Cleveland Public Library

The Art, Architecture, and Collections of the Main Library

A Self-Guided Tour

Cleveland Public Library 325 Superior Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44114 (216) 623-2800 www.cpl.org Cleveland Public Library

The Art, Architecture, and Collections of the Main Library

Table of Contents

Main Building, Terrestrial Globe

Eastman Reading Garden, section from Tom Otterness bronze figures

Louis Stokes Wing

Introduction 1 Title Page 2 Photograph Credits 3 Introduction 6 Architectural Glossary & Building Diagram Main Building 9 History of Main Library 10 History of the Group Plan 17 Main Building, First Floor 23 Main Building, Second Floor 24 Main Building, Third Floor 28 Main Building, Fourth Floor Louis Stokes Wing 33 Louis Stokes Wing, Lower Level 36 Louis Stokes Wing, Sixth Floor 40 Louis Stokes Wing, Fifth Floor 42 Louis Stokes Wing, Fourth Floor 43 Louis Stokes Wing, Third Floor 44 Louis Stokes Wing, Second Floor 46 Louis Stokes Wing, First Floor Eastman Reading Garden 49 Eastman Reading Garden

52 Main Library Renovation & Construction Project Team

i Cleveland Public Library

The Art, Architecture, and Collections of the Main Library

A Self-Guided Tour

Cleveland Public Library

Board of Trustees Venerine L. Branham, President Robert C. Petrulis, Vice President Charlene A. Jones, Secretary Thomas D. Corrigan The Virtualwww.cpl.org Library Frances Hunter Patricia S. James Sandra E. Noble

Administration More than 100 computers in the Main Library Marilyn Gell Mason, Director Andrew A. Venable, Deputy Director provide access to a dynamic universe of elec- Joan L. Clark, Head of Main Library Publication Credits

Joan F. Brown, Head of Human Resources Writer tronic information. Through these computers, Robert T. Carterette, Head of Automation Services Marc Vincent, Ph.D. Sari Feldman, Head of Community Services Assistant Professor, you can browse the Internet, search the Baldwin-Wallace College Norbert R. Harnegie, Facilities Manager Library’s Catalog, visit thousands of Web sites Michael A. Janero, Chief of Security Graphic Design Pam Cerio Alan A. A. Seifullah, Head of Marketing and Public Relations indexed by subject, and access powerful elec- Donald A. Tipka, Head of Technical Services Publication Manager Michael Ruffing Joan L. Tomkins, Head of Financial Services tronic databases on a wide range of subjects. Photography Cervin Robinson Outside of the Library, you can access most of Don Snyder Eric Hanson these electronic resources via the Library’s Contributing Photographers Main Building Howard Agriesti Web site or by dialing into the Rededicated Peter Hastings May 22, 1999 Jennie Jones Library’s computer system with a modem Diana McNees Printer (216-623-0623). SP Mount Printing Co. Message from the Board of Library Trustees

Eight years ago, the Board of Library Trustees asked the citizens of Cleveland to insure the future of their Main Library by approving a bond issue for needed renovation and expansion. Cleveland responded by passing the November 5, 1991, bond issue with an overwhelming 71% affirmative vote. During this mon- umental, $90-million, three-phase project, Library users and Library staff have been patient as materials

Main Library, 1999 and departments have been moved to allow work Main Building, opened May 6, 1925 to progress. Louis Stokes Wing, opened April 12, 1997 In 1997, the first phase of the project was completed when Congressman Louis Stokes helped us dedicate the new wing in his honor. In September 1998, we rededicated the beloved Eastman Reading Garden and it was immediately filled with delighted lunchtime readers. It gives the Board and me great pleasure to mark the completion of this project by reopening the landmark Main Library building to the people of Cleveland. In doing so, we symbolically rededicate the entire Main Library.

Photograph Credits While many of the people and firms that contributed

Photograph credits can be identified by their position on each page, starting to the success of the Main Library Project are listed in with position one (top or top left) and moving clockwise (or down) to the last this guide, it is not possible to include everyone here. position. For example: 3(1) refers to the top left picture on page three. A project of this size would not have been possible © Cervin Robinson: pages: 4, 7, 13(1), 18(4), 21, 34, 35, 36, 37, 46(1), 48(1), 50(1,2), 51 without the steady support and cooperation of a great © Don Snyder: pages: front cover, 2, 8, 13(2), 14, 15(4), 16, 17(1), many people, including the entire staff of the Library, 18(2,3), 22(1,3), 23(1), 26, 27(1), 28, 29(1,3), 31(2), 32(1), 33, 38, 39(1), 40, 43, 44(1,2) from the pages to the administration. The Board and © Eric Hanson: pages: 1, 15(2,3), 22(4), 24(2,4), 26(inset), 32(2) I want to thank everyone who worked to make the © Howard Agriesti: pages: 19(1), 22(2), 23(2,3), 25, 30(1), 31(1), 39(2), Main Library Project a success. 41(1), 45, 47(1), 48(2) © Jennie Jones: pages: 5(1), 12, 46(2) Cleveland has been known, at points in its history, © Diana McNees: pages: 29(2), 49 as the Sixth City—for being sixth in population in © Peter Hastings: page 20 the United States, the Forest City—for its trees, and

The Margaret Bourke-White photograph on page 42 was used the All-America City—for its rebirth as the new by permission of the Bourke-White Estate. American city. It is the Board’s hope that Cleveland will now be known as The City That Reads. Welcome, Cleveland, to your Main Library!

Venerine Branham President, Board of Library Trustees © 1999 Cleveland Public Library ISBN 0-9670873-0-9

2 3 Message from the Director

Cleveland Public Library was the first large public library to allow people to select their own books directly from its bookshelves. When pioneering librarian William Howard Brett initiated his radical open-shelf plan in 1890, he was working in cramped rental space at the corner of East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue. The experiment was a dazzling success and became standard policy in public libraries every- where. This democratic ideal of direct access to books and information was a driving influence in the plan- ning for a permanent main library, which was a dream delayed by World War I, rising building costs, and Brett’s untimely death. The opening of the landmark Main Library build- ing on May 6, 1925, placed Cleveland Public Library Main Library, Louis Stokes Wing view from the Mall firmly in the front rank of the world’s great public which are available only in paper form. We will help libraries. A civic triumph, the new building was an you find the resources you need to complete your efficient and beautiful model of the open-shelf plan, and homework assignment. We will guide you to popular it provided needed space for the Library’s growing novels in English and in dozens of other languages. collections. It also marked the end of fifty-six years of We will answer your questions over the telephone. temporary and inefficient locations throughout down- We will help you select talking books and books in town Cleveland. During those years, Cleveland had Braille. We will help you navigate the maze of U.S. evolved into a major industrial center and use of the government publications. We will help you select the Library had risen spectacularly. latest music and video recordings. We will guide you Seventy-four years later, the Library has again to scholarly research materials. risen to the challenge of overcrowded and inefficient This Library is not only Cleveland’s great symbol building conditions during a period of phenomenal of knowledge, it is an American Treasure. In this civic rebirth and parallel growth in library use. The guide we have endeavored not only to describe the renovated 1925 Main Building and new Louis Stokes Main Library architecture and art, but to give you a Wing are designed to serve and adapt to Cleveland’s glimpse of what we have to offer you, from the every- Detail of the solid bronze Eastman Reading Garden expanding information needs well into the new century. day to the extraordinary. Many of the printed works Gates by Tom Otterness The open-shelf plan has become the open access plan: used to illustrate the guide are among Cleveland beyond printed material, we now provide broad access Public Library’s treasures. For more than a decade, the Treating an item in the Preservation Office to an array of electronic information. We offer access Library’s Preservation Office has worked to preserve to dozens of powerful research databases, links to these and many other important items in the Library’s thousands of Web sites selected by Library staff, and collections. From Cleveland telephone books dating full access to the infinite resources of the Internet— to the 1880s to world-class research collections, the and this is only the beginning. Library is taking great care to preserve and make You may wonder what the librarian’s role is in the accessible the cultural heritage of civilization. digital age. The answer is traditional and it is simple: Welcome to the Cleveland Public Library! A place service. Beyond the important work of building and to read, a place to learn, a place to know, a place to maintaining paper and electronic collections, we are grow. The staff and I hope that you will take time to here to serve you. We will help you use your Library’s enjoy the buildings and the Eastman Reading Garden, resources, some of which are electronic, many more of and we encourage you to use your library often.

Marilyn Gell Mason Director

4 5 Architectural Glossary

Colonnade Balustrade

Cornice This guide consists of two parts. Part one includes background information about the Library. Part two is the tour. To begin the tour immediately, skip

The Lamp of Knowledge to page 16. The complete tour will take about Lunette two hours. You may want to complete the tour during several visits to the Library.

South Facade of the Main Building, original architectural plan The tour starts in the lobby of the historic Main Building and proceeds upward to the Balustrade: a railing supported by a series of small posts or balusters. fourth floor. From there you will travel down- Beaux-Arts: literally means “fine arts.” The term refers to the architectural school in Paris ward to the Lower Level and over to the Louis where many American architects were trained in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Coffer: a recessed geometrical panel in a ceiling. Stokes Wing. In the Louis Stokes Wing, the Colonnade: a row of columns set at regular intervals. tour continues on the sixth floor, descending to Corbel: parallel masonry layers, each projecting beyond the one below. the first floor. The tour concludes outside in Cornice: a projecting ornamental molding along the top of a building or wall. the Eastman Reading Garden. Dentil: the toothy blocks under the cornice of a building. Facade: the front of a building or any side of it given special architectural treatment. Lintel: a horizontal architectural member spanning and usually carrying the load above an opening. For a quick tour of highlights, Lunette: a semicircular window or wall panel framed by an arch or vault. visit floors 1 and 3 of the historic Mullion: a vertical member (of metal, wood, etc.) between the sections of a glass wall or window. Main Building and floors 6 and 1 Parapet: a low guarding wall at the edge of a roof or balcony. of the Louis Stokes Wing. Pavilion: a part of a building projecting from the rest. Pediment: a triangular feature placed as decoration over doors or windows. Rustication: the use of rough cut stones, with deep grooves at the joints, giving the masonry a rustic appearance.

Main Library

Louis Stokes Wing Departments

10. Administration

9. Closed Book Storage

8. Closed Book Storage Main Building Departments 7. Closed Book Storage

Closed Book Storage 5. 6. History and Geography, Map Collection Children’s Literature 4. 5. Social Sciences Foreign Literature 4. Government Documents, Photograph Collection Fine Arts 3. Eastman Special Collections Reading 3. Science and Technology, Photoduplication Office 2. Literature Garden General Reference 1. 2. Business, Economics and Labor Microform Center Cleveland Research Center* Periodical Center 1. Popular Library, Lending, Gift Shop Lending

Interlibrary Loan LL. LL. Audio-Video Auditorium

*A fee-based research service.

