Up above the world so high

There is nothing that entices your gaze heavenward quite like a cathedral. This is the “wow” of walking into Sterling Memorial Library. Often referred to as “the cathedral of learning,” the library was designed by James Gamble Rogers — architect of 18 campus buildings (1921-1935) — to pay homage to scholarship. Evidence of Rogers’s hand is visible in the reading rooms, alcoves, and study spaces throughout the Collegiate Gothic masterpiece, which was dedicated in 1931. Yale’s largest library is named for its benefactor, New York City lawyer and 1864 alumnus John William Sterling.

Recently, YourYale took a leisurely walk through the first floor of Sterling Library and admired five ceilings that are works of art in their own right.

The Nave

As you look skyward in the Nave, the ceiling you see is vaulted 44 feet above the Mankato limestone floor. The ceiling sits at the top of clerestory windows on walls of Indiana limestone and Briar Hill sandstone. Made of oak, it is an example of a wood-coffered ceiling whose coffers — or recessed panels — are hand-painted. Bosses, or ornamental knobs, decorate each corner of a square. Coffered ceilings in this architectural style were often used to enhance the grandeur of a space with their geometric patterns.

In 2014, talented craftspeople brought the Nave ceiling back to its present splendor after an 18-month renovation that was funded by a $20 million gift from Richard Gilder ’54 and Lois Chiles as a tribute to former president Richard Levin ’74 Ph.D. and Jane Levin. In 2015, the renovation received an American Institute of Architects New England Design Award in the preservation category.

Linonia and Brothers (L&B) Room

As you melt into one of the soft-green leather couches in the L&B room and look up at the white plaster ornamental ceiling, you might be reminded of an upside-down wedding cake. Its Tudor styling, which uses repeating flower motifs and geometric shapes and ornamental drops, adds to the ceiling’s texture and brings your eye down to the wood-paneled space that resembles a private living room with book-lined alcoves, a vast stone fireplace, and leaded glass windows overlooking Selin Courtyard. The 2024 renovation breathed new life into the reading room, especially the ornate ceiling, and won the 2024 Elizabeth Mills Brown Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Architects Connecticut and Preservation Connecticut.

The room is named for Linonia and Brothers in Unity, two student literary societies that were founded in the mid-1700s. Both societies owned libraries of popular works outside Yale’s curriculum; the university did not consider English literature worthy of formal study until the late 1800s. The societies donated their collections to the Yale library in 1871, and when Sterling Memorial Library was built, the L&B Room housed the combined collection. Access to the reading room was for men only until 1963 when University Librarian James T. Babb announced it would be co-ed to recognize “the growing status of women in the Graduate School at Yale.”

The Gates Classroom

You will find the Gates Classroom at the back of the Manuscripts and Archives reading room. Named for the late Stephen F. Gates ’68, it is “a soaring, inspiring place,” as Teaching Librarian Bill Landis said in 2018 in the Manuscripts and Archives Blog. Its lofty space is the result of a fan-vaulted ceiling with painted plaster webs and bosses that suggest an illuminated manuscript. The fan is fashioned by the evenly spaced ribs of the vault that curve in a similar pattern. The webs refer to the spaces between the ribs, which are painted wood.

The original purpose of the room, from the opening of Sterling Memorial Library in 1931 until the move of Yale’s rare book collection to the newly constructed Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in 1963, was to showcase Yale’s copy of the Gutenberg Bible. It was called the Grand Exhibition Room, in what was then the Rare Book Room. The Gutenberg Bible was given to the university by Mrs. Mary Harkness in 1926 shortly before Sterling Library opened.

Periodical Reading Room

As you head toward the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, the first right is the Periodical Reading Room. Look up to see a dark, wood-beamed ceiling with painted and stenciled panels. Once the Newspaper Reading Room and now a place to peruse periodicals, its designation has come full circle.

Painted wooden beam ceilings were present in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Victorian period. You can find another ceiling of its kind in the Memorabilia Room and Lecture Hall.

Starr Main Reference Room

When you gaze upward in the Starr Main Reference Room, you will notice that a barrel-vaulted coffered ceiling in oak looks similar to the Nave’s. Also 44 feet high, the ceiling is original to the 1931 opening of Sterling Library. A 1998 renovation by The Starr Foundation enhanced its now 94-year-old character.

The recessed coffers in this wood ceiling are filled with delicate tracery that reveals green and turquoise colors, another nod to Gothic Revival architecture. The room was originally described in the Yale Gazette of 1931 as being “in the style of a monastic refectory with oak bookshelves and ogival windows.” Windows in the form of an ogive, which is a pointed arch or rib, are yet another feature of Gothic style.