Circulation Desk, 1960 -- CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image

A mysterious, hooded gatekeeper guards an austere foyer. Those who are permitted pass through the glass portal into an ethereal realm. Sunlight from a wall of windows bathes the room in a warm glow. Stained glass glitters at the far wall.

In reality, the gatekeeper is a Sister of Mercy librarian manning the Byrne Memorial Library circulation lobby at Saint Xavier College. The ethereal realm is the Cardinal Stritch Reading Room. It is 1960. The stained glass windows, a gift from Mayor Richard J. Daly, have just been installed three years ago. The word "whatsoever" above the bookcases lining the left wall begins a version of Philippians 4:8 (from the Christian Bible): "Whatsoever things are true, honorable, just, holy, lovable, or of good repute, if there be any virtue, if anything worthy of praise -- think upon these things" (see another photograph in the collection for a fuller view).

Fast forward 55 years. The scene is the main reading room in Saint Xavier University’s Robert and Mary Rita Murphy Stump Library. The masthead photograph on the Library Facilities webpage shows that the furniture has changed and the quotation (uplifting regardless of one’s religion) is gone. But the stained glass windows remain.

Written by Mary Rose, Metadata Librarian, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville