The Old Library is a college

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Previously named the M. Carey Thomas Library after Bryn Mawr's first dean and second president, it was formally renamed in 2018 as a result of controversy surrounding Thomas's history of racism and anti-Semitism.Bryn Mawr College Board of Trustees, Summer 2018
BrynMawr.edu. Retrieved on 2019-10-26. The building was in use as a library until 1970, when the Mariam Coffin Canaday Library opened. Today, it is primarily a space for performances, readings, lectures, and public gatherings.

History and description

The Great Hall, the reading room of the old library, was designed by Walter Cope (of Cope and Stewardson) in 1901 and built by Stewardson and Jamieson in 1907. M. Carey Thomas played a large part in its planning, particularly by taking photographs and doing architectural research on the library's

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

inspirations, and by helping the library's construction survive many hardships, such as Cope's death and financial troubles. Built with

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

gray stone and lined with

coffered A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also ...

oak paneling, the Great Hall was inspired by the dining hall at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street, Oxford, Broad Street and Parks Road ...

and features a king post truss ceiling painted by Lockwood de Forest with geometric

renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

patterns that continue down the wall, ending with tulip-bordered

corbels In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a bearing weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applie ...

situated between large, arch-shaped lead-paned windows, which flood the space with light. The tracery of the windows is also modeled after Wadham College's dining hall, albeit without Wadham's

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

. This area was renovated and conserved by Voith & Mactavish Architects LLP. Carey Thomas asked Cope specifically not to "copy the interior plan at any other college, as it was a plan worked out by us at Bryn Mawr for us own individual needs and so far as he and I knew absolutely unique." The Great Hall was once the home of an

Athena Lemnia The ''Lemnian Athena'', or ''Athena Lemnia'', was a classical Greek statue of the goddess Athena that stood on the Acropolis of Athens. According to the traveler Pausanias, who visited Athens in the 2nd century CE, the statue was created by Pheid ...

statue (damaged in 1997) that is now located in a high alcove in the Rhys Carpenter Art and Archaeology Library. A plaster cast of that Athena now stands in her place at the Great Hall. The library encloses a large open courtyard called "The

Cloisters A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a warm southe ...

", which is the site of the College's traditional Lantern Night ceremony. The

cremated Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a corpse through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India, Nepal, and ...

remains of M. Carey Thomas and

Emmy Noether Amalie Emmy Noether (23 March 1882 – 14 April 1935) was a German mathematician who made many important contributions to abstract algebra. She also proved Noether's theorem, Noether's first and Noether's second theorem, second theorems, which ...

are in the courtyard cloister. According to her 1985 graduation address, alumna

Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress whose Katharine Hepburn on screen and stage, career as a Golden Age of Hollywood, Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong ...

used to go

skinny dipping Nude swimming is the practice of swimming without clothing, whether in natural bodies of water or in swimming pools. A colloquial term for nude swimming is " skinny dipping". In both British and American English, to swim means "to move throug ...

in the Cloisters' fountain. A popular

tradition A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common e ...

is for undergraduates to skinny dip before graduating, and conveniently the fountain contains

chlorinated In chemistry, halogenation is a chemical reaction which introduces one or more halogens into a chemical compound. Halide-containing compounds are pervasive, making this type of transformation important, e.g. in the production of polymers, drugs. ...

water. The building was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1991. In 2017, the College established a working group to address M. Carey Thomas's legacy of racism and anti-Semitism and began phasing out the use of her name. The following year, the Board of Trustees formalized the decision to use the names “The Old Library” and “The Great Hall” in connection with the building. A set of signs contextualizing Thomas and the renaming of the building were installed by the Bryn Mawr Histories Group in 2019.Old Library Signs
BrynMawr.edu. Retrieved on 2019-10-26.

Gallery

File:Great Hall Bryn Mawr College PA.jpg, Great Hall File:Carey Thomas Ceiling PA.jpg, Ceiling in the Great Hall Image:Bryn Mawr College Cloisters.JPG, Cloisters

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Library buildings completed in 1922 National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania Libraries in Pennsylvania Bryn Mawr College Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Cope and Stewardson buildings