Entering by either of the doors at the head of the staircase, the
visitor at once steps out upon an embayed gallery, affording a
spacious and uninterrupted view of the great domed Reading Room, or
Rotunda, which, in every sense, is the central and most important
portion of the Library. As such, it is marked by a magnificence of
architecture and decoration nowhere else to be found in the building.
Outside, from whatever direction one approaches, the gilded dome
which forms its outer shell is the first thing to catch the eye; and
the golden flame of the torch which surmounts the lantern indicates
to the passer-by at once the central and the highest point of
the whole structure. Within, richer materials have been used, and
decoration has been more freely employed than in any other part of
the Library. Sculpture and paintings, rare marbles, and a broad
scheme of color and of ornamentation in stucco relief unite with a
lofty architectural design to form what is one of the most notable
interiors in the country.
=The Importance of the Rotunda.=--The detailed description of the
Rotunda may be deferred a little, however, in order to explain its
relation to the rest of the building, and, especially, the reason
for its central position. Besides accumulating books and providing
the student with proper accommodations for his work--such as good
light and convenient chairs and tables--it is the business of every
well managed library to supply its readers with the books they desire
in the shortest possible time and with the least possible amount
of friction. A well digested catalogue is the first requisite; the
second is that the books should be stored in a place as closely
accessible to the reading room as may be. In a small library this
is a simple matter; the same room will be sufficient for both books
and readers. When the number of volumes increases it is necessary to
shelve them in a compact system of bookcases called a “stack”--or,
as in the Library of Congress, in a series of stacks--which must
occupy a portion of the building by itself. The reading room and the
stacks being thus separated, it is still the aim of the architect
to place them in such a way as to retain as far as possible the
practical convenience of the smaller library, where every reader
is almost within reaching distance of every book. This end is most
easily attained by adopting what is called the “central system” of
library construction, which is the system followed in the Library of
Congress. It has already been seen that the building is in the form
of a cross enclosed within a rectangle, thus allowing space for four
courts for light and air. At the intersections of the arms of the
cross is the Rotunda, the main entrance to which is through the west
arm of the cross. The other three arms are occupied by the stacks;
the East Stack, directly opposite, is the second short arm; the North
and South Stacks, each the same length, are the two long arms. It
is obvious that by this arrangement the books can be more easily
reached than in any other way. The axes of the stacks are continued
radii of the Rotunda, and, so far as the ground plan is concerned,
the shortest way from any part of the cross to the Distributing Desk
which the visitor sees below in the centre of the room is always
along a straight line. This Distributing Desk, of course, being in
the exact centre of everything, is the vital point, the kernel, of
the whole arrangement. No part of the stack, it will be noted, is far
enough away from it to delay the transmission of a book unreasonably,
as might very well be the case if the three stacks were in one.
Moreover, by the use of a mechanical contrivance, which will be
explained later, even this distance is in effect very greatly reduced.
[Illustration: THE GALLERY OF THE ROTUNDA. SHOWING THE STATUES OF
HERODOTUS AND BEETHOVEN.]
Another thing may well be noted in this connection although it
has already been referred to in the preliminary description of
the building--and that is, the comparative unimportance, from the
standpoint of the real requirements of the Library, of the great
Rectangle which encloses the stacks and the Rotunda, and necessarily
appears from the street to be the main portion of the building. It
contains rooms which, at present, are very convenient for clerical
work or as art galleries and special reading rooms, and which may in
time be necessary to accommodate an overflow of books; but it must
steadily be borne in mind that the Rotunda and the stacks contain
the real life of the institution. They are the only really essential
and vital portion of the building; without them, there could hardly
be a library; and by themselves they would be sufficient for almost
every present need.
=The General Arrangement.=--The character of the Rotunda is warm and
rich in ornament as befits a room where people remain to read. It is
naturally not so formal as the Rotunda of the Capitol. The height of
the room from the floor to the top of the dome, where it converges
upon the lantern, is one hundred and twenty-five feet, and from the
floor to the crown of the domed ceiling of the lantern itself, one
hundred and sixty feet. This latter point, however, is quite shut off
from the view of a person standing in the gallery and can be seen
only from a position near the centre of the room. The ground plan
of the room is octagonal in shape, measuring one hundred feet from
one side to another. Eight massive clustered piers, each set some
ten feet forward from a corner of the octagon, support a series of
heavy arches running entirely round the room. These piers serve, as
it were, to stake out the limit of the Reading Room proper; between
them are marble screens arcaded in two stories, and behind they are
connected with the outer wall by partitions which divide the octagon
into eight bays or alcoves, each fourteen feet deep and thirty wide.
