Editing Sterling Memorial Library (section)

===Other notable ornament===
[[File:SML-Drunk-Porn-Sculpture.jpg|thumb|right|150px|A corbel sculpted by Rene Paul Chambellan]]
In the nave,  ten [[Relief#High relief|high relief]] stone panels by Chambellan depict the history of the Yale University Library up to 1865.<ref name="Decoration" /> Bosses on the nave's ceiling depict writing implements. [[Samuel Yellin]], the blacksmith who shaped most of the ironwork for Yale's Gothic buildings, created handwrought elevator doors for the Stacks depicting [[Trade (occupation)|major trades]], as well as ironwork and gates for the building.<ref name="SML History" /> Other decorative stonework by Chambellan—gargoyles, [[corbels]], and reliefs—can be found throughout the building. While most of his works depict scholarship and university life, several are humorous interpretations of the lives of students and librarians.<ref>{{cite news |last=Peiffer |first=Siobhan |title=Yale's carvings set sense of humor in stone |date=Summer 1997 |newspaper=Yale Herald |url=http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/frosh/1997/frosh97/carve.html |access-date=29 May 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017081451/http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/frosh/1997/frosh97/carve.html |archive-date=17 October 2014 }}</ref>

Several tributes in the library commemorate pioneering graduates of the university. A portrait of [[Edward Bouchet]], one of Yale's earliest African American graduates, hangs in the nave's transept.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schiff |first=Judith Ann |title=Pioneers |journal=Yale Alumni Magazine |date=Jan–Feb 2006 |url=https://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2006_01/old_yale.html |access-date=3 June 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Alden Branch |first=Mark |title=Who was the first African American student at Yale? |journal=Yale Alumni Magazine |date=May–June 2014 |url=https://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/3874 |access-date=3 June 2014}}</ref> Near the Franke Family Reading Room is a statue of [[Yung Wing]], the first Chinese graduate of Yale.<ref>{{cite news |title=Statue honors accomplishments of Yale's first Chinese student |newspaper=Yale Bulletin & Calendar |date=14 January 2005 |volume=33 |issue=15 |url=http://www.yale.edu/opa/arc-ybc/v33.n15/story25.html |access-date=3 June 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130228002440/http://www.yale.edu/opa/arc-ybc/v33.n15/story25.html |archive-date=28 February 2013 }}</ref> In 2016 a portrait of the first seven women to receive Ph.D.s from Yale, which those seven women all did in 1894, was placed in the library.<ref name="yaledailynews.com">{{cite web|url=https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/04/06/first-female-ph-d-s-memorialized/|title=First female Ph.D.s memorialized|date=6 April 2016 }}</ref> The women include [[Mary Augusta Scott]], Elizabeth Deering Hanscom, [[Margaretta Palmer]], Charlotte Fitch Roberts, Cornelia H.B. Rogers, Sara Bulkley Rogers, and Laura Johnson Wylie.<ref name="yaledailynews.com"/> The portrait is the first painting hanging in the library to have women as subjects.<ref name="yaledailynews.com"/> [[Brenda Zlamany]] was the artist.<ref name="yaledailynews.com"/>