No detail of the library was too small for Thomas's attention, Mary Garrett's opinion or De Forest's consideration. The bookplates designed by De Forest were approved by the Library Committee in 1908 and are still in use today. Thomas praised De Forest's efforts in a letter of March 14, 1908.
Miss Garrett and I think [the bookplate] is charming. We like the way in which you have introduced the daisies and the lantern; we like the scroll for the motto (which, by the way, should be written in it: - "Veritatem Dilexi"); and we especially like the ornamental leaf-work. . . The Chairman of the Committee seemed to like light foliage on a dark background, like Penn's book-plate . . . but Miss Garrett and I think that it is the dark foliage on the light ground that makes your sketch so distinguished, and it was agreed that this should be followed in the engraving, keeping the balance of tones as you think best.
In
1910, several years after the major interior work for the library was completed,
the Class of 1899 offered to donate a large clock for the main reading room.
The plaster model shown in the photograph was executed by Pauline Brainard of
the Art School of the New York City YWCA following De Forest's plans. The finished
copper and bronze clock still hangs in Thomas Great Hall.
Not
content with Cope & Stewardson's "hideous" sketches for sidewalk
lighting, Thomas turned to De Forest for a different look. "I have in mind
the lighting of the grounds at the Buffalo Exposition," she explained to
him in 1905. De Forest's solution was a simple post with a globe lantern and
tiered base. The original lampposts and reproductions of them, made to increase
campus lighting, were recently replaced by more effective contemporary light
fixtures. However, several original lampposts have been preserved by College
Collections.
After a long battle with leukemia, Mary Garrett died in the spring of 1915. Both Lockwood and his wife, Mena, knew that this was a significant loss to Thomas. It is no surprise that she asked De Forest to design a tablet commemorating Garrett's contributions to the College. Understanding her need to publicly acknowledge her sorrow, De Forest wrote:
Anxious as I am and as I know you are to get the tablet for a memorial to Mary done, I do not think we can do it properly in such a hurry. I must have time to think it carefully over after I get the wording from you. . . . I can not put my mind on it now with all the other things which have to be done before I go [to Santa Barbara] . . . . I know you are too tired too for you to decide so quickly.
It would be terrible if in our hurry we did this thing wrong would it not? We need time to think otherwise we may do anything simply to get through. I do hope that you will get a real rest on your trip to Japan. You need it.
The finished plaque is installed in the northwest corner of the cloister.
Bryn
Mawr College
Campus Plan -
Hutton, Vaux & Olmsted
Collegiate Gothic - Cope and Stewardson
Details
& Interior - De Forest
Paving Tiles - Mercer
Decorative Sculpture - Ashbee & Miller
Bryn Mawr College Library Special Collections. September 21 - December 20, 2001