Main Building Louis Stokes Wing

6 7 Main Building light court

Superior Avenue, 1914. The Main Building stands on the site formerly occupied by City Hall, the second building on the left. From its founding in 1869, the Cleveland Public Library has played an integral part in the cultural and educational life of Northeast Ohio. Although it has one of the largest and most extensive collections in the country—boasting close to ten million items—its beginnings were humble. The Library first opened to the public on February 17, 1869, in a rented room on the third floor of the Northrup and Harrington Block at the corner of Superior Avenue and West 3rd Street, where the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel now stands. Between 1884 and 1938, a succession of dedicated and visionary people transformed the fledgling library into the illustrious institution that it is today. They were: William Howard Brett, Director from 1884 to 1918; John Griswold White, Board member from 1884 to 1886 and 1910 to 1928, and Board President for seventeen years; and Linda Anne Eastman, Director from 1918 to 1938. Each is memorialized in various parts of the Library complex—Brett Hall on the first floor of the Main Building, the John G. White reading room on the third floor, and the Eastman Reading Garden. William Howard Brett was instrumental in finding Linda Anne Eastman (1867- 1963) was the third great the Library a permanent home, and his efforts were leading figure in the library’s connected with the implementation of the Group early years. Eastman served the Cleveland Public Library Plan of 1903, which forever altered Cleveland’s for close to fifty years, first as urban landscape. As Cleveland attracted national Vice-Librarian from 1896 to 1918 and then as Director from attention for its innovative approach to urban planning 1918 to her retirement in 1938— and architecture, so would the Library garner similar the only woman to head a large metropolitan library at praise for its new building. In 1916, eight architectural the time. firms, including three from Cleveland, competed for the design of the new library. The Cleveland firm Walker & Weeks was selected as the architect. By 1923, the foundations were in place. On October 23 of that year the cornerstone was laid with much ceremony, with former British Prime Minister Lloyd George as guest of honor. The new library opened to the public on May 6, 1925, at a cost of just under $5 million, financed by two voter-approved bond issues in 1912 and in 1921, and by an 1896 state-legislated bond issue.

9 The Group Plan Rendering of the proposed Group Plan of 1903

The Group Plan of 1903 was the brainchild of a commission composed of Daniel H. Burnham, John M. Carrère, and Arnold R. Brunner, three nationally respected architects. Burnham, the chairman of the commission, had been the guiding force of the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. The Exposition inaugurated a new and dynamic era in American urban planning and architecture, of which Cleveland was an early beneficiary. The carefully organized plan and classical design of the build- ings were unlike anything Americans had seen before: individual buildings were designed to form a harmonious ensemble through the use of uniform cornice heights, repeated arcades, classical architectural motifs, and carefully controlled vistas through tree-lined avenues and parks. The Exposition heralded the beginning of the City Beautiful movement, which was intended to bring a measure of order and uniformity to America’s booming, but unplanned, industrial cities. The new Main Library proved to be immensely As Daniel Burnham related to Cleveland officials, “the jumble of buildings that sur- popular while under the guidance of its first head librarian, Marilla Freeman, who served at that post round us in our...cities contributes nothing valuable to life; on the contrary, it sadly from 1922 until her retirement in 1940. The original disturbs our peacefulness and destroys that repose within us which is the true basis of estimate of 5,000 daily users was soon eclipsed; by the all contentment. Let the public authorities, therefore, set an example of simplicity and early 1930s, more than 12,000 individuals walked uniformity... resulting in beautiful designs entirely harmonious with each other.” through the doors every day. Progressive Cleveland Mayor Tom L. Johnson (term 1901-08), whose statue can be By the 1950s, the Main Library’s collection had found on the northwest quadrant of Public Square, was quick to apply the City tripled in size and the Library was short on space. Beautiful aesthetic to Cleveland. Civic leaders were eager to eliminate the wide area The Library could not expand its building, however, of slums northeast of Public Square, which stretched from Superior Street to the because of the restrictions of the lakeshore, transforming it into a new civic center for the city. Group Plan. Fortunately, the Plain Dealer offered to sell its six-story The plan called for monumental public buildings of similar scale, material, and cor- building, just east of the Main nice height to be designed in a classical architectural style. The centerpiece of the Building, for $1.8 million. In 1903 Group Plan was to be a 560-foot-wide Mall, running south to north from November 1957, voters approved Rockwell Avenue to the lakefront, where a monumental railroad station was planned a $3 million bond issue for the but never built. The Group Plan embodied Burnham’s advice to “Make no little plans; Library to purchase and renovate they have no magic to stir man’s blood...Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, the building. remembering that a noble, logical plan once recorded will never die, but long after we The succeeding decades were are gone will be a living thing asserting itself with growing insistence.” difficult times for both Cleveland The Group Plan was enthusiastically endorsed by the mayor, the city council, the and its public library system. Increased migration to the suburbs press, and the public. In 1904, Harper’s Weekly exclaimed, “No city in the country, led to a decline in the city’s popula- Laying the cornerstone, outside Washington, has undertaken the systematic development of public architec- October 23, 1923 tion and resources. During this time, circulation at the ture and parkage on so splendid a scale as has the city of Cleveland...it is the most Main Library and its neighborhood branches declined significant forward step in the matter of municipal art taken in America.” dramatically—from a high of 10,374,652 in 1932 to Today, Cleveland is one of the few American cities that has realized the majority of 3,402,050 in 1970. Funds for the purchase of new its City Beautiful plans, as seen in the Howard M. Metzenbaum U.S. Court House books and materials, as well as for the maintenance (Arnold W. Brunner, 1905-12), the Cuyahoga County Courthouse (Lehman & of library buildings, were decreased. Schmitt, 1905-12), Cleveland City Hall ( J. Milton Dyer, 1916), Cleveland Public The last quarter of the 20th century has seen dra- Auditorium ( J.H. MacDowell and Frank R. Walker, 1922), the Cleveland Board of matic improvements in the Library’s fortunes. Due to the vision and perseverance of two directors, Ervin J. Education building (Walker & Weeks, 1930), and the Cleveland Public Library Gaines (term 1974-1985) and Marilyn Gell Mason (Walker & Weeks, 1925). (term 1986-1999), the Library not only reversed its downward trend but became strongly positioned to meet the challenges of the 21st century. After securing 10 11 $20 million through a city tax levy in 1975, Gaines set out to build or renovate neighborhood branches while streamlining the Library’s operations. The card catalog was fully computerized by 1981, and in December 1984, the public catalog room at Main Library was closed forever. During her tenure, Marilyn Mason introduced major technological advances. In November 1988, the Cleveland Public Library was among the first major public libraries in the country to offer 24-hour dial-up access to its online catalog and various electronic data- bases. In 1991, the Library was again a national leader Louis Stokes Wing, by making Internet databases available to the public. dedicated April 12, 1997 In ways unimaginable to its founders, the Library has continued its historic legacy of providing free and selected to renovate and expand the Main Library. efficient access to its holdings. They proposed the replacement of the Business & Along with its embrace of technology, the Library Science Annex with a new ten-story building, and the has also been mindful of the need to preserve and pro- renovation of the Main Building and the Eastman tect its vast collection. In 1988, a Preservation Office Reading Garden, with an underground floor connecting was established for that pur- the buildings. Following public forums and approval pose. In the years since its from the Cleveland Landmarks Commission, the City founding, the Preservation of Cleveland Design Review, and the City Planning Office has conserved and Commission, ground was broken on April 20, 1994. restored thousands of items The construction of the new building made news from the Library’s research on March 11, 1995, when the laying of its foundation collections. became the largest continuous concrete pour in the By the late 1980s, after city’s history: 7,000 cubic yards of concrete were the Library had completed poured to complete the four-foot-thick foundation. the renovation of its neigh- The new $65 million building was dedicated on borhood branches, attention April 12, 1997. With eleven floors, including the turned to the Main Library lower level, the new 267,000-square-foot building downtown, where outmoded has more than thirty miles of book shelves—enough mechanical and electrical for 1.3 million books—and is equipped with the latest Pouring the foundation systems were posing a hazard electronic resources. of the Louis Stokes Wing, March 11, 1995 to the public, the staff, and the collections. Rather The new building is named for Cleveland native than fixing these problems piecemeal, which might Louis Stokes, who, in 1968, became the first African- have created new, unforeseen problems, Mason took American elected to the U.S. Congress from Ohio. a comprehensive approach by evaluating the Main During his illustrious career, Representative Stokes Library’s needs for the next quarter century. These helped found the Congressional Black Caucus, and included the preservation of its collection, the intro- he became the first black member of the powerful duction of new technologies, and the renovation and House Appropriations Committee. He was re-elected Congressman Louis Stokes, 1996 expansion of the Library’s buildings. In October 1988, fourteen times before retiring in 1998. Portrait by Dawoud Bey the Trustees of the Cleveland Public Library approved The Louis Stokes Wing is one of many important Lower Level, Louis Stokes Wing Funded by KeyCorp a capital improvement plan for that purpose and in buildings erected in Cleveland since the 1980s that November 1991, by a 71% majority, voters approved have transformed the city’s skyline while providing a $90 million bond issue to go forward with the plan. tangible proof of its remarkable renaissance. These The following year, URS Consultants of Cleveland, include the BP America Building by H.O.K. (1985), Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates of New York, and Key Tower by Cesar Pelli & Associates (1991), Jacobs Robert P. Madison International of Cleveland were Field by H.O.K. Sports Group (1994), and I.M. Pei’s

12 13 Main Building staircase

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (1995). Of all these, the Louis Stokes Wing is perhaps the most daring in its combination of traditional elements (the use of masonry, uniform cornice lines, and corner pavilions) and innovative architecture, through the use of an oval glass tower—a first for Cleveland. The $24 million renovation of the landmark Main Building, directed by Robert P. Madison International, called for a sensitivity to the building’s architectural integrity while incorporating new technologies. To the casual observer, the changes to the Main Building may not be apparent, but this serves to underscore the suc- cess of the architects in their delicate task. Electrical, plumbing, and ventilation systems were replaced. Modern fire safety systems, including sprinklers, were installed, and trenches were cut into the cement floors to accommodate wiring for new computer and electri- cal equipment. New mechanical machinery was placed out of sight in the basement, returning the light court Restoring the Sommer mural; to an uncluttered and light-filled state. Restoring the first floor ceiling; As part of the architects’ goal of returning the Trenches for electrical and data wires in the John G. White building to its original luster, historic ceiling finishes Reading Room were restored, the exterior marble was cleaned with a gentle water spray process, historical light fixtures were restored and rewired, decorative metalwork was repaired and polished, and the original leather doors were rejuvenated. For the first time in decades, the Main Building’s historic spaces and architectural details can be fully appreciated, while featuring many technological advances and conveniences. Demonstrating the Library’s continuing support for the visual arts, the Library Board commissioned a substantial collection of permanent art to be included in the buildings and garden. Thirteen artists of local and national reputation created original art for the Main Library, the Louis Stokes Wing, and the Eastman Reading Garden. Selected by a jury coordi- The Cleveland Public Library nated with the Committee for Public Art, the art Portraits, 1996 works are significant additions to the Library’s—and “Alice and Arnold” Portrait by Dawoud Bey the city’s—artistic heritage. The new art at the Main Library was made possible largely by generous grants from Cleveland foundations, corporations, and non- profit groups.

