Events

On display: Riggs Gallery, Deering Level 3

The Charles Deering Memorial Library opened in 1933 as a statement to the world that Northwestern University was a serious institution of learning. Though designed to model the 15th century King’s College Chapel at Cambridge University, the library’s towers, pointed arches, and vaults were part of a larger movement in the early 20th century toward “Collegiate Gothic” architecture. The style linked the heavenly grandeur of medieval cathedrals to the lofty intellectual pursuits of schools.

As then-University Librarian Theodore Koch wrote at the time: “No other architectural style has expressed more adequately the upward-reaching of man’s spirit.” More than 90 years later, this building still evokes awe, pride, inspiration, and an urge to study just a little harder.

Grand & Gothic traces the history of Deering Library, from its conception to today. 

A two-part exhibit in the reopened Deering Library celebrates the rarest holdings of the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections and University Archives. When the building first opened in 1933, rare books lived in a cozy nook called the Treasure Room.

Today the McCormick Library, located in Deering, holds these treasures, along with the rare materials of the Music Library. Through acquisition and donation, holdings have grown to include the papers of famous authors, the archives of accomplished alumni, and one-of-a-kind artifacts of the world’s cultural and political history. Part one of Treasures of Deering is now on display in the lobby of Deering Library; part two will run during winter quarter with a different selection of items.