Archibald Cary Coolidge (March 6, 1866 – January 14, 1928) was an American educator and diplomat. He was a professor of history at Harvard College from 1908 and the first director of the Harvard University Library from 1910 until his death. Coolidge was also a scholar in international affairs, a planner of the Widener Library , a member of the United States Foreign Service , and editor-in-chief of the policy journal Foreign Affairs .
64-544: Widener can refer to: Places [ edit ] Widener Library , of Harvard University Widener University , a private university in Chester, Pennsylvania Widener University School of Law , the law school of Widener University Widener, Arkansas , a town in St. Francis County, Arkansas, United States People [ edit ] Widener (surname) , list of people with
128-531: A 1907 graduate of Harvard College , and an accomplished bibliophile despite his youth —died in the sinking of the Titanic . His father George Dunton Widener also perished, but his mother Eleanor Elkins Widener survived. Harry Widener's will instructed that his mother, when "in her judgment Harvard University shall make arrangements for properly caring for my collection of books ... shall give them to said University to be known as
192-550: A 1969 burglary attempt conjectured by Harvard's police chief to have been inspired by the 1964 heist film Topkapi . By the opening of the twentieth century alarms had been issuing for many years about Harvard's "disgracefully inadequate" library, Gore Hall, completed in 1841 (when Harvard owned some 44,000 books) and declared full in 1863. Harvard Librarian Justin Winsor concluded his 1892 Annual Report by pleading, "I have in earlier reports exhausted
256-466: A committee of architects termed Gore Hall unsafe [and] unsuitable for its object ... No amount of tinkering can make it really good ... Hopelessly overcrowded ... leaks when there is a heavy rain ... intolerably hot in summer ... Books are put in double rows and are not infrequently left lying on top of one another, or actually on the floor ... With university librarian William Coolidge Lane reporting that
320-594: A compass, a sandwich, and a whistle." At the building's heart are the Widener Memorial Rooms , displaying papers and mementos recalling the life and death of Harry Widener, as well as the Harry Elkins Widener Collec;tion , "the precious group of rare and wonderfully interesting books brought together by Mr. Widener", to which was later added one of the few perfect Gutenberg Bibles —the object of
384-554: A condition of her gift, that learning to swim be made a requirement for graduation from Harvard. (This requirement, the Harvard Crimson once elaborated erroneously, was "dropped in the late 1970s because it was deemed discriminatory against physically disabled students".) "Among the many myths relating to Harry Elkins Widener, this is the most prevalent", says Harvard's "Ask a Librarian" service. Though Harvard has had swimming requirements at various times (e.g. for rowers on
448-542: A copy of Poems written by Wil. Shake-speare, gent. (1640) in its original sheepskin binding; an inscribed copy of Boswell 's Life of Samuel Johnson ; Johnson 's own Bible ("used so much by its owner that several pages were worn out and Johnson copied them over in his own writing"); and first editions, presentation copies, and similarly valuable volumes of Robert Louis Stevenson , Thackeray , Charlotte Brontë , Blake , George Cruikshank , Isaac Cruikshank , Robert Cruikshank and Dickens —including
512-400: A longstanding administrative headache.) Nonetheless, certain deficiencies were soon noted. A primitive form of air conditioning was abandoned within a few months. "The need of better toilet facilities [in the stacks] has been pressed upon us during the past year by several rather distressing experiences," Widener Superintendent Frank Carney wrote discreetly in 1918. And after
576-443: A most desperate situation.") Later-built tunnels, from the stacks level furthest underground, connect to nearby Pusey Library , Lamont Library , and Houghton Library . An enclosed bridge connecting to Houghton's reading room via a Widener window—built after Eleanor Widener's heirs agreed to waive her gift's proscription of exterior additions or alterations —was removed in 2004. Houghton and Lamont were built in
640-520: A university-wide search for castoff furniture left many of the stacks' 300 carrels still unequipped, Coolidge wrote to J. P. Morgan Jr. , "There is something rather humiliating in having to proclaim to the world that [Widener offers] unequalled opportunity to the scholar and investigator who wishes to come here, but that in order to use these opportunities he must bring his own chair, table and electric lamp." (A week later Coolidge wrote again: "Your very generous gift [has helped] pull me out of