15 N Tour of the Main Library buildings begins here 1

Service Desk W E MAIN BUILDING Elevator FIRST FLOOR Stairway ENTRANCE LOBBY Restroom R R

S

Main Building Lobby

Welcome! You have just entered one of the largest public research libraries in the United States. Notice the fine leaded glass inset above the main doors deco- rated with the lamp of knowledge. This motif is found throughout the first floor of both Main Library build- ings. You can also see the lamp of knowledge motif in several places on the exterior facade on Superior Avenue. It is on the bronze window grilles next to the main door, on the carved lunettes above the grilles, flanked by a pair of heraldic lions, and on the marble The Lamp of Knowledge display windows at the corners of the Main Building. In the interior, you can again see the symbolic lamp carved on the marble archway opposite the main entrance, lighting the way to Brett Memorial Hall, and inside the Hall itself above the interior door frames. See if you can find other representations! The vaulted ceiling in the Entrance Lobby is illu- minated by four new torchieres which are symbolic of the lamp of knowledge. These fixtures were designed by Fisher Marantz Renfro Stone, with Robert P. Madison International. The vaulted ceilings are decorated with paintings completed in 1926 by artists working for the Joseph F. Sturdy Company of Chicago. The paintings recall those found in 15th-century vaulted ceilings from the Italian Renaissance. Terrestrial Globe, restored A large terrestrial globe of pearl-gray art glass in 1999 by the Intermuseum with painted decoration hangs from the entrance hall Conservation Association ceiling. The globe was made by the Sterling Bronze Company in 1925 and is based on a map by Leonardo da Vinci, now housed in Windsor Castle. The map is one of the earliest to depict the Americas—with North America indicated simply by small islands! The globe is surrounded by a bronze band depicting the signs of the zodiac. Continuing straight ahead is the grand stair hall with its elegant staircases, carved in Botticino marble, rising to the left and right, leading to the upper floors and down to the lower level and the Louis Stokes Wing. If you keep walking forward, you will reach

Main Building entrance lobby 17 Entrance Lobby continued

ELEVATOR ELEVATOR BRETT HALL 1

MAIN BUILDING FIRST FLOOR

BRETT MEMORIAL HALL R R GENERAL REFERENCE DEPARTMENT Detail of lobby ceiling

GENERAL REFERENCE DEPARTMENT COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS Guide to the Lobby ceiling TERRESTRIAL GLOBE The Cleveland News Index: an index to The Plain Dealer and other local publications, produced by the 1 & 20. Athena, goddess of wisdom, patron of war General Reference Department since 1976. • Indexes dating to the 19th century: New York Times, and of many crafts and skills Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature, and others. • Annals of Cleveland: an index to Cleveland newspapers, 2. Homer, ancient Greek poet, author of The Iliad covering 1818-1876 and 1933-1938. • Encyclopedias and almanacs: an extensive historical collection. and The Odyssey 3 & 18. Asclepius, the god of healing 4. Allegory of the Fine Arts 5 & 26. Sappho, poetess of Lesbos, 7th Century B.C. LOBBY 6. Ptolemy I, 367?-283 B.C., founder of the Great ENTRANCE Brett Memorial Hall. Note, Library at Alexandria, Egypt; General of Alexander the Great’s army in passing, the lamp of knowledge 16. Augustus, Caesar, 63 B.C.-14 A.D., 7 & 24. Apollo, principal god of sunlight, prophecy, the first Roman Emperor motif on the marble archway divination, and of poetry and music 17. Pomona, Roman goddess of fruit above you. 8. Hypatia, female Greek philosopher and scholar and its cultivation at Alexandria The General Reference 19. William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, 9. Moses, Hebrew prophet English poet and dramatist Department, established in 10. Hephaestus, god of fire, smith and metal-founder 22. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519, Italian 1875, is located here. This is of the gods painter, architect, sculptor, and inventor 11. Allegory of the Mechanical Sciences where you can get quick factual 23. Ceres, Italian grain goddess and the Roman 12. Octavia, d. 11 B.C., wife of Marc Anthony name for Demeter: mother goddess of the Earth answers to specific questions, and sister of Emperor Augustus, represents ethics, 25. Plato, Greek philosopher, disciple of Socrates obtain information on the Denis Diderot’s Encyclopédie character building, and child welfare and teacher of Aristotle, 5th Century B.C. was one of the principal 13. Confucius, ca. 551-479 B.C., Library’s collections and services, and receive profes- 27. Allegory of the Musical Arts works of the Enlightenment. Chinese philosopher sional advice needed to conduct research. Dedicated to the advancement 28. Allegory of the Graphical Arts 14 & 15. Hermes, divine messenger, athlete, of science and secular thought, 29. Brett Memorial Hall is named for the third protector of travelers, bringer of luck, patron deity Allegory of the Dramatic Arts the publication of this 28-vol- of thieves and merchants 30. Allegory of the Industrial Arts Director of the Library, William Howard Brett (term ume work survived government 1884-1918). The grandest space within the Library, censorship and other harsh attacks. It was published in the room is 112 feet long and 38 feet wide, with France from 1751 to 1765. groin-vaulted ceilings that soar to a height of 44 feet. Brett Memorial Hall Its gigantic scale recalls that of ancient Roman baths and basilicas. The ceiling is marbleized and its coffers are painted rose, blue, and gold, recalling the original colors of 1925. The three massive new wool rugs match the coffered ceiling in their patterns and colors. Visible around the perimeter of the rugs is the floor built of Travertine, a soft porous marble which helps to muffle sound. The walls are made of Botticino marble, their warm gray coloring providing a contrast to the lively colors of the ceiling and rugs. The majestic space and architecture of Brett Hall underscores the fact that the Library was not conceived merely as an In 1890, William Howard Brett (1846-1918) was the first efficient building for the printed word, but also as an librarian of a major metropoli- embodiment of our past and our future aspirations. tan library to adopt the open- shelf plan. Under Brett’s The four massive panels in the walls above the tenure, the Cleveland Public main doorways were filled with artwork after the Library saw the opening of its first branch libraries. The Library opened in 1925. The oldest work is directly library now has twenty-eight opposite the main entrance. Titled The City in 1833, branches throughout the city of Cleveland. and measuring 20 feet x 24 feet, it was painted in 1934 by nationally recognized Cleveland artist William View looking east 19 Brett Memorial Hall continued 1

MAIN BUILDING FIRST FLOOR

MICROFORM CENTER R R PERIODICAL CENTER LENDING DEPARTMENT

The City in 1833 William Sommer MICROFORM CENTER COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

Microfilm of Cleveland newspapers dating to the 1800s and thousands of periodical titles. Cleveland Necrology File: a file of death notices from Cleveland newspapers and various cemetery records, dating from the 1830s to 1975 and continued in 1976 by The Cleveland News Index. • 19th and 20th century city directories for Sommer’s Sun Night Sky: Cleveland 1978 Public Square Cleveland and other cities. • United States Census: records for Ohio, covering 1830 to 1920: this is a primary local Ed Mieczkowski Christopher Pekoc Robert Jergens genealogical research tool. • Corporation Files: microform collection of annual reports for 5,000 large local and national companies, with scattered brochures and clippings from newspapers, including the Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, covering 1920-1989. • Research Collections: Early American Imprints (includes nearly all books published in America to 1819), Early English Books (includes nearly all books published in England to 1700), Nineteenth Century English and American Drama, Gerritsen Collection of Women’s History, Papers of the NAACP, Opie Collection of Children’s Literature, Slavery Source Materials.

As you approach the General Reference desk at the center of Brett Hall, turn toward the mural Night Sky: Cleveland 1978. Head through the monumental door- way with its highly polished marble columns and elab- orate pediment. The latter is not made of wood but of cast metal, very convincingly painted and grained to Sommer. This work was completed with the support look like wood. (You can gently tap the “wood” and it of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), founded will emit a hollow metal sound.) John G. White, in 1933 by the Federal Government to provide relief Board President when the building was planned, was to unemployed artists and to foster civic pride and art conscious of the danger of fire and instructed the education. Librarian Linda Eastman was a strong architects not to use any wood in its construction. supporter of the PWAP and other federal art projects. As you enter the large reading room beyond the She was convinced that the visual arts were as instruc- door, notice how it extends the full length of building. tional and inspirational as the written word. This is true for all of the other reading rooms as well. As its title indicates, Sommer depicted Public You have entered the Microform Center. Here you Square as it might have looked early in Cleveland’s can read old Cleveland newspapers, carefully preserved history, symbolizing—through its various buildings— on microfilm, as well as thousands of periodicals, the the early religious, political, cultural, commercial, and Ohio Census, and many research collections. Notice domestic life of the city. In 1998-1999, the mural was how the reading areas are located close to the windows, cleaned and restored by the Intermuseum Conservation with the bookstacks situated around the center of the Association in Oberlin, Ohio. building. This was the first time that such a plan was The other three murals were the result of a compe- used in an American library. This novel arrangement

tition held in 1978 to complete the decoration of Brett allowed books to be near readers, and not far away in The Periodical Center Hall. To the right (east) is Sommer’s Sun by Edwin separate bookstacks, as was standard practice. The Mieczkowski, which takes its title from the rays of Cleveland Public Library’s radical plan emphasized sunlight found in William Sommer’s The City in 1833. the building as a place for readers, making its long- Mieczkowski’s large circular painting represents the standing open-shelf policy more efficient and workable. sun’s radiance and energy. In Christopher Pekoc’s The bookstacks themselves were manufactured by the Night Sky: Cleveland 1978, to the left (west), one may Van Dorn Iron Works of Cleveland. distinguish mills, smoke, headlights or the moon, all Upon entering the reading room, head to the capturing the excitement of the industrial city at north, and walk around the library in a clockwise night. Finally, to the south (over the main entrance) direction. At the corners you will notice new portals is Public Square by Robert Jergens, who painted Public that provide more intimate reading areas, echoing Square and Tower City in nervous, yet playful, lines the dimensions of the corner tower rooms in the that represent the vibrancy of the city. Louis Stokes Wing. 20 21 First Floor continued 2 Light Court MAIN BUILDING SECOND FLOOR

LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

LITERATURE DEPARTMENT COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

Literature, Fiction, Poetry, Essays, Plays, Cleveland Theater Program Collection, 1875 to the present. Lending Department balcony Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language Literary Criticism, Linguistics, Theater, • Fiction: a collection of more than 125,000 volumes. • Plays: (1755) was the most famous and authoritative English Cinema, Radio and Television, Public Speaking, a large collection of plays, primarily late 19th century to the dictionary until Noah Webster’s was published in 1828. Journalism, Humor, Library Science, Printing present, including microfiche collections of plays in English from The purchase of this first edition was made possible and Publishing, Word Processing, Writing important research libraries. • Barret W. Clark Collection: act- in 1968 by the Friends of the Library, largely through ing editions of American and English plays, mostly from the 18th $1 donations of several hundred listeners of Bill Randle, and 19th centuries. • Poetry: electronic resources providing full then at WERE radio. text to collections of African-American poetry, English poetry, and others. • W. Ward Marsh Cinema Archives: a range of materials documenting American film from its beginning to 1960. • Musicarnival Archives (1954-1975): the records of Cleveland’s pioneering tent theater. Ceiling detail

