Music Room

The Music Room is on the left down the hall as you enter the front door of the library. 

 

Ex-Governor Roswell P FLower

If there is one mural painting for which Ella Conde Lamb is know today, it is THE OPEN BOOK, which she executed for the library.  The mural depicts the seated figure of a mother surrounded by her children and is meant to convey the idea that books are the source of knowledge and that they should be available to all through a public library.  Ella used her own four children as model and, in according to Mrs Taylor's wishes, added a fifth child to the composition.  This child, placed on the lap of the mother, was a memorial to Mrs Taylor's eldest son who died in infancy.  Ella placed a kitten in the arms of the child seated at the mother's left.  The model for this little boy was Ella's three year old son, Condie. The artist emphasizes through this picture the central thought of the American Public Library namely that here the book is accessible to all.  The girl and boy who posed on either side indicate that the book is free to both sexes.

The incredible ceiling in this room is identical to the one on the other side of the foyer.  The ceilings were done by George F Maltby and his two brothers in Corning NY.  Each panel was individually plaster cast and installed by a special crew.  There are 676 panels in each room.

Authors names on the end walls are:  St Paul, Plato, Horace, Goethe, Voltaire, Chaucer, Irving, Isaiah, Thucydides, Livy, Schiller, Hugo, Macauley & Emerson

The fireplace in both the reading rooms are identical to each and other and continue the color and motif themes present throughout the library.  Flower rosettes appear in the fireplace, the oculus and the stenciling.  The colors of the petals each portray the colors of the rooms throughout the library.  The colors in the fireplace were very helpful when the 2007 renovation began.  The painters were able to match the original room colors by matching the colors in the fireplace.

Texts on the walls:

"Read, mark and inwardly digest"
"Wisdom Is The Principle thing"
"A Blessed companion is a book"
"Reading maketh a full man"
""Knowledge is the only good"
"Knowledge is power"
"Mind is the great lever of all things"
"No man was born wise"
"In books is the soul of the past"
"The sweet serenity of books"
"Knowledge is the fountain of human liberty"
"The true university is a collection of books"