room is expanded into a spacious delivery-room, from which stairs descend to the entrance. On the ground floor, under the main reading-room, are two special reading- or studyrooms, lighted like the rooms above, from the north; these rooms are about equally divided into stack-space and reading-space; the latter, of course, adjoining the north windows. The east, south, and west fronts of the building give a continuous range of seminars and studies of varied sizes outside the corridor which surrounds the stack court. The basement is devoted to packing- and work-rooms, etc., with a service entrance from the rear. Owing to a lack of funds, only a little more than half of the library has thus far been built. Eventually there will be two more stories of seminars round the court, the reading-room, and deliveryroom now running through the height of these two future stories. At present, too, only the lower portion of the north half of the stack is in place.

A few data as to dimensions and materials may be interesting and valuable as a matter of record in this connection. The main front of the building measures 224 feet and 6 inches in length, and is 60 feet in height to the top of the cornice; from front to rear is 262 feet. The main reading-room is 53 feet by 210 feet in size, and 45 feet in height from the floor to the highest point of the elliptical barrel vault with which the room is ceiled. The two large ground-floor reading-rooms are each 61 feet by 88 feet in plan and 14 feet high in the clear; a space 35 feet in width nearest the windows is reserved for reading and working, the rear portions of the rooms being given up to special stacks. The catalogue and delivery-room is 28 feet by 134 feet, and 28 feet high, lighted from above. The corridors are, in general, 13 feet wide. The seminars, of various widths, are 31 feet deep from window to corridor wall, and 12 feet high in the clear, the wide windows coming quite to the ceiling and giving perfect light throughout. The exterior of the building is of white granite from Raymond, California. The roofs are red "Mission" tile

with copper cresting, gutters, etc. Plate glass is used throughout. All floors are covered with the heaviest battleship linoleum. The building is steel-framed and fireproof of the highest class, all doors, sashes and trim stacks and book-cases being of metal. The cost of the building to date is $698,278.16, not including furniture and other fittings.

Just a word on the "style" of the building, classic, of course, in a general way, as behooves the House of Books of a great modern institution of learning. The frontispiece of the structure, containing the main reading-room, is developed as the blossom of the library; its efflorescence, typifying dissemination, expressed by the Corinthian order of the exterior. The capitals are of half-opened acanthus fronds, from among which serpents (symbol of Athene), rise and coil to uphold an open book. For the rest, the building derives rather from Ionic tradition (in deference to Athene's headship of Ionic states), the fundamental feeling of such more restrained design being interwoven with the richer Corinthian, in some such fashion as Ictinus mingled an Ionic strain with the Doric of his Parthenon, or imagined the earliest Corinthian to complete the Ionic colonnade at Bassae. The Ionic lines of the portions of our structure which are yet to be, play through the flower-like order of the front and themselves emerge and fully bloom only in the two colonnettes which surmount the central portal.

RED LETTER ANNALS OF THE LIBRARY

J. C. ROWELL

In its earlier period the history of the library of the University of California closely resembles that of other collegiate collections. There is the same scantiness of books, and of means for their purchase; it does not in any appreciable degree meet the needs of the academic community, and consequently it is a quiet, and rather unfrequented place. But gradually the collection grows, with the attractive power of a magnet, until the services of a regular librarian becomes necessary. He familiarizes himself with his material; by classification he evolves order out of chaos, catalogs, indexes the meaty books, begs and borrows, and gradually develops a "working" collection that invites and in some measure satisfies the inquirer. Then follow at intervals gifts of books and money, endowments and bequests; but, generally, the resources of the library fail to keep pace with the progressively larger and urgent demands of an expanding university.

In 1868 the College of California transferred to the University its collection of books numbering 1036 volumes, about one half of which were of a religious nature, presented by Rev. Levi Hart (of Plymouth, Mass.). The other portion was contributed principally by the college instructors.

These, together with later accessions, were located in the top story of Brayton Hall-one of the college buildings in 12th street, Oakland.

In 1870 the Regents purchased the rather small, but valuable, collection by Alexander S. Taylor of Voyages and Californiana, some of which are not duplicated in the great Bancroft library.

The gift in 1871 of a modern encyclopedia and numerous standard works of history and literature, by Edmond L. Goold, was the first noteworthy one in our history. In this manner he gracefully returned a fee of $500 paid him by the Regents for legal services.

From the date of his arrival in 1872 President D. C. Gilman took a very active interest in the library, and several thousand volumes were given by him and by his friends on Atlantic and Pacific shores. He had been a successful librarian, and realized more fully than others the importance of a library in educational work.

In 1873 a little suggestion by President Gilman in the daily press brought a check of $2000 from Michael Reese, the banker, to secure the library on economics and politics of Prof. Francis Lieber of Columbia College. On Dr. Gilman's initiative the legislature appropriated $4,800 for the purchase of books.

In 1873 also was received by bequest the private library (1500 vols.) of F. L. A. Pioche, another San Francisco banker. This embraced some art books of high value (like the Louvre gallery), and choice editions of French authors in Parisian bindings, prized by book lovers. William Sharon in the same year presented extensive bound files of newspapers of great historic worth.

With the removal of the University to Berkeley in the summer of 1873 the library was newly located in the north end of South Hall, and ever and anon it was disinfected up to modern standards of sanitation by the chlorine vapors generously flowing from the chemical laboratory at the other end of the hall. With its handsome walnut bookcases, a few paintings and the five bronzes by Barbedienne (given by Charles Mayne), the large room presented a very attractive appearance.

In 1875 the medical library of Dr. Victor Fourgeaud was presented by his widow and daughter.

Our quarters rapidly became too small, and in 1876 Henry Douglass Bacon, a resident of Oakland, offered $25,000 toward the erection of a library building, provided the state would give an equal amount. The legislature of 1878 ordered the appropriation, and the Bacon building, designed by Architect John A. Remer, was ready for occupancy in the summer of 1881.

In 1881-82 library accessions numbered 3724 bound volumes, exceeding by 257 the combined receipts of the preceding five lean years. This is explained partly by the fact that the first library endowment-$50,000 received July 2, 1879, by bequest of Michael Reese, had come into bearing. Since the beginning, by wise resolution of the Regents, only the interest of this endowment has been expended, and this interest up to June 30, 1911, totaled $99,269.80, every dollar going into books according to the terms of the bequest. A splendid fruitage, and the principal sum, intact, continues to yield its increase!

Mr. Bacon not only gave money, but, with unexampled generosity, in his own lifetime he stripped his residence of paintings and statuary and sent them to the University, together with his private library (1410 volumes) of choicest books, mostly in fine bindings by Bedford, Riviere, Hayday, and Clark (of Edinburgh).

For furnishing the new building the legislature of 1881 appropriated $10,000.

The graduating class of 1883 purchased for the library about three score of very desirable books, having them bound in morocco of the class color. This exemplary action has been followed by other classes, and several small endowments for library purposes have been made by 1874, 1885, 1897, 1900, 1902 and 1907.

In 1883, by courtesy of Congressman James H. Budd, the library was made a depositary for all United States public documents.