Primary Sources

  • General information
    • General information by and about Widener Library [Call number: HUB 1878.2]
    • General information about the Widener Library renovation project, 1999-2004 [Call number: HUB 1878.94]
  • University reports
    • Annual Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College [Call number: HU 30.10]
    • Reports of the visiting committees of the Board of Overseers [Call number: UAII 10.7.3]
      • See particularly reports of April 21, 1914; September 25, 1916; and September 24, 1917.
  • University records and personal papers
    • Records of the President of Harvard University, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, 1909-1933 [Call number: UAI 5.160]
    • Records of the Director of the Harvard University Library, Archibald Cary Coolidge, 1910-1928 [Call number: UAIII 50.8.11.1]
    • Miscellaneous papers relating chiefly to the writing of Building a Great Library, 1934-1976. Papers of William Bentinck-Smith, 1936-1993. [Call number: HUGFP 135.44]
  • Architectural plans
    • Architectural plans for Widener Library at Harvard University, 1911-1961 [Call number: UAI 15.92]
    • Widener Library plans, 1913 [Call number: HUB 1878.5]
    • Specification of the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library: for Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Horace Trumbauer. Philadelphia, Pa.:n.d. Call number: [HUB 1878.88]
  • Ephemera
    • Scrapbook, 1895-1920 by Thomas Franklin Currier. [Call number: UAIII 50.29.195.3]
    • "Widener Library" Scrapbook kept by Dr. Archibald Cary Coolidge, containing newspaper clippings concerning the Library, photographs of members of the Library staff, and snapshots of Gore and Randall Halls and of the new building construction. [Call number: HUF 523.512.14]