Editing Widener Library (section)

===Predecessor===

{{main|Gore Hall}}

By the opening of the twentieth century alarms had been issuing for many years about Harvard's "disgrace{{shy}}fully inadequate"{{hsp}}{{r|histcambridge|p=276}}
library, Gore Hall, completed in 1841 (when Harvard owned some 44,000 books){{r|bentinck1980|p=5}}
and declared full in 1863.{{r|bentinck1980|p=5}}
Harvard Librarian [[Justin Winsor]] concluded his 1892 Annual Report by pleading, "{{shy|I have in earlier reports exhaust|ed the language of warning and anxiety, in rep|re|sent|ing the totally inad|e|quate accom|mo|da|tions for books and readers which Gore Hall affords. Each twelve months brings us nearer to a chaotic condition}}";{{r|lib1892|p=15}}
his successor [[Archibald Cary Coolidge]] asserted that the [[Boston Public Library]] was a better place to write an {{shy|under|grad|u|ate}} [[thesis]].{{r|coolidge|p=29}}
Despite substantial additions in 1876 and 1907,{{r|leighton}}
in 1910 a committee of architects termed Gore Hall
{{blockquote|unsafe [and] unsuitable for its object{{nbsp}}... No amount of tinkering can make it really good{{nbsp}}... Hopelessly over{{shy}}crowded{{nbsp}}... leaks when there is a heavy rain{{nbsp}}... intolerably hot in summer{{nbsp}}... Books are put in double rows and are not infrequently left lying on top of one another, or actually on the floor{{nbsp}}...{{r|bentinck1976|pp=51–52}}
}}<!--<end quote-->
With university librarian [[William Coolidge Lane]] reporting that the building's light switches were delivering electric shocks to his staff,{{r|shocks}}
and dormitory basements pressed into service as overflow storage{{r|graduates_window}}
for Harvard's 543,000 books,{{r|observed|p=50}}
the committee drew up a proposal for replacement of Gore in stages. [[Andrew Carnegie]] was approached for financing without success.{{NoteTag
|{{r|canoe|p=88}}
"When I cease to be President of Harvard College," Lowell wrote around this time, "I shall join one of the [[mendicant orders]], so as to have less begging to do{{nbsp}}..."{{hsp}}{{ran|B|p=23}}
In May 1911 the ''[[Boston American]]'' (published by disgraced Harvard dropout [[William Randolph Hearst]]){{hsp}}{{r|hearst}} carried a mock adver{{shy}}tise{{shy}}ment: "Wanted{{mdashb}}a millionaire. Will some kind millionaire please give Harvard Univer{{shy}}sity a library building? Tainted money not barred. [[John D. Rockefeller|Mr. Rockefeller]], take notice. [[Andrew Carnegie|Mr. Carnegie]], please write."{{hsp}}{{r|canoe|p=87}}
}}