Historians believe that the first libraries were temples and that the first librarians were priests. During the dawn of civilization, written texts were either religious or political documents. These first books were placed under the care of priests, who were the only ones who could read anyway.
The library-as-temple has come down to us through the ages. The great library of antiquity in Alexandria was housed in a temple. After the fall of Rome, monks preserved books in their religious quarters. During the Renaissance, great princes began to collect books and build temples to them. Even Michelangelo designed a library for Lorenzo de Medici in Florence.
The brick walls, stained-glass windows and terra cotta figures of our own temple of learning—Suzzallo Library—symbolize academe’s reverence for knowledge. But that reverence was damaged by the 1963 addition to Suzzallo, a box covered with concrete webbing that one critic recently described as “a dismally earthbound brand of Detroit Gothic.” The campus lived with that mistake for more than 20 years before planning began on yet another addition. This time librarians, architects and administrators vowed they would “get it right.” The result is the new Allen Library, a post-modern building that fits right into the campus’s Collegiate Tudor Gothic style.
To celebrate the opening of the Allen Library this fall, we’ve put our new temple on the cover and featured it in a color photo essay. We also have articles on the death of timber towns, the crisis in the Persian Gulf, our new law school dean and a mysterious, disabling disease. There are pages devoted to University news, class notes and alumni events plus plenty of letters from you, the readers. From temples to timber towns, you’ll find examples of the remarkable diversity of the University of Washington in the following pages.