Hole in the Clouds


Tag: Fisher Fine Art Library

Who's the Heretic?

Nov 11, 2011

One of the leaded glass windows in the University of Pennsylvania's original library building, now the Fisher Fine Arts Library.

Frank Furness designed the red-brick library, with its massive fireplaces and heavy iron fixtures, in 1888; Frank's older brother Horace, a Shakespearean scholar, selected the window mottoes and other inscriptions. In sharp contrast with the popular architecture of the day, which featured classical motifs and marble columns, Furness's iron-and-brick structure seemed to take its inspiration from Philadelphia's foundries and factories. People hated it, and he was fired from his post as campus architect. Furness's successors designed the neo-gothic buildings that came to characterize the University of Pennsylvania campus through the twentieth century.

Philadelphia   library   Shakespeare   Fisher Fine Art Library   University of Pennsylvania   Frank Furness   stained glass window