In each alcove, at the height of the screen, is a gallery like
that which the visitor has already entered, one connecting with
another, through doors pierced in the partition walls, so as to
form a continuous promenade--as it may be called, considering its
purpose--in which the sightseer may walk without fear of disturbing
the readers below.
[Illustration: LAW. BY PAUL W. BARTLETT.]
The alcoves are arched and enclose great semi-circular windows filled
with stained glass, which furnish the greater part of the light
needed for the room. The arches springing from the piers support a
heavy circular entablature, immediately above which is the dome,
arched in the line of an exact circle and supported upon eight ribs
dividing it into eight sections or compartments. The ribs are the
essential feature of the dome construction, and continue naturally
the line of support of the great piers which are the ultimate support
of the whole interior--a fact which is more clearly brought out to
the eye by paired consoles or brackets introduced in the entablature
between the two and seeming to carry the weight from one to the other.
The surface of the dome is of stucco, attached to a framework of
iron and steel filled in with terra cotta, and richly ornamented
with coffers and with a very elaborate arabesque of figures in
relief. At the top, where the dome prepares to join the lantern,
the ribs terminate against a broad circular “collar,” so called,
containing a painted decoration by Mr. Edwin Howland Blashfield.
Finally comes the lantern, thirty-five feet in height, and pierced
by eight windows, recalling the octagonal arrangement with which the
construction began. The shallow dome which covers the lantern is
ornamented with a second painting by Mr. Blashfield, summing up the
idea of his decoration in the collar.
At the risk of some tediousness, perhaps, but thinking that
afterwards the connection between the decoration and the architecture
would be more clearly understood, the writer has given this general
description of the Rotunda, in order that the visitor might
immediately see what portion of the whole was essential and what
not essential; what was “structural” and vital, in other words, and
what not. It will have been observed that we have, on the outside,
an octagon supporting a shallow dome, on which rests the lantern.
Well within this is an octagonal arrangement of piers carrying a much
steeper dome. Alcoves occupy the space between the inner and outer
octagons. Between the two domes--the inner shell and the outer--is
vacancy. The whole exterior--walls, dome, and lantern--the partitions
back of the piers, and the connecting screens: all could be torn away
and the inner dome still remain secure on its eight massive piers.
[Illustration: COMMERCE. BY JOHN FLANAGAN.]
The piers are constructed of brick, veneered with marble from Numidia
in Africa, curiously mottled and in color a sort of dusky red. The
high base on which the pier rests is sheathed with a chocolate brown
variety of the familiar close-grained Tennessee marble. The height of
the piers, including base and capital, is forty-four feet.
The screens are built solidly of marble from Sienna, Italy, which
encloses in its rich black veining almost every variety of yellow,
from cream color to dark topaz. Like the piers, the screens are
erected upon a Tennessee marble base, in this case, however, very
much lower--four feet to the other’s eleven. The arcading of the
screens is in two stories, the first of three and the second of seven
arches. At the top of each screen the gallery is railed in by a heavy
balustrade--still of the same Sienna marble--connected with which are
two marble pedestals which bear bronze statues of illustrious men.
The screens are alike on every side of the octagon but two, the west
and the east--the former the entrance from the Staircase Hall, and
the latter affording a way through to the east side of the building.
In both instances, therefore, the central arch is accentuated by
free standing columns. In the second story of the west screen, also,
still another modification has been made in order to allow space
for a large clock--the three middle arches giving place to a rich
architectural setting ornamented with bronze statuary.
=The Alcoves.=--The alcoves behind the screens are in two stories,
like the arcading, and are intended to contain a collection of the
most necessary standard books on all important topics. The entrance
from the floor of the Reading Room is through the central arch
of the screen. One may pass through doors in the partitions from
one alcove to another, on either floor; and by means of a winding
staircase inside each of the piers one may go up or down, not only
from story to story, but, on the one hand, into the basement below,
and, on the other, to the space between the inner and the outer dome
above.
Altogether, the alcoves have a capacity, with their present shelving,
of 130,000 volumes. The cases are of iron, and similar in a general
way to those in the large stacks, to be described later; but they are
built against the walls, according to the older method of library
arrangement, and with very little attempt to combine them in a real
stack system, properly so called. The upper shelves in the lower
story are reached from a small iron gallery; in the second story a
step-ladder must be used--the only instance in the whole building
where a book-shelf cannot be reached by a person standing on the
floor.
