The John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, nicknamed "the Rock", is the primary teaching and research library for the humanities, social sciences, and fine arts at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
in
Providence, Rhode Island. It is one of five individual libraries which make up the Brown University Library.
The library was named after
John D. Rockefeller Jr., who graduated in the class of 1897. The building was constructed between 1962 and 1964 and designed by
Danforth Toan
Danforth Toan (1918-2013) was an architect known for Brutalist architecture who specialized in college libraries across North America. As a founding partner at Warner Burn Toan & Lunde Architects, he contributed to the design of dozens of building ...
.
The building drew attention as the first building in the area constructed in the Brutalist style, and alongside the
Sciences Library, Graduate Center, and List Art Building, is one of the campus's four significant examples of
Brutalist architecture.
The library houses Brown University's East Asian Collection, which started in 1961 after
Charles Sidney Gardner
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...
donated about 30,000 volumes, most of them Chinese. In 1965, a Federal grant led to the formal establishment of the East Asia Language and Area Center, which has since become the East Asian Studies Department. The University began to acquire Japanese works after a grant was received in 1980. The collection itself now includes a Korean collection.
The most recent renovations of the "Rock" include the creation of the David and Laura Finn Reading Room (2009), the Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab (2012) and the main floor reading room (2014).
The John D. Rockefeller Jr. library should not be confused with the
Cambridge University Library at the
University of Cambridge which was built with funds from John D. Rockefeller and is colloquially referred to as the Rockefeller Library.
See also
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Annmary Brown Memorial
Annmary Brown Memorial is an art museum, library and mausoleum at Brown University. It is located at 21 Brown Street in Providence, Rhode Island. It is one of six libraries comprising the University Library system. Before merging with the univers ...
*
John Hay Library
*
Orwig Music Library
The following is a list of buildings at Brown University. Five buildings are listed with the United States Department of the Interior's National Register of Historic Places: University Hall (1770), Nightingale–Brown House (1792), Gardner House ...
*
Sciences Library (Brown University)
The Sciences Library, nicknamed the "SciLi" (pronounced “sigh-lie”), at Brown University is a high-rise building in Providence, Rhode Island built in 1971 in the Brutalist style. At , it is tied with One Citizens Plaza as the 16th-tallest b ...
*
John Carter Brown Library
*
Sciences Library (Brown University)
The Sciences Library, nicknamed the "SciLi" (pronounced “sigh-lie”), at Brown University is a high-rise building in Providence, Rhode Island built in 1971 in the Brutalist style. At , it is tied with One Citizens Plaza as the 16th-tallest b ...
*
List of libraries in Rhode Island
References and external links
Rockefeller Library
{{Authority control
Library buildings completed in 1964
Brown University libraries
World Digital Library partners
Federal depository libraries