Editing Sterling Memorial Library (section)

==Decoration==
The library is one of the most elaborate buildings on the Yale campus. Rogers commissioned artisans, including stained glass artist [[G. Owen Bonawit]] and blacksmith [[Samuel Yellin]], who worked with Rogers on many of his buildings, sculptor [[Rene Paul Chambellan]], and painter [[Eugene Savage]]. The building's exterior is decorated with stone gargoyles, reliefs, and inscriptions.<ref name="Decoration" /> The nave is the most ornately decorated library interior, although ornamental features, particularly stained-glass windows, can be found in nearly every room in the building.

===Entrance relief===
[[File:Sterling Library bas relief panorama.jpg|thumb|350px|Relief above the front entrance doors on High Street]]
A relief above the library's main entrance symbolizes the scholarly achievements of ancient civilizations. It is the work of architectural sculptor [[Rene Paul Chambellan]], who executed a design produced by [[Lee Lawrie]].<ref name="ELIS" />{{rp|282}} The scene depicts [[Cro-Magnon]], [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]], [[Assyria]]n, [[Israelites|Hebrew]], [[Arabs|Arab]], [[Ancient Greece|Greek]], [[Maya civilization|Mayan]], and [[Han Chinese|Chinese]] scholars in [[Relief#Bas-relief or low relief|low relief]], with inscriptions from major works in each writing system.<ref name="Decoration" /> At center is a medieval scholar, and directly above the doors are symbolic representations of major civilizations, which include a [[Phoenicia#Phoenician ships|Phoenician ship]], a [[lamassu|Babylonian lamassu]] and the [[Capitoline Wolf|Capitoline wolf]] of [[Ancient Rome|Rome]].<ref name="Decoration" />

===''Alma Mater'' mural===
[[File:Yale Alma Mater Mural Highsmith.jpg|150px|thumb|The ''Alma Mater'' mural]]
At the western end of the nave is a [[fresco]] painted by Eugene Savage, a professor in the [[Yale School of Art|Yale School of Art and Architecture]]. Savage titled it "The Imagination that Directs the University's Spiritual and Intellectual Efforts," but it is commonly known as the ''[[Alma Mater]]'' mural for its depiction of a personified "University."<ref>{{cite web |title=Eugene Francis Savage |publisher=National Academy Museum |url=http://www.nationalacademy.org/collections/artists/detail/150/ |access-date=6 April 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408212126/http://www.nationalacademy.org/collections/artists/detail/150/ |archive-date=8 April 2014 }}</ref><ref name="Public Art">{{cite web |title=Public art at Yale - Alma Mater |publisher=Yale University |url=http://www.yale.edu/publicart/almamater.html |access-date=6 April 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408233825/http://www.yale.edu/publicart/almamater.html |archive-date=8 April 2014 }}</ref> Savage, an expert in [[Italian Renaissance painting#Early Renaissance painting|Early Renaissance]] techniques, painted the mural in his characteristic style, an [[Art Deco]] interpretation of traditional Renaissance composition.<ref>{{cite book |title=Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design: 1826–1925  |editor1-last=Wageman |editor1-first=Virginia |editor2-last=Freshman |editor2-first=Paul |year=2004 |edition=1st |publisher=Hudson Hills |pages=492–493 |isbn=9781555950293 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PHH45aYubp4C&pg=PA492 |access-date=6 April 2014}}</ref> Surrounding "Alma Mater" are personifications of [[discipline (academic)|academic disciplines]].<ref name="Public Art" />

===Stained glass===
680 unique stained glass panels by [[G. Owen Bonawit]] adorn the nave, reading rooms, offices, and tower of the library.<ref name="Martz" /><ref name="Walker">{{cite web |last=Walker |first=Gay |title=Brilliance All Around: The Stained Glass of Sterling and Its Maker |date=27 January 2006 |url=http://www.library.yale.edu/75th/walker_brilliance.pdf |access-date=6 April 2014}}</ref> Eighty decorate the nave, depicting scenes from the history of Yale and New Haven.<ref name="Schiff" /><ref name="Decoration">{{cite journal |title=The Decoration of Sterling Memorial Library |journal=The University Library Gazette |volume=5 |issue=4 |date=April 1931 |pages=81–123 |url=http://digital.library.yale.edu/utils/getdownloaditem/collection/rebooks/id/85652/filename/113729.pdf/mapsto/pdf |access-date=6 April 2014}}</ref> Most reading rooms have stained glass panels that represent themes from their subject matter.<ref name="Decoration" /> Bonawit's firm also designed over 2,000 small outline images to inset in windows without stained glass panes.<ref name="Walker" /> Although Sterling contains the most in number, Bonawit's panels can be found in many of Yale's Gothic Revival buildings of the same period, including the [[Sterling Law Building]], the Hall of Graduate Studies, and the [[Residential colleges of Yale University|residential colleges]].<ref name="Walker" />

<gallery mode="packed-hover" heights="120px">
File:Yale-library-stained-glass.jpg
File:SML-Stained-Glass-3.jpg
File:Unknown Work 2, G. Owen Bonawit.jpg
File:SML-Stained-Glass-6.jpg
File:SML-Stained-Glass-7.jpg
File:Port-Royal des Champs G. Owen Bonawit.JPG
</gallery>

===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"/>