Predecessor
By the opening of the twentieth century alarms had been issuing for many years about Harvard's "disgrace­fully inadequate"  library, Gore Hall, completed in 1841 (when Harvard … See more

The ninety-unit Harvard Library system, of which Widener is the anchor, is the only academic library among the world's five "megalibraries"‍—‌Widener, the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, France's Bibliothèque Nationale, and the British Library ‍—‌making … See more

Over the years, Widener has been the scene of various criminal exploits "infamous for their fecklessness and ignominity See more

The building originally included a separate Radcliffe Reading Room behind the card catalogs‍—‌"barely large enough for a single table"‍—‌to … See more

At Harvard's "geographical and intellec­tual heart"  directly across Tercenten­ary Theatre from Memorial Church, Widener Library is a hollow rectangle of "Harvard brick with Indiana limestone traceries", 250 by 200 by 80 feet high (76 by 61 by 24 m) and enclosing 320,000 … See more

Swim-requirement, ice-cream, and other legends
Legend holds that to spare future Harvard men her son's fate, … See more

Two of Gore Hall's granite pinnacles were preserved, and flank Widener's rear entrance.
In the 1920s the university commissioned John Singer Sargent to paint, within the fourteen-foot-high arched panels flanking the entrance to the … See more