October 12, 2012
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library
Members & Friends Meeting
Join us this Fall at the Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library, University of Pennsylvania. The Fisher Fine Arts Library collection focuses on work in architecture, landscape architecture, city and regional planning, historic preservation, history of art, and studio arts.
The Fisher Fine Arts Library was the University of Pennsylvania’s first library building and was designed by Frank Furness. The cornerstone was laid in October 1888, and the University of Pennsylvania Library was formally dedicated on February 7, 1891. Though destined to accommodate decades of collection expansion as projected in the 1880s, the building already was becoming crowded by the first decade of the twentieth century. Over the next thirty years, several major alterations and additions were made to accommodate heavier-than-expected use and to house various special collections. In 1962, the main and special library collections moved to the newly-constructed Van Pelt Library.
The former University Library, renamed the Furness Building after its architect, was home to the Fine Arts Library and an array of architectural studios, including that of Louis I. Kahn. Major restoration work, planned and directed by the firm of Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown, was carried out from 1987 through 1990.
We will tour the Fine Arts Library and look at selections from the collection.