704-562: Is also without foundation. A Widener curator's compilation of "fanciful oral history" recited by student tour guides includes "Flowers mysteriously appear every morning outside the Widener Room" and "Harry used to have carnations dyed crimson to remind him of Harvard, and so his mother kept up the tradition" in the flowers displayed in the Memorial Rooms. In H. P. Lovecraft 's fictional universe Cthulhu Mythos , Widener
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#1732779613500768-491: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Widener Library The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library , housing some 3.5 million books, is the centerpiece of the Harvard Library system. It honors 1907 Harvard College graduate and book collector Harry Elkins Widener , and was built by his mother Eleanor Elkins Widener soon after his death in
832-534: Is one of five libraries holding a 17th-century edition of the Necro;nomicon , hidden somewhere in the stacks. Thomas Wolfe , who earned a Harvard master's degree in 1922, told Max Perkins that he spent most of his Harvard years in Widener's reading room. He wrote of "[wandering] through the stacks of that great library like some damned soul, never at rest—ever leaping ahead from
896-723: Is recognized as having turned the Harvard College Library into a major research institution. Coolidge helped make the Harvard Library "one of the best organized libraries for scholars and students as well as one of the great libraries of the world." He is further credited with bringing the study of history of Latin America, the Far East, and the Slavic countries to the history department of Harvard. In 1908, he
960-606: The Boston Evening Transcript ) "the doors were thrown open, and both graduates and undergraduates had an opportunity to see the beauties and utilities of this important university acquisition." "I hope it will become the heart of the University," Eleanor Widener said, "a centre for all the interests that make Harvard a great university." The central Memorial Rooms—an outer rotunda housing memorabilia of
1024-655: The Austro-Hungarian Empire ; the Ott class serves the purpose for the Ottoman Empire . Dante , Molière , and Montaigne each gets a class of his own." In the 1970s new arrivals began to be classified according to a modified version of the Library of Congress system . The two systems' differences reflect "competing theories of knowledge ... In a sense, the [old] Widener system
1088-641: The Charles River , or as a now-defunct test for entering freshmen) Bentinck-Smith writes that "There is absolutely no evidence ... that [Eleanor Widener] was, as a result of the Titanic disaster, in any way responsible for [any] compulsory swimming test." Another story, holding that Eleanor Widener donated a further sum to underwrite perpetual availability of ice cream (purportedly Harry Widener's favorite dessert) in Harvard dining halls,
1152-642: The Harvard Depository in Southbor;ough, Massachusetts , from which they are retrieved overnight on request. A project to insert barcodes into each book, begun in the late 1970s, had some 1 million volumes yet to reach as of 2006. The works displayed in the Memorial Rooms comprise Harry Widener's collection at the time of his death, "major monuments of English letters, many remarkable for their bindings and illustrations or unusual provenance": Shakespeare First Folios ;
1216-649: The Owl Club and graduated summa cum laude in history in 1887. He also attended the University of Berlin and the École des Sciences Politiques in Paris. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg in Germany 1892. From 1893 on, he taught various history courses at Harvard, first as an instructor, from 1899 on as assistant professor, and in 1908, he was made a full professor of history. Coolidge today
1280-477: The sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Widener's "vast and cavernous" stacks hold works in more than one hundred languages which together comprise "one of the world's most comprehensive research collections in the humanities and social sciences ." Its 57 miles (92 km) of shelves, along five miles (8 km) of aisles on ten levels, comprise a " labyrinth " which one student "could not enter without feeling that she ought to carry
1344-574: The stacks , while the north contains administrative offices and various reading rooms, including the Main Reading Room (now the Loker Reading Room)—;which, spanning the entire front of the building and some 42 feet (13 m) in both depth and height, was termed by architectural historian Bainbridge Bunting "the most ostentatious interior space at Harvard." A topmost floor, supported by