Notice the oak beams on the ceiling—not wood at all, but plaster painted to look like wood. The detailed stenciling on the beams has been restored to its origi- Cleveland theater programs nal splendor. As part of the renovation, fluorescent lights were removed from the ceilings and replaced with custom-designed fixtures with up-lighting. These lights enhance the painted and architectural features of the rooms while at the same time providing bright Early Transportation, restored in 1999 by the and even lighting for readers. Intermuseum Conservation Association Traveling in a clockwise direction, you will reach the Periodical Center. This department maintains subscriptions to more than 150 national and interna- In the Second Floor lobby, you will see the tional newspapers and more than 4,000 current PWAP “mural” Early Transportation (Cleveland’s magazines and journals and their back issues. As you Waterfront about 1835). Painted in 1934 by Cleveland leave the Periodical Center, you will have reached artist Donald Bayard, this work echoes William the lobby once again, but not before passing by the Sommer’s exploration of Cleveland’s past, with the Lending Department, where you may check out lakefront as its focus. To the left is the mouth of the and return library materials. You may take the eleva- Cuyahoga River, with its various lakefront and ship- ping activities, while on the right the scene shifts to Restored elevator tors or the stairs to go to the second floor. If you take the elevators, notice that they have been completely rural Ohio life and canal transportation. restored: their polished metalwork with working The Literature Department is located on this number dials once again dazzle visitors as they did floor. Here, you can learn to write, read about the back in 1925. lives and careers of actors, authors, and journalists, Prominent American author and research the history of Cleveland theater. You Langston Hughes (1902-1967) If you use the stairs, notice the memorial tablets at began his writing career in the landings, dedicated to important persons associated can also select a novel from one of the largest fiction Cleveland in 1916, when he was collections anywhere, including a generous selection editor of his class yearbook at with the Library. These include William H. Brett, Central High School. This origi- John G. White, Linda A. Eastman, and the architects of large print books. nal portrait was sketched in Walking clockwise through the main reading 1941 and is thought to be by of the building, Walker & Weeks. You will also see artist William Justema. the large lighting fixtures above the tablets. These rooms, which are just as spacious and light-filled as fixtures incorporate bare light bulbs that symbolize the ones on the first floor, you again reach the stair the torches of learning. lobby, from where you can take the stairs or the

22 23 Gate detail 3 Light Light Court Court MAIN BUILDING THIRD FLOOR

JOHN G. WHITE EXHIBITION CORRIDOR SPECIAL COLLECTIONS TREASURE ROOM

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

John G. White The John G. White Chess and Checkers Collection This collection includes the East India Company corre- Exhibition Corridor documents all aspects of the history, development, and spondence and records relating to British affairs in India technical aspects of the games of chess and checkers. and Central Asia, 1741-1859. Included are records of competitions, tournament records, Robert Hayes Gries Tobacco Collection: an exceptional manuscripts, rating records, problem collections, and collection of material on the history and customs related pictorial materials. Special chess and checkers “author to tobacco and smoking, dating to the 16th century. editions” collections include literary works of Baldassare Judaica and Hebraica Collection: emphasizes Jewish life Castiglione, Gesta Romanorum, Omar Khayyam, Juan and thought in its classical aspects. Books on folklore, Huarte de San Juan, François Rabelais, Esaias Tegnér, Palestine archaeology, philosophy, religion, ancient history, Polydorus Vergilius, and Marco Girolamo Vida. and festivals are included. Special Collections Department, John G. White Reading Room The John G. White Folk Culture Collection is strong Cleveland Author Collection: books and pamphlets in oral tradition, ethnology, and in the analysis of social by local authors published in the 19th and 20th centuries structures. Notable are materials on Germanic folklore, (collection closed). Gypsies, ancient and medieval romance literature of elevator to the Third Floor. At the north end of the Europe and Asia, legends, proverbs, Robin Hood, The Cleveland Imprint Collection: books published locally third floor is the John Griswold White Collection Arabian Nights, witchcraft, and the occult. This collection in the 19th and 20th centuries (collection closed). includes an exceptional collection of chapbooks. Walton Prostitution Collection: historic European Exhibition Corridor, which is built on a bridge that The John G. White Oriental Studies Collection monographs donated by John W. Walton in the 1920s. spans the roof of Brett Hall. Note the round-arched emphasizes the philology and literatures of non-European Rare Books: rare books from all subject departments are entrances at either end of the corridor—their shape languages and disciplines relevant to the ancient and clas- housed in Special Collections. Most were not rare when sical phase of Asian cultural history. Materials generally acquired but have become so. They have been transferred is repeated in the series of windows on either side of cover the period prior to the beginning of European to Special Collections to insure their preservation. the light-filled corridor. A wainscot of Rose Tavernelle colonization and influence on native cultures (c.1800). marble runs along the corridor to the height of the window sills. The stencil pattern of morning glories on the walls has been meticulously restored after having been painted over decades ago. The corridor is lined with wrought iron display cases from 1925, made by the Sterling Bronze Co. of New York. See if you can pick out the highly stylized owls at the point where the legs are attached to the Il Diletteuole e Giudizioso Giuoco de Scacchi (The John Griswold White (1845- cases. Owls are a traditional symbol of wisdom. 1928) was a noted lawyer, book Delightful and Judicious collector, and scholar. His gifts From the windows, you have an excellent view of Chess Game). This Italian chess manuscript from to the Library started in 1899 the Central Light Court, which provides light to the with a collection of 85 volumes the early 1700s shows of Arabian folktales. At the interior of the library. At a time when most light courts the moves of a single, time of his death, his contribu- complete game of chess were plain and undistinguished, Walker & Weeks in 193 pages. tions to the Library were valued Historia Alexandri Magni (History of Alexander the Great), at more than $1 million and designed an exciting space with asymmetrical towers, an early printed book from the John G. White Folk Culture included more than 60,000 corbeling, and battlemented parapets, all constructed Collection, was published in 1480. The woodcuts throughout books as well as funds for an the book were colored by hand. endowment. Portrait by of buff brick. The castle-like appearance of the light Sandor Vago. court is reminiscent of 15th-century Renaissance Italian architecture. The picturesque and even playful elements of the courtyard sharply contrast with the more formal 18th-century French and Beaux-Arts architecture found on the exterior of the building. At the end of the corridor is the Special Collections Department, housed in the John G. White Reading Room. Walker & Weeks highlighted the special nature of John G. White’s gift collections by designing the reading room in the manner of a Jonathan Carver’s A Treatise on the Culture of the Tobacco Plant (1779) is a choice work from Renaissance library. This is seen in the elaborately the Robert Hayes Gries Tobacco Collection.

24 3 Light Light Court Court MAIN BUILDING THIRD FLOOR

FINE ARTS DEPARTMENT MUSIC RECORDINGS

FINE ARTS COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

Art, Architecture, Graphics, The Charles F. Schweinfurth Memorial Library: the private architecture Drawing, Interior Design, Music, library of the late Cleveland architect, given to the Library in 1925 and devel- Painting, Sculpture, Design, oped since 1991 with scholarly architecture works purchased with income Antiques & Collectibles Price from the Anna M. Schweinfurth Trust. • Cleveland and Ohio Architecture Guides, Catalogues Raisonné, Indexes: specialized indexes to Cleveland and Ohio architecture publications Museum Catalogs owned by the Library, such as The Ohio Architect and Builder. • Cleveland Art and Artists and Music: extensive files (with indexes) of clippings, pamphlets, and other material, covering the 1920s to the 1970s. • Sheet Music: more than 23,000 pieces of sheet music. • Audio Recordings: more than 30,000 audio recordings of all types of music, in current, popular formats.

stenciled coffered ceiling and its beams painted with delicate floral and vine motifs, the wrought iron balcony, and the marble-encased doorways. The door surrounds and window sills are made of warm gray St. Genevieve marble. See if you can find some of the many fossils visible within the marble itself. John Griswold White was the Library’s greatest benefactor. The Special Collections Department houses the collections donated by White as well as other world-class research collections and rare books. Detail of Treasure Room ceiling The Department’s collection of works documenting all aspects of the games of chess and checkers was started by White and today remains unrivalled in the world in its variety and richness. The Treasure Room, at the west end of the room, is now open to the public for the first time in decades. Used since the 1970s for book storage, the room has been returned to use as a lecture room. The room is called the Treasure Room because it was designed to be a showcase for some of the Library’s Built between 1898 and 1902, the home of Theodor Kundtz most valuable holdings. was one of the most extraordi- After exiting the John G. White Reading Room, nary houses ever built in the Cleveland area. After coming you can go to the Fine Arts Department and its to Cleveland from Hungary in collection of Music Recordings, still on the third 1873, Kundtz amassed a fortune as a manufacturer of sewing floor. Here, you can determine the price of a collec- machine cabinets and automo- table or an antique chair, find a book about Ella tive bodies. This is the original architectural rendering of the Fitzgerald —and borrow recordings of her music— “Kundtz Castle,” which was do research on Cleveland and Ohio architecture, or located at what is now Kirtland Lane in Lakewood. The house learn more about Michelangelo, Diego Rivera, or was designed by Cleveland Georgia O’Keeffe. The Library’s extensive collection architect J. N. Richardson. of circulating music recordings ranges from contem- porary to classical.

John G. White Exhibition Corridor, detail of restored stencilwork 27 4 Light Court MAIN BUILDING FOURTH FLOOR

GLOBE

Young people create ceramic elements for the Globe at one of the workshops at branch libraries. Workshops funded by the Globe Ohio Arts Council. Funded by Eaton Corporation

By using the elevators or stairs, you can reach the Fourth Floor. From the time the Main Building opened in 1925, until the 1999 renovation, the fourth floor housed administrative offices. To prepare this floor for public use, the architects planned and reno- vated it to match the other floors of the Main Building. Original leather-covered doors and slabs of marble from other parts of the building were re-used to make this floor similar in architectural details to the others. The large tile and mosaic globe in the lobby was created in 1998 by Cleveland artists Anna Arnold, George Bowes, and Lyneise Williams. The stationary globe, five feet in diameter, is built of fiberglass and covered with glass and ceramic tiles. Notice how the oceans are represented by brightly-colored mosaics in which shards of mirror have been inserted to mimic Restored leather doors the effects of shimmering water. Land forms are made of ceramic bas-reliefs with objects and symbols of particular significance to the country or ethnic group being represented. These emblems were created by 200 young people working with the artists at ten Cleveland Public Library branches. The globe embodies the function of the Library as a bridge that unites the diverse population of Cleveland and the world through the sharing of information. On the fourth floor are the Children’s Literature and Foreign Literature Departments. The Library has had a distinguished history of service to children, dating to 1898 when William H. Brett opened the

29 View of the Mall In 1998, library supporter Joan Sugarman established the Cleveland Public Library Children’s Biography Award 4 in memory of her husband, Norman A. Sugarman. The Light Court MAIN BUILDING award is also a tribute to Boys’ Restroom the work of three Cleveland FOURTH FLOOR Girls’ Restroom Public Library children’s librarians: Margaret Clark CHILDREN’S LITERATURE STORY ROOM (employed 1925-1972), Ruth View of Public Square Knott (employed 1947-1979), from the Story Room CHILDRENS’S ACTIVITY ROOM and Ruth Hadlow (employed FOREIGN LITERATURE 1942-1999). This unique carousel was also CHILDREN’S LITERATURE DEPARTMENT given by Mrs. Sugarman and COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS is displayed in the Children’s Literature Department. “Le Fiction and Nonfiction Books: an extensive selection Carrousel de Fantaisie” was for children (preschool through grade seven), including made by Creative Metalworks board books and picture books. • Classic Children’s in 1984 and is the design of Works: a large collection of children’s fiction and folk Star Liana York. and fairy tales dating to the early 1900s.

