Bryn Mawr College - Bryn Mawr Yearbook (Bryn Mawr, PA)

Page 22 text:

THERE is space in the new wing of the library for 65-75,000 volumes. There are three stack levels, two of which have been filled, but funds have not been sufficient to install shelves in the third. Moreover 34,000 slides, not counting the two by twos, have been shifted from the old wing to the new, and ten professors have found new homes there. The building is completely fireproof and is composed of steel, concrete, and hollow tile. It will be, says Mr. Chew, in perfect harmony with the rest of the edifice when weathered. Five porters and five library assistants worked for a month trans- ferring books from the east to the west wing. Miss Terrien modestly admits she was a day ahead of them all the way. On the other hand it took Mrs. Landes four summer months, including Saturday afternoons and Sundays, to get the slides in order after she had tenderly conveyed each one by hand to its present habitat. Previously she had measured the space necessary to house every slide and picture. At the time the books were being put in the new stacks, the mercury was at its usual mid-June high; the plaster was still wet, and hot blasts from the furnace were being used to dry it. Consequently the temperature was well over a hundred degrees. Few students have been using the carrells in the new stacks. Miss Terrien attributes this, first, to the shyness of the girls who, since the space is limited, hesitate to deprive others of a desk, and second, to the fact that there are no fireplaces. The art department had trouble getting its new material assembled. Mr. Soper spent the summer trying to wangle projectors out of the factory but they were being made by craftsmen who preferred to spend leisurely 18

Page 21 text:

MY MASTERS AND FRIENDS AND GOOD PEOPLE, DRAW NEAR— 17

Page 23 text:

hours perfecting each detail. The Remington Rand strike delayed the delivery of the files; one of their workers was the only casualty. He cut his head open on a shelf in Mrs. Landes ' office. The clock in the lecture room underwent a similar misadventure. Its wires run down the wall and under the floor to the opposite side of the room, and in bolting down the 68 chairs one of the workmen cut the connection. This left the engi- neer with the problem of deciding which of the eight bolts belonging to each chair was responsible. Fortunately the incision was detected under the second chair unscrewed. Mr. Soper suffered a truly major calamity when the shelves in his office gave way and several hundred slides crashed to the floor. The shelves have since been fastened more securely. Among the blessings of the department are a dark room equipped with a special camera to make new slides, and an electric press for dry- mounting pictures and thus insuring them from curling in the future. More important, the big lecture room was designed by Mr. Sloane and Mr. Carpenter. As each part flows structurally in to another, the room as a whole is a fine example of practical and aesthetic unity. All in all, the new wing might be considered an art major ' s dream. One, however, expressed herself thus: I ' m not sure I ' m not more impressed by it than able to work in it. The colors in the Quita Woodward room are borrowed from the memorial portrait by Violet Oakley of Quita as she appeared in Big May Day. In spite of the fact that the room is so lovely undergraduates have not misused it by studying there. So far the only abuse, Miss Terrien con- fides, is that the students will put their feet on the nice light furniture. 19