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#17327796135001408-467: The "megalibraries", only Harvard allows patrons the "long-treasured privilege" of entering the general-collections stacks to browse as they please, instead of requesting books through library staff. Until a recent renovation the stacks had little signage—"There was the expectation that if you were good enough to qualify to get into the stacks you certainly didn't need any help" (as one official put it) so that "learning to [find books in] Widener
1472-421: The 1940s to relieve Widener, which had become simultaneously too small—its shelves were full —and too large—its immense size and complex catalog made books difficult to locate. But with Harvard's collections doubling every 17 years, by 1965 Widener was again close to full, prompting construction of Pusey, and in the early 1980s library officials "pushed the panic button" again, leading to
1536-619: The American minister in France (1892), and as secretary to the American legation in Vienna (1893). At the end of World War I , more important assignments followed. Coolidge joined the Inquiry study group established by Woodrow Wilson . The U.S. State Department sent him in 1918 to Russia to report on the situation there. In 1919, he was made the head of the so-called Coolidge Mission, which
1600-737: The Balkans and made recommendations for the benefit of the U.S. participants at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 . In 1921, Coolidge worked as a negotiator for the American Relief Administration and helped organize the humanitarian aid to Russia after the famine of 1921 . Coolidge also was one of the founders of the Council on Foreign Relations , which grew out of the Inquiry study group, and served as
1664-568: The Elkins and the Widener families. "Mrs. Widener does not give the University the money to build a new library, but has offered to build a library satisfactory in external appearance to herself, " Harvard President Abbott Lawrence Lowell wrote privately. "The exterior was her own choice, and she has decided architectural opinions." Harvard historian William Bentinck-Smith has written that To [Harvard officials] Mrs. Widener
1728-930: The Harry Elkins Widener Collection", and he had told a friend, not long before he died, "I want to be remembered in connection with a great library, [but] I do not see how it is going to be brought about." To enable the fulfillment of her son's wishes Eleanor Widener briefly considered funding an addition to Gore Hall, but soon determined to build instead a completely new and far larger library building—"a perpetual memorial" to Harry Widener, housing not only his personal book collection but Harvard's general library as well, with room for growth. As Biel has written, "The [Harvard architects] committee's Beaux Arts design [for Gore Hall's projected replacement], with its massiveness and symmetry, offered monumentality with nothing more particular to monumentalize than
1792-401: The Memorial Rooms, after a benediction by Bishop William Lawrence , a portrait of Harry Widener was unveiled, then remarks delivered by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (speaking on "The Meaning of a Great Library" on behalf of Eleanor Widener) and Lowell ("For years we have longed for a library that would serve our purpose, but we never hoped to see such a library as this"). Afterward (said
1856-494: The University and its friends a broad and comprehensive idea of the Library and its possibilities, and had the satisfaction of seeing the Harvard Library under his administration reach an assured position among the great libraries of the world. This result was due in large to his own wisdom, vision, patient skill, and interest in every side of the Library's welfare. He encouraged equally the acquisition of unique special collections,
1920-806: The Widener stacks, which were "my Archimedes' bathtub , my burning bush , my dish of mold where I found my personal penicillin." Archibald Cary Coolidge Archibald Coolidge was born in Boston, Massachusetts , as the third of five boys. His parents were Harvard University Law School graduate Joseph Randolph Coolidge and Julia ( née Gardner) Coolidge, both from prominent and wealthy Boston Brahmin families. His siblings included U.S. Minister to Nicaragua John Gardner Coolidge , noted lawyer Harold Jefferson Coolidge Sr. (the father of zoologist Harold Jefferson Coolidge Jr. ), architect J. Randolph Coolidge Jr. and mathematician and fellow Harvard professor Julian Lowell Coolidge . His paternal uncle
1984-473: The aspirations of the modern university"—until the Titanic sank and "through delicate negotiation, [Harvard] convinced Eleanor Widener that the most eloquent tribute to Harry would be an entire library rather than a rare book wing." To her gift Eleanor Widener attached a number of stipulations, including that the project's architects be the firm of Horace Trumbauer & Associates , which had built several mansions for both
