Reign of George II
Perpetuated as Columbia College by the People of the State of New York
When they became Free and Independent - Maintained and Cherished from Generation to Generation
For the Advancement of the Public Good and the Glory of Almighty God
The interior abounds with classical references. At the entryway are bronze busts of
Zeus and
Apollo. The
foyer contains a white marble bust of
Pallas Athena, modeled after the
Minerve du Collier at the
Louvre. She is surrounded there by the twelve signs of the zodiac. The 106-foot tall rotunda, formerly the library reading room when the building was used for its original function, is lined with columns of solid green Connemara marble from Ireland, topped with gold capitals. Roman and Greek philosophers
Demosthenes,
Euripides,
Sophocles, and
Augustus Caesar stare down from the rotunda's heights as the four points of knowledge, Law, Philosophy, Medicine, and Theology mark the four points of the Greek Cross. The rest of the interior is finished with Italian and Istrian marble.
Low Library's location, atop a plinth of stairs at the centre of campus, was meant to demonstrate the value of the secular pursuit of knowledge as opposed to religion, the role of which was minimised via the subsidiary placement of the university's religious buildings on Low's right and left flanks. Still, a
Judeo-Christian influence is evidenced by the building's shape, in the form of a
Greek cross.
A late-19th century real estate magazine, believing Low to be patterned after a French church by "the architect Rumpf", criticised the design, writing that "there is scarcely any original designing done in this city, except the vagaries of the incompetent. The rest is mostly a copybook reproduction of classical and other detail. Successful architects have too much to do to be pre-eminently artists -- they must be first-rate men of business."
History
The first building on Columbia's new Morningside campus when it was built in 1895, rising out of cropfields, Low originally served as the university's main library, a role which ended when it was supplanted by the larger
Butler Library in
1934, and it now only holds the university's archives in addition to its administrative offices. Confusingly, however, the building's facade is still etched with the words "The Library of Columbia University," leading many to mistakenly believe that it retains its earlier role.
During the
1968 Columbia protests, Low was occupied by students objecting to, among other things, the proposed construction of a university-owned gymnasium in
Morningside Park as well as Columbia's involvement with the
Vietnam War. Within Low, the students barricaded themselves inside the office of University President
Grayson L. Kirk, where they sifted for documents. Dramatic scenes ensued, including attempts to catapult food to the protesters and efforts by their adversaries to cordon them off. The access of Columbia media outlets such as
WKCR and the
Columbia Daily Spectator that allowed them to break stories relating to the events in Low prior to national news organizations remains a mystery; many believe students had access to
secret tunnels. The protesters were only removed after a controversially violent assault on the building by the
New York Police Department.
In
1954, during the University's bicentennial, Low Library was commemorated on a postage stamp. For the University's semiquencentennial in
2004, it was placed on a stamped postal card.
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