Lehigh history and buildings-Linderman Library

All of my friends joke that I know everything about Lehigh history, and  I do enjoy reading old Brown and Whites (you can search every issue since 1894 here) and like competing in the occasional Lehigh trivia contest (including a clutch win for the purple team during Greek week by knowing ten of Lehigh's fourteen presidents).  

My parents used to call me Cliffie (the character from Cheers) growing up because I always would come out with random, and sometimes useless, trivia.  This has not changed, and now my love for Lehigh and knack for remembering details has made me into a Lehigh trivia buff of sorts.  

So I am going to be doing a recurring feature on one of Lehigh's buildings, traditions, or lesser known facts.  

I decided to start with Linderman Library.  Affectionally known as Lindy (and joked about as Club Lindy during finals), it is one of Lehigh's two libraries, and much prettier and aesthetically pleasing than Fairchild-Martindale Library, or the appropriately abbreviated FML.  

An instagrammed picture of Lindy I took last spring. 

My first time visiting Lindy was during a tour of Lehigh my junior year of high school.  Like all other prospective students, I fell in love with the stained glass ceiling in the rotunda and imagined myself studying at the long tables underneath the gold plated ceiling in the Reading room.  

It's sometimes distracting to study
 under something so beautiful. 

The reading room, which always hums with students
quietly studying together or the flipping of papers.
[Note: I did not take this picture]

When I was looking at colleges, one of my requirements was that my college of choice have a gorgeous, old library.  I always associated college life with studying in an old library with creaky wooden floors and dusty books, and this is quintessentially Linderman library.  

While the third floor Bayer Galleria is my favorite place to study because it usually is not crowded and is a designated "quiet room", I like to hide out in many different corners of Lindy to do my work.  One of the best parts of the library is the ability to keep exploring and finding new places to study.  

Bayer galleria

Lucy's is also a popular place in Linderman, since you are able to get coffee and a snack without leaving the library.  It retains the nice atmosphere of Lindy and is a great spot to have meetings, work on group projects, and of course chat with Chris, who works in the evenings.  

For the adventurous, it is also possible to get onto the roof and have an amazing view of Lehigh, South Bethlehem, and the greater Lehigh valley.  I won't say how to get on the roof though, because where's the fun in that? 

Linderman was built in 1873 after his daughter Lucy Packer Linderman's premature death from pneumonia.  The rotunda was the first part of the library built and the reading room was added in 1929.  Renovations from 2005-2007 added study spaces upstairs and Lucy's cafe.  

The original shape and design of Linderman

Some other facts about Linderman:

• Lucy's daughter and Asa's granddaughter Sallie Linderman checked out the first book, which was a Bible
• The stained glass window was covered during World War II to keep from potentially attracting fighter jets
• the reputation of Linderman to be noisy and FML to be crowded are not new ones, a 1977 article in the Brown and White read, "Linderman library is hindered by congestion, noise, and visual pollution.  To study in Mart, the alternative, often requires a prepaid reservation."

Finally, some drawings of Linderman through the years-