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2048-410: The building's light switches were delivering electric shocks to his staff, and dormitory basements pressed into service as overflow storage for Harvard's 543,000 books, the committee drew up a proposal for replacement of Gore in stages. Andrew Carnegie was approached for financing without success. On April 15, 1912, Harry Elkins Widener —scion of two of the wealthiest families in America,
2112-526: The building] one will catch a glimpse in the distance of the portrait of young Harry Widener on the further wall [of the Memorial Rooms], if the intervening doors happen to be open." For many years Eleanor Widener hosted Commencement Day luncheons in the Memorial Rooms. The family underwrites their upkeep, including weekly renewal of the flowers —originally roses but now carnations. Touted as "the last word in library construction",
2176-555: The construction of the Harvard Depository in 1986. The ninety-unit Harvard Library system, of which Widener is the anchor, is the only academic library among the world's five "megalibraries"—Widener, the New York Public Library , the Library of Congress , France's Bibliothèque Nationale , and the British Library —making it "unambiguously the greatest university library in
2240-490: The day of the new library's dedication, it was Trumbauer associate Julian F. Abele who had overall responsibility for the building's design, which largely followed the 1910 architects' committee's outline (though with the committee's central circulation room shifted from the center to the northeast corner, yielding pride of place to the Memorial Rooms). After Gore Hall was demolished to make way, ground
2304-451: The development of two separate card catalogs—the "Union" catalog and the "Public" catalog—housed on different floors and having a complex interrelationship "which perplexed students and faculty alike." It was not until the 1990s that the electronic Harvard On-Line Library Information System was able to completely supplant both physical catalogs. The building also houses a number of special libraries in dedicated spaces outside
2368-600: The head of a flight of stairs that would not disgrace the capitol in Washing;ton ." Sources describe the building's style as (variously) Beaux-Arts , Georgian , Hellenistic , or "the austere, formalistic Imperial [or 'Imperial and Classical'] style displayed in the Law School's Langdell Hall and the Medical School Quadrangle ". The east, south, and west wings house
2432-407: The impracticality of reclassifying millions of books, those received before the changeover remain under their original "Widener" classifications. Thus among works on a given subject, older books will be found at one shelf location (under a "Widener" classification) and newer ones at another (under a related Library of Congress classification). In addition, an accident of the building's layout led to
2496-610: The improvement of the Harvard Library. He was an essential member of the Harvard Faculty and made improvements to the college that would prove to be long-lasting. Between college terms and parallel to his post at Harvard, Coolidge also pursued a career in diplomacy , which fit his travel interests and his desire and aptitude for learning languages well. He held posts as secretary to the American legation in Saint Petersburg, Russia (1890–1891), as private secretary to
2560-534: The language of warning and anxiety, in representing the totally inadequate accommodations for books and readers which Gore Hall affords. Each twelve months brings us nearer to a chaotic condition"; his successor Archibald Cary Coolidge asserted that the Boston Public Library was a better place to write an undergraduate thesis . Despite substantial additions in 1876 and 1907, in 1910
2624-585: The life and death of Harry Widener, and an inner library displaying the 3300 rare books collected by him—were described by the Boston Sunday Herald soon after the dedication: The [rotunda] is of Alabama marble except the domed ceiling, with fluted columns and Ionic capitals [while the library] is finished in carved English oak , the carving having been done in England; the high bookcases are fitted with glass shelves and bronze sashes,
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2688-514: The new building's amenities included telephones, pneumatic tubes , book lifts and conveyors, elevators, and a dining-room and kitchenette "for the ladies of the staff". Advertisements for the manufacturer of the building's shelving highlighted its "dark brown enamel finish, harmonizing with oak trim", and special interchangeable regular and oversize shelves meant that books on a given subject could be shelved together regardless of size. The Library Journal found "especially interesting not so much
2752-402: The pages I read to thoughts of those I want to read"; his alter ego Eugene Gant read with a watch in his hand, "laying waste of the shelves." Historian Barbara Tuchman considered "the single most formative experience" of her career the writing of her undergraduate thesis, for which she was "allowed to have as my own one of those little cubicles with a table under a window" in