[Illustration: PHILOSOPHY. BY BELA L. PRATT.]
In front of each of the great piers of the Rotunda is an engaged
column, so called because it is not quite clear of the mass behind
it, which serves as the ultimate support of a statue placed between
the arches upholding the dome. In height, base, and capital, it is
the same as the pier with which it is connected, and, like it, is
sheathed in Numidian marble, but not so dark in tone, since the
burden resting on the column includes no part of the dome, and is
therefore much lighter than that borne by the pier.
The engaged columns, however, join with the piers to carry an
elaborate entablature some seven feet in height, which, finding
its way in and out of the alcoves from pier to pier, completely
encompasses the room. The color of the entablature, which is entirely
of stucco, is a cream or ivory white, like the dome, touched
sparingly with gold. The mouldings, which are of the usual Greek
patterns employed in Renaissance architecture, are very rich and
heavy. The topmost member of the cornice is boldly projected upon
a series of modillions, the soffits between being ornamented with
rosetted coffers--gilt on a blue ground. The frieze is enriched with
an arabesque of Renaissance ornament in relief, including antique
urns and lamps; garlands enclosing tablets; and winged half-figures.
The general design of the frieze, as of all such work in the Library,
is by Mr. Casey as architect; the individual figures, however, were
modelled by Mr. Weinert.
=The Symbolical Statues.=--The eight statues set upon the entablature
over the engaged columns represent eight characteristic features of
civilized life and thought. From the floor to the plinth or base on
which they stand is a distance of fifty-eight feet; each is ten and
a half feet, or, including the plinth, eleven feet high. All are of
plaster, toned an ivory white to match the general tone of the stucco
decoration throughout the room, and are effectively placed against
the plain red pendentives of the dome as a background. The title of
each is inscribed in gilt letters in a tablet in the frieze below.
Beginning with the figure directly to the right as one enters the
west gallery of the Rotunda, the order is as follows: _Religion_,
modelled by Mr. Theodore Baur; _Commerce_, by Mr. John Flanagan;
_History_, by Mr. Daniel C. French; _Art_, by a French artist, Mr.
Dozzi, after sketches by Mr. Augustus St. Gaudens; _Philosophy_, by
Mr. Bela L. Pratt, who modelled the granite spandrels of the Main
Entrance; _Poetry_, by Mr. J. Q. A. Ward; _Law_, by Mr. Paul W.
Bartlett; and _Science_, by Mr. John Donoghue.
[Illustration: SHAKESPEARE. BY FREDERICK MACMONNIES.]
Nearly all bear some appropriate and distinguishing object.
_Religion_ holds a flower in her hand, seeming to draw from it the
lesson of a God revealed in Nature. _Commerce_, crowned with a wreath
of the peaceful olive, holds in her right hand a model of a Yankee
schooner, and in her left a miniature locomotive. _History_ has a
book in her hand, and with an obvious symbolism holds up a hand-glass
so that it will reflect things behind her. _Art_ is unlike the other
figures in being represented as nearly nude. She is crowned with
laurel, and bears a model of the Parthenon. Beside her is a low
tree, in the branches of which are hung a sculptor’s mallet and the
palette and brush of the painter. _Philosophy_ is a grave figure with
downcast eyes, carrying a book in her hand. The garment of _Poetry_
falls in severe lines, which suggest the epic and the more serious
forms of the drama, rather than the lighter aspects of the Muse.
_Law_ has a scroll in her hand; a fold of her robe is drawn over her
head to signify the solemnity of her mission; and beside her is the
stone Tablet of the Law. _Science_ holds in her left hand a globe of
the earth, surmounted by a triangle. In her right hand is a mirror,
not, like _History’s_, turned backward, but held forward so that all
may perceive the image of Truth.
Above each statue the pendentive of the dome is occupied by a group
in plaster, sculptured by Mr. Martiny, consisting of two winged
geniuses, modelled as if half flying, half supported on the curve
of the arches, and holding between them a large tablet carrying an
inscription in gilt letters. Above the tablet is a pair of crossed
palm-branches (meaning peace), and below are the lamp and open book
symbolical of learning, these last being surrounded by an oak-wreath,
typifying strength--the whole group thus signifying the power and
beneficence of wisdom.
The inscriptions were selected by President Eliot of Harvard
University, who several years before had furnished the memorable
sentences carved upon the Water Gate at the World’s Fair in Chicago.
Each is appropriate to the subject of the statue below it.