Lois Lenski, author and illustrator of children’s books, gave many of her original illustrations to American Library’s first separate children’s room. The Library libraries during her lifetime (1893- 1974). This illustration, dedicated to also organized the Children’s Library League that year, the children of Cleveland, is from her the first of many such leagues in the nation, whose 1927 book, A Skipping Village. motto was Clean Hearts, Clean Hands, Clean Books. The Children’s Literature Department enables young patrons to find books to read for pleasure or homework, to participate in story time in the Story Room, or to learn basic library and computer skills. In the Children’s Activity Room, young people can participate in various artistic and creative activities. The Department offers much for parents, teachers, and scholars of children’s literature. You can receive advice on the selection of children’s materials or

Two rooms from “Sprague conduct research using its extensive collection on House”, a doll house on display the history and trends of children’s literature. in Children’s Literature Department. “Sprague House” The Children’s Department is one of the largest was fashioned after the 1861-era in the region and invites both parents and children house of John Hunt Morgan of Morgan’s Raiders. The doll to come together to enjoy its unique social and educa- house was given to the Library tional opportunities. The Library has kept younger in 1966 by accomplished writer Andre Norton, who was once a readers in mind by keeping the bookstacks in the read- children’s librarian at the ing room small, and by using bright, cheerful colors. View of Public Square from the Cleveland Public Library. Children’s Story Room, 1999 Norton’s science fiction books On the north and east sides of the floor is the The fourth floor offers stunning views of Public have sold in the millions. Foreign Literature Department, which has an Square to the southwest, and of the Mall and its extensive collection of popular foreign language various buildings to the north, some of which were materials in four dozen languages. Here you can learn designed according to the Group Plan of 1903. a foreign language, read foreign books and magazines, These include the Howard M. Metzenbaum U.S. translate letters and documents, or prepare for a trip Court House, the Cleveland Board of Education to a foreign country. With the largest collection of building, and Cleveland Public Auditorium. Keep in popular foreign literature in the region, this depart- mind, however, that when the Library first opened in ment is often called upon to lend collections of foreign 1925, there were still many commercial buildings on literature to area libraries. This department traces its what is today the Mall. Although planned as early as origins to the 1870s, when the Library developed a 1903, it took until 1936 for the Mall to become an large collection of popular books in German. open, orderly green space. You can also see some of Cleveland’s newer buildings, such as the Key Tower

30 31 Fourth Floor continued N

FOREIGN LITERATURE DEPARTMENT COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

Languages Represented: Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Specialized bilingual dictionaries: more R E LL Byelorussian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech/Bohemian, Danish, Dutch, than 120 languages. • Dictionaries and Service Desk Estonian, Farsi, Finnish, French, Gaelic, German, Greek, Hebrew, learning materials in Native American W E Hindi, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, languages. • Instructional recordings for Elevator LOUIS STOKES WING LOWER LEVEL Lithuanian, Marathi, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, learning foreign languages. S Stairway S Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Restroom CONNECTING CORRIDOR Tai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish 1

S PUBLIC ART

The Cleveland Public Library Portraits, 1996, Dawoud Bey (1)

Louis Stokes Wing

Take the elevator down to the Lower Level of the Main Building, and notice the restored elevator interiors. In the Corridor between the Main Building and the new Louis Stokes Wing, you will notice large-scale photographs (1996) of Library employees by Dawoud Bey, an artist based in New Haven, CT. A luxury usually available only to the famous or powerful, Bey’s extravagant photographic portraits pay tribute to ordinary citizens. His use of fragmented imagery hints at the varied interests and diverse per- View of the Mall from sonalities of his subjects. the Foreign Literature and, in the distance, the new Cleveland Browns Department, 1999 The art work in this corridor highlights the Stadium (H.O.K. Sports with Robert P. Madison Library’s ongoing commitment to the visual arts. International, 1996-99), which replaced the Cleveland In July 1994, the Library Municipal Stadium designed by Walker & Weeks announced that it had (1931). Immediately to the east is the Louis Stokes budgeted $1.3 million Wing (1997) by Malcolm Holzman. (funded by corporate and At the center of the Mall you can see the Fountain charitable contributions) of Eternal Life, sculpted by Marshall Fredericks (1908- for public art for the 1998). This massive polished granite and bronze Main buildings and the sculpture, commissioned in 1945 but not installed Eastman Reading Garden. until 1964, is a war memorial, and its official title is The Library hired the Peace Arising from the Flames of War. It is one of the Committee for Public Art best examples of Art Deco sculpture in Cleveland. (a local nonprofit organi- If you take the stairs or elevators to the Fifth zation that brings together Floor, you will immediately notice the elaborate artists, citizens, and decorative iron screen that originally marked the policy-makers to plan and entrance to the newspaper room in the basement. execute art works for The Cleveland Public The fifth floor is used for book storage and is not Cleveland’s public realm) to form a jury to find artists Library Portraits, 1996 open to the public. “Willelma and Donna” and to select appropriate works. The Committee’s “Rodney and Theresa” work for the Library was challenging in its scope, as “Toni and Mirna” “Joan and Tom” more than 350 artists submitted initial proposals. It was Portraits by Dawoud Bey also challenging in its mission, since the Louis Stokes Wing’s open plan and glass surfaces eliminated many of the traditional places where art could be placed. In the end, thirteen artists were selected to create works for the Library. Installing the decorative iron screen on the fifth floor, 1998 32 33 R E LL 1 LOUIS STOKES WING PUBLIC ART S LOWER LEVEL Congressman Louis Stokes, AUDIO VIDEO DEPARTMENT 1996, Dawoud Bey (1) - AUDITORIUM

AUDIO-VIDEO DEPARTMENT COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

Audio-Video Department maintains an extensive collection of circulating audio and video record- ings in current formats. Included are fiction and nonfiction audio books; popular entertainment films, including foreign films and Academy Award winners; and an extensive collection of non- entertainment video recordings on topics such as education, physical fitness, home improvement, math, science, and biography. An extensive collection of computer software allows you to preview current software before purchasing it for personal use.

Exiting the corridor you enter the spacious Lower Lobby and notice its most dramatic feature: the gigantic blue fiberglass columns that bulge out as if to suggest that they are supporting the weight of the building. (Steel beams inside them actually do.) You will find many such columns on every floor of the building, creating visual accents that animate and unify the entire building. The festive blue color is characteristic of architect Malcolm Holzman’s use of bright colors in the building to counteract the gray days of fall and winter. On the left, beneath the Eastman Reading Garden, is the 250-seat auditorium, available for Library and civic functions. Its fortress-like entrance features lanterns from the old Business and Science Annex (the old Plain Dealer Building) which stood on this site until it was torn down in 1994 to make way for this building. Below the lanterns is a photographic portrait of Congressman Louis Stokes by Dawoud Bey (1996). The Audio-Video Department is conveniently located in the lower level. Here, you may borrow the latest computer software or non-music recordings in many popular formats, including audio-books. A listening station makes it possible for you to preview audio recordings before checking them out. Notice the undulating and colorful ceramic tile wall which will be repeated in the lending lobby directly above. The lower lobby is remarkable for its expressive use of masonry. You can see this in the gigantic circu- lar concrete stairwell and elevator shaft, in the highly polished gray and Cherokee white Georgia marble on the floor—from the same quarry as used in the 1925 Main Building—and in the textured marble on the walls. The architect’s varied use of stone can be seen throughout the building. You will see in many places that the stonework actually continues from the interi- or of the building to the exterior.

Louis Stokes Wing public stairs 35 N

Service Desk Elevator S Stairway E 6 Restroom

LOUIS STOKES WING PUBLIC ART S R SIXTH FLOOR Clio and the Death of Hyacinthus, HISTORY AND 1997, Mark Howard (1) 1 GEOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT MAP COLLECTION

HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS DEPARTMENT Index to Cleveland and Ohio Regional History: a selective index to a range History, Archaeology, Calendars, of historical material about Cleveland and Ohio, covering the 1920s to 1990. Names, Coins, Flags, Heraldry, This index includes references to books, newspaper articles and magazines on Genealogy, Wars, Native Americans, numerous subjects and people. • Newspaper Clipping Files: Cleveland and Foreign Relations, Ethnic Groups, Ohio: thousands of newspaper articles about Cleveland and Ohio, arranged African-Americans, Presidents, by subject, covering the 1920s through 1975. • Biography Clipping File: Local History, Travel newspaper and periodical articles on hundreds of notable Clevelanders, dating from the 1910s to the 1970s. • Cleveland city directories, 1837-1980. • Cleveland telephone books, 1880 to the present. • African-American History Research Collections: Papers of Mary McLeod Bethune, CORE, Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., NAACP, A. Philip Randolph, SNCC, Booker T. Washington, and Carter G. Woodson. Before leaving the lobby, go into the stairway • Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through tower and look up for a dramatic view of the circular the Civil War. • Civil War: Official records of the Union and Confederate armies and navies. Roster of Ohio soldiers. A complete set of Ohio regimental stairs rising the entire ten stories of the building. Note histories. • Travel guides and atlases: an extensive collection. how the blue cylindrical air duct comes to a dramatic point at the very bottom. The duct is a safety feature designed to remove smoke from the stair tower in floors serve as raceways for these cables and allow for case of fire. data outlets at regular five foot intervals throughout Take the elevator to the Sixth Floor, where the each floor. Some of the futuristic brushed-aluminum History and Geography Department and Map furniture has also been designed for personal laptop Collection are located. Here, you can research the computer use. Computer terminals on each floor of history of Cleveland or other cities and countries, learn both buildings allow access to the Internet and a vast about a Civil War battle, or read the autobiography array of powerful electronic resources. Through its of Rosa Parks or other important figures in American use of computer technology, the Library continues to and world history. refine and build upon its commitment to free and The floor’s organization and architectural elements equal access to resources and information. are representative of all the public floors of the Louis The sixth floor is surrounded by Viracon glass, Stokes Wing, except for the first floor and the lower framed by thin aluminum mullions featuring five-sided level. As you walk toward the southeast corner tower, decorative cutouts. The glass filters out ultraviolet notice the openness of the floor, created by minimal light, which is harmful to books. If you look at the walls and partitions. As in the Main Library, the windows, you will notice patterns on the glass. This spacious reading areas are located by the windows, is known as fritted glass. It is made through a process while the open-shelf bookstacks are located toward first developed by Pittsburgh Plate Glass Industries the center of the floor. Note the smaller, intimate (PPG) in the 1950s which consists of silkscreening study rooms in the corner towers, away from traffic a ceramic-based paint onto the window. The panels and noise. These are similar in dimension to the corner are then oven-dried to permanently affix the painted rooms in the Main Library, and many include art pattern onto the glass. commissioned by the Library. Like the other floors, Few other public buildings in Cleveland can the sixth floor features blue columns and a colorful offer such thrilling and panoramic views of the city. houndstooth pattern on the carpet. Malcolm Holzman was careful to provide various The integration of state-of-the-art technology is key focal points—such as the corner towers, or the an important aspect of the Louis Stokes Wing, as it convex elliptical glass walls —to orient patrons to was in the renovation of the Main Library. Fiber optic points outside the building. This results in dramatic cables and electrical wiring run through a vertical outward-looking spaces that embrace the surrounding channel on the east side of the building, from the top city. By contrast, the Main Building, although generous floor to the basement, with cables branching off at in its use of windows, is an inward-focused building, each floor. Custom-designed channels in the concrete built around a central light court. 36 37 Sixth floor continued

E 6

LOUIS STOKES WING PUBLIC ART S R SIXTH FLOOR Clio and the Death of Hyacinthus, MAP COLLECTION 1997, Mark Howard (1) 1

MAP COLLECTION COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

Maps, Atlases, Gazetteers, Globes, Ohio county atlases, plat books & landownership maps, 1841 to 1966. • Topographic Maps, Nautical & Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Ohio cities & towns, 1886 to 1973. • Aeronautical Charts, Map U.S. Army Map Service maps produced during World War II. • Map series Projections, Plat Maps, Aerial from the Library of Congress on microfiche: ward maps of U.S. cities, Photos pre-War topographic map series for Austria-Hungary, France, German Empire, Ireland, Poland. • Karpinski French Series: Early Manuscript Maps of North America. • A complete series of topographic maps for the United States, about 86,000 maps.

