Inside The Seattle Library
March 15th, 2010 @ 11:18 pm by Cliffe | Sorted Photo Exposure |
I haven’t seen a huge amount of interior library photos so I thought I’d offer this undated shot up. It shows the 1960-2001 downtown library
pictured here. A quick trip to the most current library will show you there will be no shortage of atrium photos in the future. Vintage Seattle circa 2050 thanks you. Click for the high res.
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| Seattle public library interior. Photo by Dudley, Hardin & Yang; courtesy Washington State Digital Archives. |
Are you sure that’s the downtown branch? My memory could well be foggy, but this sure doesn’t look familiar.
Here’s one from the old downtown Carnegie library:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/3818279926/
@Glen,
That was my first thought, too, but I must admit I didn’t know that library as well.
@Julie,
Thanks for that link. Lots of nice images there. I love how the books in the photo you linked to are stacked directly in front of the gaping air vent/heat duct. It was only the early twentieth century, but it looks like an image from the tin age of book conservation science.
I’m pretty sure it’s the Downtown library (upper floor). I was looking at the thumbnail pic and thinking to myself, “that looks like the Children’s area” (spent lots of time there as a kid in the ’70s). Sure enough, when I looked at the enlarged photo, there was the sign “CHILDREN”.
I am the Manager of Special Collections in the current Central Library of the Seattle Public Library. Unfortunately, this is clearly NOT the interior of the Bindon & Wright Central Library (1960-2001). The Children’s Department was on the third floor of that library (in two different areas over the life of the building). The old Central LIbrary third floor did not have a clearstory like the one shown.
I will post several images of the Bindon & Wright Central Library (1960-2001) to our Digital Photo Collection for comparison. These images will be up later this week.