Category: Image, Buildings, Yale University

Documenting the construction of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, this collection of photographs captures the transient stages of a massive, three year project.   One of the largest buildings in the world devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts, the library was designed to have room in the central tower for 180,000 volumes and in the underground book stacks for over 600,000 volumes; it now contains well over 500,000 volumes and several million manuscripts. The building, of Vermont marble and granite, bronze and glass, was designed by Gordon Bunshaft, of the firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; the George A. Fuller Construction Company of Hamden, Connecticut was the general contractor.