Clio and the Death of Hyacinthus

At the southeast corner tower on the sixth floor is Cleveland artist Mark Howard’s Clio and the Death of Hyacinthus (1997), which echoes the theme of muses found in the canvas paintings on the vaulted ceiling of the lobby of the Main Building. Brightly colored silhouettes portray Clio, the Greek muse of history. A daughter of Zeus, Clio possessed a special gift of memory which enabled her to simultaneously contemplate Nicolas Sanson’s 1656 map the past, present, and future. She is depicted of Canada, published in Paris, with wings, books, and laurels. included the first application of the name “Lake Erie” to a Howard also depicts the tragic story of Clio’s son, recognizable lake. Hyacinthus, who was accidently killed by Apollo when Zephyrus, the West Wind, blew Apollo’s discus off course. Apollo was so grief-stricken that he transformed the dying Hyacinthus’s blood drops into a flower— the hyacinth—thereby making his name immortal. The Map Collection, at the north end of this floor, houses an extensive collection of current and historical maps from around the world.

39 View of City Hall

1

E 5

LOUIS STOKES WING PUBLIC ART S R FIFTH FLOOR The Golden Game, 1997, SOCIAL SCIENCES Holly Morrison (1) DEPARTMENT Icon Photo from the Collections

SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

Crime, Dance, Education, Folklore, Cleveland Public Schools Desegregation Collection: court documents, Costumes, Government, Law, Family, newsletters, and clippings dating to 1972. • United Nations Collection: Mythology, Occult, Psychology, Sports, the official records of the United Nations, dating to its founding in 1946. Games, Race Relations, Religion, • State of Ohio Government Papers: Cleveland Public Library is a Sexuality, Women’s Studies, Self-help depository for all Ohio government documents. • Woman Suffrage Party of Greater Cleveland Scrapbooks, 1913-1919. • Baseball: In addi- tion to extensive popular holdings of baseball literature, Social Sciences Department maintains two unique baseball collections: The Mears Collection of Baseball contains material dating to the 1850s, including daily box scores, books, annuals and periodicals, league constitutions, and baseball fiction. The Murdock Collection of Baseball covers the late twentieth century and includes major and minor league material and audio recordings of oral histories with major league players.

You may take the stair tower or the elevator to the Fifth Floor, which has an arrangement similar to that of the previous floor. The Social Sciences The Golden Game, detail Department, established in 1913, is where you can study social issues, learn PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION about various religions or sports, or The Base Ball Player’s Pocket LIBRARY find information on grants and funding sources. Law Companion is one of the oldest Located in City Hall books on baseball in existence. and government books written for easy comprehen- It was published in Boston sion can be found here as well. in 1859. At the northwest corner tower is the Golden Game (1997) by Holly Morrison. This work treats the ceil- CLEVELAND ing as a transition space between heaven and earth. PUBLIC LIBRARY During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the sky was seen as a giant vault that separated the earthly, visible realm from the celestial, invisible one. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION LIBRARY Morrison’s mural is painted directly on the ceiling Public Administration Library is a department of the Cleveland Public and walls, in vivid blue, silver, and gold. There are Library located in Cleveland City Hall. This department serves the needs of the public and government employees and can help you: research city of 158 distinct figurative gold images and 108 silver Cleveland legislation; learn how to perform the duties of a municipal official glyphs in all. The symbols in Morrison’s work were or employee; research aspects of Cleveland history, including city government, officials, official proceedings, and public improvements; and study resources taken from books on alchemy in the Special Susan B. Anthony and for projects in urban planning and public administration. Collections Department. Through a series of compli- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, suffragettes, an original COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS cated philosophical, spiritual and chemical formulas, photograph from the Woman alchemists sought to make gold—a substance linked Suffrage Party of Greater City of Cleveland annual reports and departmental reports, 1863 to Cleveland Scrapbooks the present. • Codified ordinances of municipalities in Cuyahoga County, to divinity—out of earthly base metals such as lead, major Ohio cities and major cities across the United States. • Record of the Township of Cleveland, April 4, 1803– April 6, 1838: records pertaining copper, or bronze. The medieval science of alchemy, to the organization and administration of the government of Cleveland and its powers of transformation, is reflected in the Township. • Cleveland City Council proceedings, 1836 to the present. • Urban Documents Microfiche Collection: City-authored documents Library’s own ability to transform the human spirit from 350+ municipalities across the U.S.A., covering 1980 to the present. through information and knowledge.

40 41 4 E E 3

LOUIS STOKES WING PUBLIC ART LOUIS STOKES WING FOURTH FLOOR S R S R THIRD FLOOR Phalby’s Dream, 1996, John Moore (1) GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION Populating the Sky, 1996, 1 2 DEPARTMENT Don Harvey (2) PHOTODUPLICATION OFFICE

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS DEPARTMENT American Statistics Index, 1973 to the present. • United States Chemistry, Electronics, Engineering, Metallurgy, Radio, TV, and electronic equipment schematics from Congress, Defense, Foreign Policy, Census, Executive Branch Documents, 1789 to the present. • United States Instrumentation, Geology, Photography, Physical 1929 to the present. • Automobile repair manuals from the Human Services, Legislation, Patents, Congressional Committee Hearings, 1833 to the present. • Science, Life Science, Automobiles, Cookbooks, 1910s to the present. • Handicraft books and pamphlets. Treaties, Taxation, Presidential Documents, Congressional Record, 1873 to the present. • United States Census: Crafts, Schematics, Gardening, Industrial Standards • Dog Collection: an extensive collection of breed books, Laws, Regulations, Copyrights, Supreme decennial and non-decennial, 1790 to the present: this is a statistical & Specifications including stud books. • Publications from major technical Court, Trademarks resource. • United States Patents, a complete set from 1790 to the societies. • Chemical Abstracts and important chemical present. • United States Trademark Registrations, 1884 to date. publications such as Beilstein. • Major Studies and Issue Briefs of the Congressional Research Service, 1916 to the present. • Presidential Executive Orders and Proclamations, 1789-1983. Descending to the Third Floor, you will enter the

PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS Science and Technology Department, founded

Cleveland, Ohio, Movie Stills, Actors, Cleveland Picture Collection: more than 10,000 images of in 1912. Here, you can locate a domestic or interna- Politicians, Inventors, Sports Figures, Cleveland from 1880 to the 1960s. • City Hall Photograph tional industrial standard, learn about the Internet or Churches, Disasters, Animals, WWII, Collection: more than 40,000 images of Cleveland neighborhoods, computers, search the chemical or engineering litera- Transportation, Baseball, Postcards including houses, businesses, churches, and schools. • Movie Stills: more than 60,000 images of actors and scenes from films. • Theatre ture, learn how to repair an automobile or a piece of Collection of Cartes de Visite and Cabinet Cards: more than electronic equipment, find a pattern for a quilt, or 1,800 images of theatrical performers dating from 1854 to 1910. • Edmondson Collection: photographic prints of prominent even research a dog’s pedigree. Clevelanders from the early 1900s, such as John D. Rockefeller. In the southwest corner tower is John Moore’s • Biography Collection: more than 225,000 photographs of people of local, national, and international importance. • Subject dynamic and expressive abstract ceiling mural titled Collection: more than 200,000 photographs on subjects ranging Phalby’s Dream (1996). Unlike the other artwork in from abbeys to x-rays. • Cleveland Postcard Collection. the corner towers, Moore’s work does not relate thematically to the department located on this floor. Moore’s work comes as an unexpected surprise. Its swirling vitality is in direct contrast to the geometric and ordered regularity of the surrounding bookstacks, and of the city’s architecture viewed from the windows. Phalby’s Dream, detail The black ovoids and ellipses are metaphors for indi- The Fourth Floor houses the Government viduals seeking stability in a turbulent environment. Documents Department and the Photograph Moore’s vision was influenced by youthful memories Collection. In the Government Documents of the flooding of Doan Creek in his eastside Department you can read the latest Federal Cleveland neighborhood. Government publications, learn about various state, In the southeast corner tower is Cleveland artist county, or municipal agencies, conduct a search for a Don Harvey’s Populating the Sky (1996), a contempo- patent or trademark, pick up a copyright or tax form, rary rendition of a traditional subject in the history Steel Forging–Ludlum Steel Company, Cleveland, 1936. or research treaties that the United States has signed. of art—that of painting the night sky on a ceiling. Photograph by Margaret Because Cleveland Public Library has a nearly com- Harvey’s work includes abstracted versions of official Bourke-White. plete depository of U.S. Government documents dating N.A.S.A. photographs of American moon landings as to 1886, the Department is an important source for well as stenciled and air-brushed digitized pictures of government information in northern Ohio. spiral nebula forms. The images aren’t all scientific, In the extensive Photograph Collection (more than though—see if you can find the fanciful depictions of Populating the Sky, detail 1.5 million photographs), you can locate a photograph the man in the moon and the four winds. This ceiling, of a historic house that once belonged to a relative or with its emphasis on space exploration, is appropriately find one to illustrate a school or company report. You placed in the Science and Technology Department. can also view photographs of actors and study portraits It alludes to local connections with the nearby John of inventors like Garrett Morgan, as well as find a Glenn Research Center (formerly N.A.S.A. Lewis) photograph of a favorite baseball or football player. in Cleveland.

