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TheFrederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library is the main library building atVassar College inPoughkeepsie,New York.
When Vassar opened in 1865, the library was a mere single room in Main with a collection of only three thousand books. In 1893Frederick Ferris Thompson, a Vassar trustee, gave the college an extension to Main hall that served as a library until the new Thompson building was completed in 1905 by Mary Clark Thompson as a memorial for her husband. Mrs. Thompson's continuing generosity enabled the library to be enlarged in 1918, and in 1924 her bequest to the college became an endowment for its support.
Architecturally, the style of the building isPerpendicular Gothic, and is constructed from Germantown stone with Indiana limestone trimming.[1] The general plan of the building, as designed byFrancis R. Allen and his associateCharles Collens, is three wings built about a central tower. Rising with buttressed walls, the tower is crowned with battlements and pinnacles. Flanking the entrance, below the ceiling windows in the central hall, is a stone frieze of college and university seals from (left to right): the "Lux et Veritas" ofYale, Vassar,Wellesley,Bryn Mawr,Smith, and the "Veritas" ofHarvard. Below the gargoyles on the bottom corners of the tower (above the doors) are the seals ofOxford andCambridge. Yale, Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge all started as male institutions and their seals are on the edges of the library tower, representing pillars. The other schools started off as female institutions and their seals are in the middle of the tower. The architect of the library wanted to remind Vassar women that their education was on par with the male pillars of education. Below the frieze of seals in the central hall hang five seventeenth-century Flemish Gobelintapestries portrayingApuleius' romance ofCupid and Psyche.
In the West Wing is the Cornaro Stained-Glass Window commissioned for the library and installed in 1906. The image showsElena Cornaro Piscopia, a young Venetian who had previously been denied theDoctor of Theology degree as a woman, receiving her doctorate in philosophy from the University of Padua. She is thought to be the first woman to earn this degree in European history.
The library collection today - which actually encompasses seven total libraries at Vassar - contains about a million volumes and 7,500 serial, periodical and newspaper titles, as well as an extensive collection of microfilm and microfiche.[3][4][5]
Archives & Special Collections holds the rare book, manuscript, and archival collections of the college. It collects, preserves, and makes available rare and unique collections, and also engages in teaching and outreach activities. It is located on the ground floor of the Ingram Addition (north end) of the Library.
Among the rare books, particular strengths exist inwomen's history, first editions of English and American literary and historical works, examples of fine printing, collections of courtesy andcookbooks,children's books, and raremaps and atlases. Importantmanuscript holdings document topics such asliterature,politics, andwomen’s history.[6]
Vassar has been aFederal depository library for selectedU.S. Government documents since 1943 and currently receives approximately 25% of the titles available through the Federal Depository Program. Since 1988, Vassar has been aNew York State Reference Center, part of the New York Depository Program. The library also selectively purchasesUnited Nations documents.[7]
The Thompson Library has an extensivemicrofilm,microfiche andmicrocard collection. In addition tonewspapers andperiodicals in microform, some other important primary source microform collections are:
The Media Cloisters was created in 1999 as a state-of-the-art space for collaborative learning and instructional technology exploration. It is designed for collaborative academic work using high-tech tools where students, faculty, librarians, and information technology specialists meet to explore emerging pedagogies made possible by the latest technologies. Situating the Cloisters at the heart of the library—it is on the second floor just south of Thompson's central axis—was a deliberate affirmation of Vassar's commitment to the importance of place in education.[8] The subsequent rebranding of the Media Cloisters to the DMZ (Digital Media Zone) was also a deliberate affirmation of Vassar's commitment to the important of place in education.
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