William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (Clark Library), is a library affiliated with the

In 1985, the Clark Library's administration was transferred to the Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies.[6] This Organized Research Unit,^[7] within UCLA's College of Humanities^[8] organizes academic and cultural programs related to Early Modern materials at the library, which is also used as a venue for conferences, lectures, and concerts developed by the Center.

The early 20th century ushered in a heyday of American book collecting.^[9] William Andrews Clark, Jr., along with other wealthy bibliophiles such as J. Paul Getty, Henry E. Huntington and Henry Clay Folger, first began forming his library during this period.

Initially, Clark collected a broad array of English imprints. His library included the four

Clark also took an interest in fine printing within the Arts and Crafts tradition, which is represented by complete runs of the books printed by the Kelmscott Press and Doves Press, the two greatest influences on the revival of printing in England at the turn of the 20th century.^[10] The library also has a substantial collection of American fine presses in the Arts and Crafts Movement, particularly Californian printers, as well as the library and papers of printer and sculptor Eric Gill and Los Angeles artist Paul Landacre. The library continues to collect in this field.

In 2009, nuclear physicist Paul Chrzanowski donated a collection of seventy-two Shakespeare books, published between 1479 and 1731, to the Clark Library.^[4]

As of 2006, the collection contains over 110,000 rare books and 22,000 manuscripts, in addition to an extensive reference collection of modern books, periodicals and microfilm.^[11]

The Clark Library is one of the most extensive for

Perhaps the Library's most valuable and extensive collection is the work by and relating to

Several types of fellowships are offered for graduate and postdoctoral scholars to study at the Clark Library. Among the most prestigious are the Ahmanson-Getty Fellowship, Clark Dissertation Fellowship, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies /Clark Fellowship, Kanner Fellowship in British Studies, Kenneth Karmiole Endowed Graduate Fellowship, and Clark Bibliographical Fellowship.

All fellowships are administered by UCLA's Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies. Each fellowship varies in stipend, duration, and qualification. All of the fellowships require that the recipient make use of the Clark Library's collections.^[14]

The library is set on a walled block in the West Adams neighborhood near Downtown. A grandly conceived garden pavilion, the two-story building is lavishly detailed inside and out. Designed by Robert D. Farquhar, one of California's most eminent romantic architects, its paired cubic reading rooms resemble the Villa Lante, a dual Italian Renaissance composition attributed to Vignola. In keeping with the collection, its brick and stone facades overlay an English baroque mode similar to that employed by Wren at Hampton Court. The brickwork is very fine, subtly dappled in five colors and set in lavender-tinted mortar.

The Library occupies the former yard of a large house built in the early 20th century. Unusual for its time, the property was surrounded by a brick wall. This feature may have been part of the property's appeal for Clark who, after buying it, bought and removed eleven neighboring houses, extended the wall around the entire block, and engaged landscape architect, Ralph D. Cornell to develop plans for a public park. That project was never completed. Willed to UCLA in 1934 with the stipulation that no structure ever rise within one hundred feet of the library, the building stood for the next sixty years in an unfinished landscape gradually emptied by the removal of the house and an observatory.

In 1988, the Los Angeles architectural firm of Barton Phelps & Associates (Barton Phelps, FAIA, 1946 - ) was commissioned to prepare a master plan for the site. In response to the restrictions of Clark's gift, it proposes a major research facility surrounding a below-grade garden at its center. Initial funding from the Getty and Ahmanson Trusts was conveyed to the library by former UCLA Chancellor, Dr. Franklin Murphy.

The first of phase construction accommodates library support facilities in a linear building conceived as a two-story, extendable wall. Its four modules are separated by courtyards to form what has been called a range, an 18th-century term borrowed from Jefferson's plan for the University of Virginia. The North Range stretches two hundred and seventy feet along the north side of the block. It houses editorial offices, conference and food service facilities, and guestrooms. It leaves the center of the site open and, in its form and color, it relates more closely to the red brick fence than to the library.

• List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in South Los Angeles
• UCLA Library
• Mary Andrews Clark Memorial Home
• Huntington Library