Character Count

Architectural plan for Widener Library

Click on arrow at right to see full image
Photograph by Stephanie Mitchell/HPAC

It is widely known that Harry Widener (Vita, May-June 2019, page 44) had a memorably unsuccessful experience boating—on the Titanic. Barely known is the role that African-American architect Julian Abele had in creating the eponymous library, in his capacity as chief designer in the Office of Horace Trumbauer, the name architect for the project.

Abele is now getting some overdue credit, thanks to a gemlike display in the dome of the library, assembled by Kate Donovan, associate librarian for public services in Houghton Library and curator of the Widener Memorial Collection. (Kudos to the news office’s senior writer, Colleen Walsh, and photographer, Stephanie B. Mitchell, for bringing the exhibition to the community’s attention.) Beyond rectifying the unjust neglect of Abele’s work, the drawings themselves and their setting (when accessible again) may cause visitors to reinterpret the building itself. Its mass, hunkered down in Harvard Yard, is its overwhelming feature—but inside and out, it is finely and delicately decorated in many pleasing ways.

The front elevation of December 23, 1912, shown here, is not definitively from Abele’s hand. Nonetheless, the detail atop the columns merits amused attention: “INSCRIPTION HERE NOT TO EXCEED FIFTY LETTERS A.D. MCMXII.” As contemporary observers can attest, the stonecutters in the end had to chisel only 44—something anyone passing by can see even while the libraries are closed.

Click here for the May-June 2020 issue table of contents

Read more articles by John S. Rosenberg

You might also like

An Original Magna Carta, Hidden in Plain Sight

A rare original surfaces at Harvard at an “almost providential” moment. 

Yesterday’s News

Seniors’ uncertain future c. 1940, Harvard Law Review news, and more

Alice Hamilton

Brief life of a public-health pioneer and reformer: 1869-1970

Most popular

This is How Universities Die

Higher ed thrived in Berlin and Beijing. Then government stepped in. 

Harvard President Responds to Secretary of Education

Alan Garber outlines steps the University has taken, and emphasizes compliance with the law.

Harvard Medical School Renames Diversity Office, Revamps Recruitment Program

The latest in a broader rollback of DEI at the University

Explore More From Current Issue

Short Headlines from Harvard's History

Seniors’ uncertain future c. 1940, Harvard Law Review news, and more

Brief Harvard News Spring 2025

Physician-authors address Commencement and Alumni Day, new School of Education Dean, and more

Making Green Energy Projects Financially Viable

A proposed “green” swap enables decarbonization of emerging market development projects.