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Widener
Library
Photo
1919?
Jpg: memory.loc.gov
From: American
Landscape and Architectural
Design, 1850-1920
Widener Library,
1913, Horace Trumbauer
Widener Library replaced Gore Hall as the College Library in
1913,when the former building became too small
for the University's growing collections. [The Widener family, namely
Eleanor Elkins Widener, the mother of Harry[2]]
built
the new library in memory of [her son] who had died in the sinking
of the
Titanic.
Widener graduated from Harvard in 1907 and was a collector
of rare and first edition books. He bequeathed his collection to
Harvard,
but wanted the books to be presented only when the University was
finally
equipped to store them properly. His family contemplated ways to
fulfill
his wishes, including adding a second wing to the existing building.
They
finally resolved to construct an entirely new library. The vast scale
of
the new building was necessary to adequately contain the university's
enormous
holdings. There are ten levels of load bearing stacks surrounding two
courtyards
and an interior rotunda for Widener's
collection. The large size of the new structure and the imposing facade
emphasized
the library as the heart
of the University. [1]
From: Betty
Goldman
chbettygoldman at yahoo.com
Date: Sep 17, 2005
I did
read, from what I thought was an accurate source,
that the father also died on the Titanic. I have found two
websites, the first of which is not very clear regarding the fate of
the father, whose name was George. The second seems to be more
accurate. Why there are such discrepancies among the several sources I
have read is a mystery to me. Obviously, one has never been able
to trust the computer, but
I always thought we could trust our valued books. Apparently not!
Try the following:
(1)
www.encyclopedia-titanica.org
(Search for Harry Elkins Widener)
Although it states that the 3 Wideners (mother, father, son) boarded the
Titanic with their valet and maid, it does not mention the father's
death at
all, nor those of the the valet and maid.
(2)
www.widener.edu/Tools_Resources/Libraries
Here it states very clearly that Harry and his industrialist father,
George, died on the Titanic. The valet and the maid do not seem
important
enough to require any mention of their death(s). But since they
were of the
lower class, they too probably died, although one web site (which I've
now forgotten), states that they all boarded on one ticket. Does that
mean that the maid, at least, could have been saved?
Hmmmm....
I love mysteries like this and could go on exploring, but I'm in search
of a job and had better return to the employment websites and let the
Wideners rest in peace.
Notes:
Image courtesy of the Frances Loeb
Library, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University
1)
Originally from Bunting, Bainbridge. Harvard: An Architectural
History (Completed and
Edited by Margaret
Henderson Floyd). Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 1985. Quoted online
at memory.loc.gov
2) The Quote said his parents built the
library. In a letter from Betty Goldman Cambridge (chbettygoldman at
yahoo.com) she had read that the father had died on the Titanic along
with his son.
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