Deering Library

Charles Deering Library, on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, U.S., was the main library on the Evanston campus until the construction of the Northwestern University Library in 1970. 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, a Northwestern benefactor and chairman of International Harvester, who provided the initial financing for the building.

Deering Library succeeded Lunt Library (now Lunt Hall) as Northwestern's principal library. Built in 1894, Lunt Library was the university's first library, but had become severely overcrowded by the 1920s. Deering Library, which was planned by Theodore Wesley Koch, University Librarian from 1919 to 1941, served as Northwestern's main library until the completion of University Library in 1970. After the opening of the University Library, the only way to enter Deering Library was through a basement corridor that connected the new Library to the old.

The site chosen for Deering Library had previously been occupied by Heck Hall, a dormitory which burned down in 1914. The library was designed by the architect James Gamble Rogers in Collegiate Gothic style. Building began in 1931, the cornerstone was laid in 1932, and the building opened in 1933. The structure is composed of Lannon stone and was modeled after King's College Chapel at Cambridge University. It contains 68 stained glass windows by G. Owen Bonawit; many of the glass windows picture shields of other universities. The wood and stone carvings were made by the sculptor Rene Paul Chambellan. The Bulletin of the American Library Association said of the wood carvings: "Captivating pelicans, pompous owls, and mischievous monkeys peer at one form decorous perches, refreshingly reminding one that the environment of scholarship need not necessarily be solemn."

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