Although one had to imagine the fanfares and drumrolls, vocal classics celebrating the first airplanes and flying resounded in the Libraries Founders Room at its Grand Reopening reception on Wednesday, November 5, 2003. The day also marked the opening of an exhibition, “Celebrating the Wright Brothers First Flight: Treasures from the Carruthers Aviation Collection,” which remained on view through January.

Revitalized as an intercollegiate meeting space and reading room for faculty and staff of all The Colleges and CUC, the Founders Room is located on the second floor of Honnold/Mudd Library and is open Monday through Friday from 9am-6pm. According to Bonnie Clemens, Director of Libraries, “All faculty and staff members are invited to enjoy the Founders Room, whether attending an intercollegiate lecture or event, or just bringing a lunch and a book for a peaceful midday break.”

The Founders Room opened originally in 1952 with the dedication of Honnold Library and was the scene of many lectures, receptions, teas, and other gatherings until the major renovation of the Honnold building that began in 2000. A lack of funds postponed the desired concurrent upgrading of the Founders Room. When the Faculty House closed, members of the Faculty House Board of Directors, including HMC founding president Joseph Platt, suggested that its assets be transferred to CUC to enable the Libraries to refurnish the Founders Room. Funds and some familiar furniture from the Faculty House transformed the Founders Room into the new, central gathering place for faculty and staff from all The Colleges and CUC, a role previously undertaken by the Faculty House.

Resplendent with its stately coffered ceiling, elegant marble fireplace, burnished hardwood floors, warm Oriental rugs, comfortable chairs and sofas arranged in convenient groupings, the room also provides a setting for a collection of Chinese and Japanese cloisonné. Dorothy Adler Routh and her family donated one of the largest private collections of cloisonné in the country to Scripps College between 1973 and 2002. Displayed in wall cases around the Founders Room, pieces from the collection are both secular and religious and range from vases and altar sets to charming animals, tiny and huge.

Faculty and staff are welcome to drop in and enjoy the Founders Room during open hours and may bring students as their guests. Inquiries about reservations for intercollegiate meetings and events may be directed to Kathy Kyle, Assistant to the Director of Libraries, in Library Administration, 621-8045.

You might ask, who are these “Founders”? William Lincoln Honnold and his wife Caroline were affiliated with Pomona, Scripps, and Claremont College (now CUC) after their return to California in the early 1920’s following a mining and philanthropic career in South Africa and Europe. Attracted to the ideal of a large, central library that would unify the young consortium, the Honnolds pledged $1,000,000. Their vision became a reality with the construction of Honnold Library in 1952. A half century later, this grand and gracious Founders Room dedicated to advancing intercollegiality and friendship across the colleges would please the Honnolds, who hoped that their library would be a “symbol of the unity and purpose of the Claremont group.”

Judy Harvey Sahak
Assistant Director of Libraries and
Denison Librarian
judy.harveysahak@libraries.claremont.edu