2816-408: The petty cash book kept by Dickens while a young law clerk. Book collector George Sidney Hellman , writing soon after Harry Widener's death, observed that he was "not satisfied alone in having a rare book or a rare book inscribed by the author; it was with him a prerequisite that the volume should be in immaculate condition." Harry Widener "died suddenly, just as he was beginning to be one of
2880-510: The prompt and steady purchase of books asked for, and improved facilities for work by members of the University and by visiting scholars." His own department described his personal characteristics: "He gave himself to history; and it was characteristic of him that his gifts to the Department in his lifetime should take permanent form in his bequests... One prejudice he did not rise above- a prejudice for intellectual distinction; but to him this
2944-431: The spacious and lofty reading rooms" as the innovation of placing student carrels and private faculty studies directly in the stack, reflecting Lowell's desire to put "the massive resources of the stack close to the scholar's hand, reuniting books and readers in an intimacy that nineteenth-century ['closed-stack' library designs] had long precluded". (Competition for the seventy coveted faculty studies has been
3008-472: The stacks framework itself, contains thirty-two rooms for special collections, studies, offices, and seminars. The Memorial Rooms (see § Widener Memorial Rooms ) are in the building's center, between what were originally two light courts (28 by 110 ft or 8.5 by 33 m) now enclosed as additional reading rooms. The building was dedicated immediately after Commencement Day exercises on June 24, 1915. Lowell and Coolidge mounted
3072-579: The stacks, including: There are also special collections in the history of science , linguistics , Near Eastern languages and civilizations, paleography , and Sanskrit . The contents of the Treasure Room, holding Harvard's most precious rare books and manuscripts (other than the Harry Elkins Widener Collection itself) were transferred to newly built Houghton Library in 1942. Legend holds that to spare future Harvard men her son's fate, Eleanor Widener insisted, as
3136-466: The steps to the main door, where Eleanor Widener presented them with the building's keys. The first book formally brought into the new library was the 1634 edition of John Downame 's The Christian Warfare Against the Devil, World, and Flesh , believed (at the time) to be the only volume, of those bequeathed to the school by John Harvard in 1638, to have survived the 1764 burning of Harvard Hall . In
3200-580: The study of Asia, the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, and Greek and Latin antiquity . These collections include significant holdings in linguistics , ancient and modern languages, folklore , economics , history of science and technology, philosophy , psychology , and sociology . The building's 3.5 million volumes occupy 57 miles (92 km) of shelves along five miles (8 km) of aisles on ten levels divided into three wings each. Alone among
3264-527: The surname See also [ edit ] Rhône (The) v. Peter A.B. Widener (The) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Widener . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Widener&oldid=1129712944 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
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#17327796135003328-412: The windows are hung with heavy curtains [and] upon the desks are vases filled with flowers. The big marble fireplace and the portrait of Harry Widener occupy a large portion of the south wall. Standing front of the fireplace one may look through the vista made by the doorways, the staircases within and the stairs without and get a glimpse of the green campus. Conversely, "even from the very entrance [of
3392-525: The world's great collectors," said the Collection's first curator. "They formed a young man's library, and are to be preserved as he left it" —except that the Widener family has the exclusive privilege of adding to it. Harvard's "greatest typographical treasure" is one of the only thirty-eight perfect copies extant of the Gutenberg Bible , purchased while Harry
3456-475: The world," in the words of a Harvard official. According to the Harvard Library's own description, Widener's humanities and social sciences collections include holdings in the history, literature, public affairs, and cultures of five continents. Of particular note are the collections of Africana , Americana , European local history , Judaica , Latin American studies, Middle Eastern studies, Slavic studies, and rich collections of materials for
3520-430: Was Aristotelian ; its divisions were empirical, describing and reflecting the languages and cultural origins of books and highlighting their relations to one another in language, place, and time; [the Library of Congress system], by contrast, was Platonic , looking past the surface of language and nation to reflect the idealized, essential discipline in which each [item] might be said to belong." Because of
3584-536: Was Thomas Jefferson Coolidge , the Boston businessman and U.S. Minister to France . His father, Joseph Randolph Coolidge, was a great-grandson of the 3rd United States President Thomas Jefferson , through his maternal great-grandparents, Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. and Martha Jefferson Randolph . Archibald's great-uncles were Thomas Jefferson Randolph , George Wythe Randolph , and his grandfather, Joseph Coolidge ,
3648-617: Was "appointed by the American Delegation on 27 December and set up headquarters in Vienna.". Secretary of State Robert Lansing informed Coolidge in a telegram dated December 26, 1918, that "You are hereby assigned to the American Commission to observe political conditions in Austria-Hungary and neighboring countries.". Coolidge and his group in Vienna analyzed the state of affairs on Central Europe and
3712-686: Was a distant relative of President Calvin Coolidge . Through his mother, Archibald was the nephew of John Lowell Gardner II . His mother and uncle John were the grandchildren of merchant Joseph Peabody , one of the wealthiest men in the United States at the time of his death in 1844. Coolidge attended seven different elementary and preparatory schools, the Adams Academy in Quincy , and Harvard College , where he became associated with
3776-490: Was a lovely and generous lady whose wealth, power, and remoteness made her a somewhat terrifying figure who must not be roused to annoyance or outrage. Once [construction] began, all financial transactions were the donor's private business, and no one at Harvard ever knew the exact cost. Mrs. Widener was counting on $ 2 million, [but] it is probable the cost exceeded $ 3.5 million [equivalent to $ 80 million in 2023]. Though Harvard awarded Trumbauer an honorary degree on
3840-424: Was a thing of many kinds... His attachments were of the heart. He was a man of strong feeling, quick to anger at injustice, profoundly stirred by sympathy. He hated the waste of useless friction and mis-directed strength... His mind was essentially political: he knew that he lived in a world of men, not of ideas." Coolidge's time at Harvard shows his true dedication to Academia, with his emphasized focus on history and
3904-780: Was abroad by his grandfather Peter A. B. Widener (who had intended to surprise Harry with it once the Titanic docked in New York) and added to the Collection by the Widener family in 1944. Like all Harvard's valuable books, works in the Widener Collec;tion may be consulted by researchers demonstrating a genuine research need. Like many large libraries, Widener originally classified its holdings according to its own idiosyncratic system—the "Widener" (or "Harvard") system—which (writes Battles) follows "the division of knowledge in its [early twentieth-century] formulation. The Aus class contains books on
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#17327796135003968-711: Was appointed to the Harvard Library Council and was chairman of this council in 1909. In 1910, he became the first director of the Harvard University Library. Coolidge's tenure saw the building of the Widener Library . To detail his efforts in making the Harvard Library a centerpiece for students at the university, "The first to hold this office, Professor Coolidge gave a creative interpretation to its functions and made it an essential part of University organization. He kept before
4032-615: Was broken on February 12, 1913, and the cornerstone laid June 16. By later that year some 50,000 bricks were being laid each day. At Harvard's "geographical and intellectual heart" directly across Tercentenary Theatre from Memorial Church , Widener Library is a hollow rectangle of " Harvard brick with Indiana limestone traceries ", 250 by 200 by 80 feet high (76 by 61 by 24 m) and enclosing 320,000 square feet (30,000 m ) , "colonnaded on its front by immense pillars with elaborate [Corinthian capitals] , all of which stand at
4096-553: Was like a rite of passage, a test of manhood", and a 1979 monograph on library design complained, "After one goes through the main doors of Harvard's Widener Library, the only visible sign says merely ENTER." At times color-coded lines and shoeprints have been applied to the floors to help patrons keep their bearings. As of 2015 some 1700 persons enter the building each day, and about 2800 books are checked out. Another 3 million Widener items reside offsite (along with many millions of items from other Harvard libraries) at
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