42 43 Pig Bank Funded by the Friends of the 3 Cleveland Public Library PUBLIC ART E 2 From Here to There, 1997, Paul O’Keeffe (1) Pig Bank, 1997, Malcolm Cochran (2) LOUIS STOKES WING It is better to have absolutely no idea where one is, SECOND FLOOR and to know it, than to believe confidently S R that one is where one is not—Cassini, 1996, BUSINESS, ECONOMICS Bruce Checefsky (3) 1 2 AND LABOR Truth and Freedom, 1996, Bruce Checefsky (3) CLEVELAND RESEARCH CENTER

BUSINESS, ECONOMICS COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS AND LABOR DEPARTMENT Cleveland Corporation Files: microfilm collection of historical Economics, Finance, Statistics, Real Estate, material on hundreds of greater Cleveland businesses, covering the Careers, The Stock Market, Labor History, early 1900s to the 1970s. • Directories: an outstanding collection Transportation, Accounting, Marketing, of domestic and foreign trade directories dating to the late 1800s. Advertising, Taxation, Public Finance, • Securities: extensive resources including Daily Stock Price Record, Management The Second Floor is the location of the Financial Stock Guide Service, Capital Changes Reporter, current and historic corporate annual reports, and various Securities and Business, Economics and Labor Department, Exchange Commission reports. • Statistical resources for founded in 1929. Here, you can learn how to buy industries. stocks and mutual funds, find a personal or business address worldwide, find various materials on how to things that we sometimes take for granted. In this look for a job or write a résumé, learn how to start a case, the piggy bank brings up images of thrift and small business, or even locate the price of a stock on good fortune. The clock on the pig’s side suggests that a given date in history. time is money. The saddle is both playful and somber, From Here to There, detail In the southwest corner tower are two unusual reminding us of kiddie rides, heroic equestrian statues, reading tables cast in bronze. One is based on the and of beasts of burden. 1925 English oak tables in Brett Hall, and the other In the northeast meeting room is Cleveland artist is inspired by the custom-designed metal tables in the Bruce Checefsky’s silver gelatin photogram installation Louis Stokes Wing. Titled, From Here to There (1997), titled, It is better to have absolutely no idea where one is, they are the work of Paul O’Keeffe, who wanted to and to know it, than to believe confidently that one is where emphasize the role of readers in the library. Hanging one is not—Cassini (1996). Photograms are camera-less over each table are working replicas of lighting fixtures photographs, made in this instance by passing light from both buildings, also cast in bronze. By taking through printed pages directly onto light-sensitive conventional objects like tables and lighting fixtures paper. This work explores themes of text and narrative The Cleveland Stone Company, a trade catalog and changing their material, O’Keeffe makes us think in art: the outermost circle of sixteen photograms are published in Cleveland about their function and about how everyday objects taken from several novels by Joseph Conrad. The in 1888. affect our lives. In this case, he had the tables cast in smaller inner circle has eight photograms depicting bronze, a permanent and durable material. Each weighs historical navigating instruments dating from the 16th about 1,500 pounds. Traditionally reserved to com- to the 19th centuries. These represent exploration and memorate civic events or figures, bronze is being used acknowledge the power of innovation and invention, here to celebrate utilitarian reading tables. Notice that characteristics of Cleveland’s industrial heritage. the edges of the tables are inscribed with the dates Truth and Freedom (1996), is a series of photograms when the two Main Library buildings were opened. with prints taken from a chapter of The Theory of At the southeast corner tower is Columbus (Ohio) Knowledge by philosopher Maurice Cornforth. This artist Malcolm Cochran’s Pig Bank (1997), an over- work addresses the democratic ideals embodied in a sized bronze piggy bank that suggests the notion that public library as well as the validity and strength of many patrons who use this department are concerned these ideals in contemporary society. with making and investing money. Our first childhood At the south end of the second floor, at the front It is better to have absolutely experience at sound fiscal management was most likely of the building, you have a sweeping view of the lower no idea where one is, and to know it, than to believe confi- with a piggy bank, a convention that dates back to lobby as well as a keyhole view of a keystone in the dently that one is where one Roman days. This is a functional bank. The money shape of the goddess Athena on the central entrance is not—Cassini, detail Funded by KeyCorp collected is used to buy books for the Library. of the Leader Building (Charles Platt, 1912) on the Cast at the Studio Foundry in Cleveland, Pig Bank other side of Superior Avenue. From the west side of is representative of Cochran’s work. By changing the the floor, you also have an all-encompassing view of scale, material, and context of everyday objects, often the Eastman Reading Garden, where we will shortly in humorous or ironic ways, he makes us reflect on conclude our tour.

44 45 Rockwell Avenue, Drive-up Window Louis Stokes Wing lending stations

E 1

LOUIS STOKES WING S FIRST FLOOR

POPULAR LIBRARY LENDING GIFT SHOP ENTRANCE LOBBY

POPULAR LIBRARY

Current Fiction and Nonfiction, Black Authors, Gay and Lesbian Literature, Chapbooks were popular Science Fiction, Short Stories, Young literature from the 16th to Adult Literature, Biography, Western, The First Floor of the Louis Stokes Wing is the 19th centuries. Small and Romance, Harlequin/Silhouette, dominated by a 35-foot atrium. Look over the railing illustrated with woodcuts, Mystery, Historical Romance, Large they contained legends, reports Print Books for a view of the double-height lower lobby where of notorious crimes, nursery we began our tour of the building. Notice how light rhymes, school lessons, biblical tales, dream lore, and other pours into the lobby from the curved glass wall, popular subjects. through which you can see the Eastman Reading Garden and the Main Building beyond. This curved Main Building was designed to balance that of the area is cut out from the basic elliptical shape of the neoclassical Howard M. Metzenbaum U.S. Court central oval tower, and acts as an effective counter- House to the west, the first building to be finished point to it. as part of the Group Plan (completed 1910). The The eye-catching and colorful tile feature wall is Court House and library buildings together mark an unexpected surprise for visitors. Not only does the the northern boundary of the Mall: they are both five wall provide directional pull into the Library, it also stories tall and are designed in a classical French helps to direct Library users once inside. The wall Beaux-Arts style with a monumental facade composed bulges toward the west side of the lobby, directing of a rusticated base, a gigantic colonnade, a cornice, patrons to the vertical towers housing the stairway and and a balustrade on the roof, with slightly projecting elevator banks. When patrons return to the lobby to pavilions framing the facade at either end. charge out items, they are intuitively drawn to the The Louis Stokes Wing defers to the earlier library brushed-aluminum circulation desks that are set in building—and the Group Plan in general—through the wall’s arched openings. its six-story corner towers, which are of similar height, The ceramic tile wall is shaped like a stylized and massing, and materials as the Main Building and the overscaled Classical cornice, complete with dentils Court House. The strips of marble at the bottom of and elaborate moldings. Its multi-colored tiles suggest the corner towers echo the rustication of the Main Entrance lobby Athena, Main Building a snakeskin pattern, similar to the one downstairs in Building and the Federal Reserve Bank. The most entrance. The goddess of the Audio-Video Department. The inventive use of distinctive aspect of the Stokes Wing—its central wisdom and patron of war (she wears a helmet), Athena ceramic tile and bright colors make the library a ten-story oval tower—also matches the height of the was a city-goddess and had cheerful and welcoming place. At the same time, the cornice of the adjacent Federal Reserve Bank to the many temples in leading Greek cities. ceramic wall’s evocation of a classical molding and its east. Notice how the mullions (vertical metal divisions) repeated depiction of the lamp of knowledge bring to of the glass tower are staggered, a feature that helps mind design details from the Main Building. to guide your eye around the tower and make it seem At the north end of the first floor is Popular less impossing. When lit at night, the oval tower Library. Here, you can read or reserve the newest alludes to the lamp of knowledge—the symbol of popular titles, browse current fiction and non-fiction the Library. books, find current popular magazines, or look To the passerby at street level, the Louis Stokes through a vast collection of new paperback books. Wing appears to be a masonry building—similar to As you leave the building, notice the Friends of its neighbors—because stone has been concentrated the Library Gift Shop at the western end of the on the lower parts of the street facades, especially entrance lobby, just before the doors. Here, you may around the main entrance. Be sure to notice the solid purchase used books as well as mementos of your visit. block of Barre gray granite—measuring an astounding Once outside, take time to study the main facades 28 feet long, 9 feet high and 16 inches thick—that of the two library buildings. The exterior of the 1925 forms the lintel above the main doors.

46 47 Louis Stokes Wing, view MAIN LIBRARY from Superior Avenue EXTERIORS

Eastman Reading Garden

Each facade of the Louis textured in the split face stone of the corner towers, Stokes Wing, however, is differ- drilled on the main entrance, and highly polished in ent in appearance, depending the interior. Such varied and inventive use of stone, upon its particular urban context. both in terms of texture and polish, highlights its Icon Photo from The front of the building (the inherent beauty and makes us realize the ways in the Collections south facade) emphasizes mason- which architects shape building materials. ry, in deference to the stone You will also notice that the entrance of the Louis buildings on Superior Avenue. Stokes Wing, unlike that of the Main Building, is By contrast, the west facade— flush to the sidewalk, making it accessible to everyone. which pushes out dramatically Between the Main Building and the Louis Stokes towards the Main Building— Wing is the Eastman Reading Garden. The Group is entirely of glass. The north Plan of 1903 stipulated that a park be located at this facade on Rockwell Avenue, spot. In 1913 and 1927, the City of Cleveland pur- (where the drive-up window, chased the parcels of land that now form the Eastman with a 24-hour book drop, is located) resembles that Reading Garden. At the suggestion of Director Linda of Superior Avenue, in deference to the architectural Eastman, the land first became a reading garden in character of the Group Plan buildings on the Mall. 1937. It was dedicated as Eastman The east facade is clad almost entirely in marble. It Park on September 30 of that year is not curved like its counterpart on the west but is and served as a popular outdoor flat, echoing the main marble facade of the Federal library, with books and magazines Reserve Bank across East 6th Street. available for reading. The Louis Stokes Wing is distinguished among As part of the Main Library other masonry buildings in Cleveland for its inventive Project, the garden was redesigned use of marble. For example, the corner towers, and by the Olin Partnership, a some parts of the facades, are clad with the split face Philadelphia-based landscape and cut stone marble. The marble came from the architecture firm. Trees, ground same deposit of Georgia marble that was used for the cover, and paving of different hues Main Building, but as you can see, it is finished in an were used to divide the garden into entirely different fashion—instead of being smooth intimate reading areas, providing a Portrait of Clara Morris and polished, it is rough and textured. quiet and reflective oasis within the Eastman Reading Garden (1848-1925), the gift of Leo rededication, September 18, Weidenthal. A plaque in the Another kind of marble treatment can be seen at hustle and bustle of downtown Cleveland. Its charm 1998 Eastman Reading Garden is the Louis Stokes main entrance, where massive drilled comes from its intimate scale and location. Enclosed near the spot where Clara Morris lived as a girl with marble blocks frame the entrance. When visiting the and sheltered by buildings on three sides, the garden her mother and sister. Morris marble quarry in Georgia, the architects saw some visually links the Old Arcade across Superior Avenue helped to support her family until she was thirteen, when large blocks being drilled for removal from the to the Mall. she entered the Academy of ground. The drilling, as you can see, is regular, with The Eastman Reading Garden is a happy mixture Music, Cleveland’s leading playhouse. She went on to vertical grooves. This recalls the vertical grooves— of contradictions: enclosed yet open, green yet urban, become one of the greatest or flutes—on classical Greek and Roman columns. cosmopolitan yet intimate. Even the artwork seems to emotional actresses of the American stage. Fortunately, the architects visited the quarry just partake in this diversity, from the mischievous and before it switched to another method of extraction, engaging bronze sculptures of Tom Otterness to the using saws and torches. Enough drilled blocks had minimalist work of Maya Lin aimed at evoking a sense already been stockpiled, however, for use at the Louis of calm and meditation. The combination of these Stokes Wing. By leaving intact the drill marks on the varied characteristics makes the park one of the most marble blocks, the architects emphasized the actual extraordinary and thought-provoking spaces in down- process of extraction, and the organic and highly town Cleveland. textured quality of the marble. The first things you notice when you enter the Malcolm Holzman used marble in three ways park are its whimsical bronze gates, 14 feet high and throughout the Louis Stokes Wing: rough and 12 feet wide, designed by sculptor Tom Otterness of

48 49 MAIN LIBRARY EASTMAN READING GARDEN

As in the entrance gates, we are encouraged to join the words together to form our own

