Photo gallery: Gilmore Music Library staff celebrates 25th anniversary

  • cake with white icing with "Gilmore Music Library 25 years at Sterling" written in blue icing
  • Group of 10 people--3 men and 7 women--posing on the steep stairs of a modern interior with amber-colored woodwork
  • A man and woman with white hair lean over to pet a brindle English bulldog on a leash
  • woman with long brown hair, blue shirt, and green sweater and blue and yellow locket at podium points with right hand speaking to someone in distance.
  • Smiling woman with short white hair, brown rim glasses, maroon turtleneck and black sweater. She wears a navy lanyard with white words "Yale University Library"
  • Six people--three women and three men--stand casually around a lobby with light carpeting and amber woodwork. A man sits at reception desk in distance.
  • Woman with orange sweatshirt and blue shirt and reddish hair pets a brindle bulldog wearing a neckerchief, alongside is a woman with short black hair and a bright purple top. Both woman smile for the camera.
  • Eight people mingle in lobby area--five women and three men. Large black-paned windows are visible behind them.
  • Man with dark hair, suit and red tie smiles at woman with short white hair who greets him. In background two women and one man look on.
  • Two men are laughing together in a doorway, flanked by two women with short hair.
  • Three images of interior of music library with sheet that reads "The Completed Gilmore Music Library"
  • Colored rendering of a building set on a green field flanked by budding trees and with rows of brownstone buildings on either side.
  • Old photo of man with grey jacket and brown glasses, holding papers with clasped arms, standing against a brick wall and white paneled doors.
  • Old photo of three-storey brick building with stone embellishments and a railing at top.
  • Arched doorway with leaded glass and the words "Irving S. Gilmore Music Libray" in gold letter above. Through the open doorway is a female figure in dark clothing.
November 8, 2023

Staff, friends, and colleagues gathered to share stories and cake to celebrate the Gilmore Music Library’s anniversary. This year marks its 25th year in its spectacular spaces within Sterling Memorial Library. 

In September 1998, former University Librarian and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Music Librarian Kendall Crilly and library staff moved the Music Library from Sprague Memorial Hall—where it had been since 1917—into a newly constructed, soaring space in Sterling Memorial Library, formerly an open-air interior courtyard. 

On display in the Poorvu corridor outside the library’s entrance are assorted memorabilia, photos of the original library building, and early design sketches, including a color drawing of an unrealized plan for the library building, sited at another location, proposed by architect I. M. Pei.

—Deborah Cannarella

Event photos by Judy Sirota Rosenthal