Father Pitt

Tag: Murals

  • Reference Department

    Reference Department

    One of the chief attractions of the main Carnegie Library is the Reference Department, a huge room with a vaulted ceiling where you can walk in and ask a librarian for help on any topic, and then have librarians scurrying back into the stacks looking for obscure volumes to aid you in your research. Think of it this way: at no cost to you, simply by walking into this room, you can have the experience of being a supervillain with an army of minions.

    Reference Department
    Coffered ceiling

    The coffered ceiling was originally full of skylights—a maintenance headache rendered less necessary by bright modern lighting.

    Imprint of Aldus Manutius

    Mural decorations—lost for years behind paint, found accidentally in 1995, and carefully restored—pay tribute to famous printers of the Renaissance. A report by Marilyn Holt (PDF) describes the murals in detail. Above, the mark of Aldus Manutius, perhaps the greatest of them all.

    Reginaldus Chalderius panel

    Reginaldus Chalderius (or Regnault Chaudière, as he would have been called at home), French printer at the sign of L’homme sauvage.

    Balthasar Moretus

    Balthasar Moretus, Antwerp printer of the middle 1600s.

    Thielman Kerver panel

    Thielman Kerver, Parisian printer at the sign of the Unicorn.

    Noli altum sapere

    Noli altum sapere—“Do not be proud”—say the Estiennes, Parisian printers.

    Vincit prudentia vires

    Jean de la Caille reminds us that prudence beats force—Vincit prudentia vires.

    Simon Vostre panel

    Simon Vostre, early French printer.

    Corner pilaster

    Many of the details in the decorations are picked out in gold leaf.

    Pilaster capital
    Egg-and-dart and dentil moldings
    More moldings
    Looking into the Reference Department
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • Going Upstairs in the Library

    Looking up at the ceiling of the stairwell

    Just walking upstairs in the main Carnegie Library is an aesthetic adventure.

    Looking up past the light fixture
    Detail of the ceiling decorations
    Stairwell
    Light fixture
    Base of the light fixture
    Looking at the stairwell from the second-floor corridor
    Second-floor corrido

    The second-floor corridor. At the ends of the corridor are two cherub medallions, identical except for the motto.

    Omne labore

    Omne labore—“Everything with effort.”

    Vivere est cogitary
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.

    Vivere est cogitare—“To live is to think,” as Cicero said.

  • Unloading at Cape Town, by Edward Trumbull

    “A series of unusually artistic mural paintings by Trumbull always interests visitors to ‘The Home of the 57,’ ” says a 1924 Heinz advertisement in The Delineator. For many years the Heinz factory tour was one of Pittsburgh’s chief attractions, and Edward Trumbull’s murals in the headquarters building were much admired. The tour is no longer offered, but this advertisement reproduces one of Trumbull’s famous murals: “Scene at Capetown, South Africa. A symbol of Heinz world-wide distribution.”