Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/268

244 court. The entrance -hall is divided into three divisions by heavy sandstone columns, and the floor is of white marble, with the symbols and signs of the zodiac inlaid in it in brass.

The periodical reading-room occupies the northeast corner of the library (marked U on Fig. 112). It contains the current numbers of about 1500 periodicals; the back numbers are stored in the adjoining room, from whence they are taken to be bound as they accumulate. A gallery runs round the two inner walls of the room. Here are shelved the bound volumes of all the periodicals indexed in Pooles Index.

The corresponding rooms (marked K and L on Fig. 112) at the south-east corner of the building are used for the preparation of the card-catalogue and printed bulletins and finding lists. The adjoining room, M, is the ordering room, where lists of proposed additions are checked and new books are ordered. Under the staircase on either side are lavatories and cloak-rooms. The grand staircase is one of the principal features in the building. The walls are of yellow Sienna marble, richly variegated; the stairs of an ivory-grey French stone, mottled with fossil shells. The staircase ascends straight up for half its height, and then turns right and left round two pedestals bearing couchant lions; these were carved by Mr. L. St. Gaudens from grey marble, and are memorials of the Massachusetts men who fell in the Civil War. The ceiling is divided into resetted caissons, with ornamented borders. From the landing of the staircase a carved oak door leads out to a balcony, overlooking