Designs
Miller submitted the designs reproduced here in 1889, before construction had begun, and two years before the Library opened its doors in October 1891. Although the building we know today closely reflects Miller’s original intent, not every direction was followed: the glazed Spanish tile roofing and copper turrets were never installed, for instance. See if you can identify other differences.
Arthur N. Gibb. Planned Design for Cornell University's Library, 1890.
Arthur Gibb (Cornell class of 1890), created this watercolor image for his thesis, The Library Building of the Cornell University (Cornell University, 1890), which was an analysis of Miller's design. Gibb made the image (and wrote his thesis) before the building had been completed, so it includes the originally-planned Spanish tile roof, replaced with slate in the final construction.
Cornell's new library building was so impressive and widely admired that its University Librarian, George W. Harris, was invited to be on the American Library Association's architectural committee to select examples of libraries to showcase at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
To learn more about the University Library building (now Uris Library) in the twentieth century, visit "Creating the Undergraduate Library," part of our Olin @ 50 exhibition.