Highlights, photos from the presidential inauguration celebrations in Sterling Library

Yale Library joined in the weekend celebration of the inauguration of Maurie McInnis as the 24th president of Yale with a series of events throughout Sterling Memorial Library on April 4 and April 5.  Here are a few of the highlights:

The Gates Classroom

On display in the Gates Classroom was an array of archival materials, dating from the 18th through 21st centuries, documenting the inaugurations of many of the 23 former presidents of Yale.

Included were a list of the songs sung during the inauguration of Noah Porter, the 11th president of Yale College (1871–86); a metal tray made from the plate of the invitation to the inauguration of the 13th president Arthur Twining Hadley (1899–1921); and an issue of “American Collector” magazine, featuring an article about the Pierson Chair used in the inauguration of Charles Seymour, Yale’s 15th president (1937–1950).

More recent objects included the specific instructions for use of cell phones during the inauguration of Richard C. Levin, the 21st president (1993–2013), and a fabric sample for the robe that Peter Salovey wore during his inauguration in 2013.

President McInnis was represented with a selection of photographs from her tenure as president of Stony Brook University and a copy of her doctoral dissertation “The Politics of Taste: Classicism in Charleston, South Carolina, 1815–1840.”

The pop-up exhibition was curated by University Archivist Michael Lotstein and Jeanne Lowrey, associate university archivist. Both greeted visitors to share and elicit stories about inauguration lore and personal experiences.

The Nave and first-floor spaces

Hundreds of people participated in the four architectural tours of Sterling Library offered during the weekend. Visitors learned about the history of iconic spaces throughout the library’s first floor and the ways in which many of those spaces have been transformed during Sterling’s last decade— whether through careful restoration or through programmatic transformation to meet the changing needs of today’s students and patrons. Each tour group visited the Nave, the L&B Room, Selin Courtyard, the Exhibition Corridor, the Hanke Gallery, and the Starr Reading Room.

Tour guides included Barbara Rockenbach, Stephen F. Gates ’68 University Librarian; Basie Gitlin, senior director of Development and External Affairs; Madeleine Glennon and Christina Woodford, members of the Development team; and Brian Kiss, library services assistant.

Kiss treated visitors to his extensive knowledge of the library’s stained-glass windows. Over the course of 13 years, Kiss has photographed nearly 800 of the 3,301 decorative windows that master craftsman G. Owen Bonawit created and installed in time for the April 11, 1931, dedication of the new library.

Kiss has also published a book about some of the images in the stained-glass windows found throughout the library. Many of the window scenes document the history of Yale Library, the founding of Yale University, and the establishment of the City of New Haven. Kiss’s photographs are also featured in the library’s visual story “Heart of Glass,” which borrows its title from an article published by Judith Ann Schiff, Yale Library’s former chief research archivist, in “Yale Alumni Magazine” in 2003.

The Digital Humanities Lab and Lecture Hall

University Archivist Lotstein compiled clips of footage and audio from several past presidential inaugurations, which were on view in a repeating loop for visitors who stopped into the Franke Digital Humanities Lab.

In the lecture hall, Brian Meacham, managing archivist of the Yale Film Archive, screened a 70-minute film titled “That Whole ‘Yale Thing,’” a collection of Yale-related scenes from more than 200 feature films—dating from the silent era to recent Netflix rom-coms. For those who missed the film during inauguration weekend, “That Whole ‘Yale Thing,” will be presented as part of the Yale Film Archive public screening series on Fri., April 25, at 7 p.m. in the Humanities Quadrangle.

Read about the symbolic “key” to Sterling Library presented to President McInnis and the other historical objects that are part of the traditional inauguration ceremony.

—Photos and story by Deborah Cannarella; historical film stills are from the Yale University Archive and Yale Film Archive