Deering Library
Encyclopedia
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
in Evanston, Illinois
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Deering Library houses the Government Publications Department and the Northwestern University Archives on the first floor, the Music Library on the second floor, and the Map Collection, the Art Reference Collection and the Special Collections Department on the third floor. The Library is named for Charles Deering
Charles Deering
Charles Deering was an American businessman, art collector, and philanthropist. He was an executive of the agricultural machinery company founded by his father that became International Harvester. Charles's successful stewardship of the family firm left him with the means and leisure to indulge...
, a Northwestern benefactor and chairman of International Harvester
International Harvester
International Harvester Company was a United States agricultural machinery, construction equipment, vehicle, commercial truck, and household and commercial products manufacturer. In 1902, J.P...
, who provided the initial financing for the building.
Construction and the building
Theodore Wesley Koch
Theodore Wesley Koch was the Director of Northwestern University's library , and the Director of the University of Michigan Library...
, University Librarian from 1919 to 1941, served as Northwestern's main library until the completion of University Library
Northwestern University Library
The Northwestern University Library is the principal library for the Evanston campus of Northwestern University. The library holds 4.6 million volumes, making it the 11th largest library at a private university. The building was designed in brutalist style by Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings and...
in 1970. Deering Library is connected to University Library.
The site chosen for Deering Library had previously been occupied by Heck Hall, a dormitory which burned down in 1914. The Library was built between 1931 and 1933, having been designed by the architect James Gamble Rogers
James Gamble Rogers
James Gamble Rogers was an American architect best known for his academic commissions at Yale University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, and elsewhere....
in Collegiate Gothic style. The structure is composed of Lannon stone and was modeled after King's College Chapel at Cambridge University. The building also contains 68 stained glass windows by G. Owen Bonawit
G. Owen Bonawit
G. Owen Bonawit was an artist whose studio created thousands of pieces of stained glass for Yale, Duke, and Northwestern universities; Connecticut College; and at private homes. There are, by one count, 887 pieces in Yale's Sterling Memorial Library. Bonawit worked often and closely with the...
and wood and stone carvings by the sculptor Rene Paul Chambellan
Rene Paul Chambellan
Rene Paul Chambellan was an American sculptor, born in West Hoboken, New Jersey.Chambellan studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian in Paris and with Solon Borglum in New York City. Chambellan specialized in architectural sculpture...
. The stained glass windows picture shields of other universities.