Reading A Garden (detail) poems. The poems and words Maya Lin, sculptor; Tan Lin, poet; 1998 were composed by Tan Lin, Funded substantially by the George Gund Foundation the sculptor’s brother, who teaches English literature at the Eastman Reading Garden University of Virginia. This is their first collaborative project. The waist-high, L-shaped fountain and reflecting pool of New York City, in collaboration with Maya Lin and smooth charcoal granite is a Tan Lin. T he gates have doors built out of letters soothing and calming spot, ideal and word fragments that can be pieced together like for contemplation and reflection. Section from Tom Otterness bronze figures a puzzle, although few complete words can be made, The title, Reading a Garden, can only be read correctly encouraging us to search harder for new combinations. if seen as a reflection in the water. Slick sheets of This process alludes to the very act of reading— water continually glide down the wall and over the putting together letters to form words and sentences. raised letters of Tan Lin’s poetry, which appear to The theme of constructing seen in the gates introduces be weeping. the theme of the entire park—Reading a Garden —and The garden is ideal for young people who enjoy the recalls the Library’s role in one’s discovery of words, puzzle-like aspects of words and their various shapes books, and ideas. and designs. It is possible for them to make paper Look at the small bronze figures around you. They rubbings of the letters so they can construct their own are also in the process of constructing—either the poems from the words they discover here. gates, or words themselves. These humorous figures are seen playing with the letters, rearranging them, hauling them into position, or even stealing them from Eastman Reading Garden Gates Tom Otterness, in collaboration the gates! You can also see them outside the garden, The two buildings and the garden are admirable examples of with Maya Lin and Tan Lin, either reading on a window sill on one of the library’s the Library’s respect for the past and its embrace of the future. 1998 Funded substantially by the marble corner towers, or posing on one of the tree The Main Library was conceived at a vibrant time in American Cleveland Foundation planters on Superior Avenue. They represent us in architecture and urban planning and is a significant example of many of our various activities and pastimes. Beaux-Arts concepts and ideals. The Louis Stokes Wing respects The theme of constructing words and meaning that historical tradition while incorporating contemporary ideas continues inside the Reading Garden, culminating in and solutions in its design. The Library itself has kept a balance the fountain at its center, designed by Maya Lin, an between the past and the future—between the printed word and Athens, Ohio, native who is best known for her the electronic one—while giving access to both equally. Although Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. the means and methods have changed, the mission of the Library (1982). Leading to the fountain is a stone path etched has remained intact since its founding: to provide information to with an abstract poem—words and letters and frag- the public in an efficient and practical manner while offering the mentary verse in various patterns and combinations. patron a special sense of where this can take place. 50 51 FORMER MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, 1988-1999 Caesar D. Burkes (1991-1998) Michael V. Kelley (1983-1990) Elizabeth Coles (1987-1994) David M. Novak (1980-1991) Special thanks to the people who reviewed and commented on the many Paul J. DeGrandis, Jr. (1981-1993) Lynnie G. Powell (1991-1995) drafts of this publication: Joan Clark, Evelyn Ward, Nina Fried, Helen Marcia L. Fudge (1984-1989) Alvin L. Schorr (1993-1998) Azusenis, Timothy Diamond, Chris Albano, Lynne Roderick, Walter Leedy, Stephanie Tubbs Jones (1986-1991) Lockwood T hompson (1955-1969, 1990-1992) Kathy Coakley, Patricia Leebove, Mark Cole, and Scott Cataffa.

FORMER ADMINISTRATION, 1988-1999 Many thanks to those who helped with various aspects of this publication: Ann Olszewski; Sari Feldman; Al Albano; Margaret Shen; the Buildings Norman Holman, Deputy Director, through September 1996 Department, especially Norbert Harnegie, Myron Scruggs, Helaine Callier, Phyllis Martin, Head of Community Services, through May 1997 Dennis Niedermyer, Wayne Satterfield, Carl “Rocky” Stone, Duane Miller, Edward Seely, Head of Technical Services, through March 1995 and Wally Joachim; the Photoduplication Office, especially Tonya Sullivan; Frances Clark, Public Relations Supervisor, through September 1994 Stephen Zietz; Jeffrey Martin; Phillip Myers; Security Operations, especially FRIENDS OF THE CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY, 1999 Michael Janero, Mel Abrams, Lucy Strzalka, James Southerland, and Don Jay Stefan Holmes, President Williams; at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, Ron Sutton, Carl Bennett, Rosalyn Sievela, Vice President and Kim Hollett; at the B.P. Building, Equity Office Management, David S. Lu, Treasurer especially Jim Wood and the Engineering Department; and special thanks Richard Gildenmeister, Secretary to Amy Roderick. Nancy Mahoney, Mary Scelsi, Co-Directors

MAIN LIBRARY PROJECT TEAM

ARCHITECT OF RECORD SITE/ CIVIL ENGINEERING AND TRADE CONTRACTORS URS Consultants, Cleveland FIELD OBSERVATION B. D. Furniture, Chas. Beseler Co./LBS, Burger Structural Steel Co., Central Business Ralph Tyler Companies, Cleveland Al Liutkus, Project Manager Equipment Co., Central Business Group, Cleveland Cement Contractors Inc., Commercial Joel Schwarz, Project Architect William McCullam, Field Observation Tile/Cleveland Marble (J.V.), Costigan’s Office Supply, Inc., Donley’s, Inc., Duct Fabricators, Inc., E. B. Katz, EL-O Electric, Eslich Wrecking, Feldman Mechanical, Project Team CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Frank Novak & Sons, Inc., G-Q Contracting Co., General Construction, Inc./Proflor, Inc. Dan Clements, Christina Faranela, Ron Godes, Turner Construction Company in association (J.V.), George Allen Construction, Harmon Contract Glass, Hirsch Electric Co., Library Geoff Varga, John Vargo, Beth Zandee Van Riland with Colejon Construction, Choice Construction, Design Associates, Library Interiors, Mac Mechanical Corp., Matt Construction, and Ozanne Construction. Engineering Team Montgomery/Kone Elevator Co., Norstan Communications, Ohio Desk Co., Perk Mark Banas, Dave Basista, Charlie Basham, SPECIAL MAIN LIBRARY PROJECT Company, Precision Electric, Inc., Reliance Mechanical, Rivera Construction Co., Emmy Lejarde, Ina Pivovar, Ed Radziszewski, STAFF: CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY Singleton Construction Co., Soehnlen Piping Co., Inc., Spacesaver, Thomarios Painting, Bob Zednik Timothy R. Diamond, Assistant to the Director Western Waterproofing, Wm. B. Meyer, Inc. Deborah M. Hefling, Assistant to the Director DESIGN ARCHITECT SUBCONTRACTORS (through May 1998) Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, New York 3M, Able Contracting Group, Able Fence Co., Advantage Electric, Agati, Inc., Alpha Malcolm Holzman, Partner-in-Charge OWNER’S CONSULTANT Builders, Architectural Graphics, Inc., Architectural Products, Bemba Jones, Berea Robert T. Almodovar, Kala Somvanshi, H.P. (Andy) Anderson, Ernst & Young LLP Plumbing, Inc., Berkshire Construction, Berry Insulation, Bradley Construction, Bruce Project Managers Wall Systems, Burkshire Construction Co., Central Concrete, Chesapeake Co., Clearview CONSULTANTS Setrak Ohannessian, Project Architect Cleaning, Cleveland Air Comfort Corp., Charles Coleman Corporation, Complete Acentech, Acoustics Robin Kunz, Daria Pizzetta, Interiors Demolition Services, Concrete Cutting, Coon Caulking, Corcoran Tile & Marble Inc., Burges & Burges, Public Relations Doan Electric, Dot Diamond Core Drilling Services, Inc., Dot Drilling & Sawing, Inc., Project Team Fisher Marantz Renfro Stone, Lighting Foti Construction, Garrett & Associates, Georgia Marble, Georgi Interiors, Geotech Christopher Bach, Michael Connolly, Nancy GAP Communications, Public Relations Services, Inc., Giambrone Masonry, Inc., Gilcrest Electric, GLASS, Inc., Granger Trucking, Geng, Rob Lopez, Manuel Mergal, Kristopher Heitmann & Associates, Curtain Wall Granitos Naturales, H. C. Painting, Hammond Mechanical, Harold Management, Peter Nikolich, Susan Pon, Jeff Porten, Allen Intermuseum Conservation Association, Hasek Glass Co., Hayes Construction, Heitmann & Associates, Hobbs Architectural Robinson, Victor Rodriguez, Bruce Spenadel Conservation of Works of Art Fountains, Industrial First, JC Sharp Corp., Jays Boom Truck, Joe Soetera Excavation, Lou A. Marnella & Associates, Conservation RESTORATION ARCHITECT Keller-Hall, Knogo North America Inc., Kurtz Brothers Inc., Lake Company, Lake Erie Salestrom Design, Graphics Robert P. Madison International, Cleveland Electric, Lakeside Blueprint, Landis & Staefa, M-A Building and Maintenance Co., Martin Robert P. Madison, Principal-in-Charge PUBLIC ART PROJECT Enterprises, T. H. Martin Sheet Metal, MCM Company, Messina, Midwest Dewatering, Robert M. Harmicar, Project Manager Committee for Public Art, Cleveland, MM Berger, Muli Iron, Nagele Mfg., Network Cleaning, New Life, North Coast Concrete, Lyle M. Harding, Project Architect Artist Selection, Project Management Inc., Northeast Ohio Trenching, Ornamental Iron, Pompili Precast, Professional Air Jeffrey C. Hoskin, Job Captain Kathleen Coakley, Executive Director Balance, Professional Services Ind., Ram Mechanical, Reliable Construction Heaters, Beth Chico, Heather Mackey, Scott Cataffa Resource International, Inc., Richard Goettle Inc., Romeo Electric, Royal Landscape, Inc., Project Team SafeAir Contracting, Inc., Scott Stone, Inc., Shaw Industries, Shelter Development, Lester Cumberlander, John Davis, Ernestine Artists Sherwin Williams, Simplex Company, Sound Com, Southwest Insulation, Spec Plus, Edwards, Justin Hilton, Sandra L. Madison, Anna Arnold Maya Lin Steelcase Inc., Stuart-Dean Co., Inc., Tanner Brothers, Tomco Metal Fabricating, Thomas E. Veider Dawoud Bey John Moore George Bowes Holly Morrison Translogic Corporation, United Ready Mix, Ken Verosko, Viracon Glass Co., Virginia Engineering Team Bruce Checefsky Paul O’Keeffe Metals, Inc., Vocan Int., WACO Scaffolding & Equipment, Waid’s Rainbow Rentals, Inc., Fira Ilg, Anthony Foster, Lal Jayaraman, Malcolm Cochran Tom Otterness Ware Plumbing & Heating, Wells Fargo, WESCO, Work Best, M. Zunt Company, Thomas Patton, Manny Patel, Olga Shekhtman, Don Harvey Lyneise Williams Zuranec & Laux, Inc. Felix Theys, Thomas Toth Mark Howard LOCAL TRADE UNIONS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Brick Layers #5, Carpenters District Council, Cement Masons #404, Electricians #38, Olin Partnership (formerly Hanna/Olin Ltd.), Glaziers #181, Iron Workers #17, Laborers #310, Millwrights #1871, Operating Engineers Philadelphia, PA #18, Painters #6, Pipe Fitters #120, Plasterers #80, Plumbers #55, Roofers #44, Sheet Metal Robert M. Hanna, Dennis C. McGlade, Susan K. Workers #33, Tapers #6, Tile Layers #36 Weiler, Howard J. Supnik, Karen Skafte, Chris Zlocki, Whitney Armstrong, William Dietrich

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