The Architect's Library

The foundation of Vassar College required special sensitivity to architecture. The buildings had to provide a suitable setting for a population that typically had not been educated outside of the home. Matthew Vassar (1792-1868) carefully considered two different plans for the campus, one by the architect Thomas A. Tefft (1826-1859) and a second, the one that was executed by James Renwick (1818-1895). Vassar thought books on art and architecture were also an essential requisite for the education of the new students and to make that possible he procured part of the collection of the Rev. Elias L. Magoon (1810-1866), one of the College's original trustees. Much of the Magoon collection came from the estate of the English antiquarian John Britton (1771-1857) and was specialized in English and French medieval architecture. From this nucleus, the collections grew. The result we see today is an outstanding, well-rounded architectural library with significant holdings from all periods of Western architecture.

The Architect's Library is a four-part exhibition celebrating the most notable of these books. The presentation at the Art Center is devoted to the works of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, his followers and predecessors: in the Special Collections Study Room are some of the first books on architecture held by the College; in the cases in the Main Library are a broad selection of books, from the sixteenth to the twentieth century; and in the Art Library are books from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The exhibition begins from the premise that books have long stood close to the heart of an architect's knowledge. It was the way architects learned about the buildings of the past or buildings from another country; it was the way new ideas were launched and advanced to the profession and to the public. Every architect had a library for pleasure and for practical use.

A scholarly catalogue of the architectural collection entitled The Architect's Library: A Collection of Notable Books on Architecture at Vassar College accompanies the exhibition.