The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library

The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library is defined by its massive exterior, featuring a wide flight of stone steps leading up to a series of towering columns. Completed in nineteen fifteen, this building serves as the flagship of the Harvard University library system. It was commissioned by Eleanor Elkins Widener as a memorial to her son, Harry, a nineteen hundred and seven Harvard graduate and avid book collector who died in the sinking of the Titanic in nineteen twelve.