Reading Regal

To the east, or right as you enter the Life Science Library, sits the Hall of Noble Words. It was conceived as the Undergraduate Reading Room, then served as the Humanities Reading Room before becoming part of the Science Library, then Life Science Library.

The noble words in question - 31 inspirational quotations - are painted on both sides of the eight concrete beams.

According to UT historian Jim Nicar, in June 1933, Battle sent mimeographed copies of a letter to select members of the faculty and staff:

"As a part of the decoration of the ceiling of the east reading room of the new library, the Building Committee contemplates the use of noble and inspiring utterances appropriate to the function of the room as an educational agency. The concrete beams offer long, broad surfaces well adapted for such a purpose … We might, with propriety, call the reading room The Hall of Noble Words. The Committee would be greatly pleased if you would suggest utterances that seem to you appropriate … Perhaps the thoughts expressed may occasionally find lodgment in the minds of users of the reading room."

Submissions arrived from all parts of the campus, Nicar writes. "I am much pleased by your suggestion for the use of noble utterances," wrote accounting and management professor Chester Lay. "I like the idea of using inspiring inscriptions," responded home economics professor Lucy Rathbone. "The thing that impressed me most in the Library of Congress was the quotations carved on the columns," she wrote, then submitted:

"The strength of a man's virtue is not to be measured by the efforts he makes under pressure but by his ordinary conduct." -Blaise Pascal

Nicar relays that history professor Ed Barker submitted Martin Luther's "Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders." (Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise.) Anthropology professor James Pearce suggested Isaac Barrow's: "He that loveth a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter." And Mattie Hatcher, an archivist in the University Library, submitted Stephen F. Austin's: "A nation can only be free, happy, and great in proportion to the virtue and intelligence of the people."

Architect Paul Cret supported the idea, writing: "The idea of inscriptions on the beams of the east room is excellent … Do not be afraid of having the color scheme too high in key at first," adding wryly, "It will become subdued with age - like all of us."

He was right. The colors have faded, but not merely due to time; they had much help from decades of cigarette smoke and would no doubt be much more vibrant with a skillful but expensive cleaning.

Eugene Gilboe, a Norwegian-born Dallas painter and interior designer known for theater murals throughout Texas, was hired to paint the ceiling. Gilboe used stencils for the letters and freehanded the surrounding designs. Gilboe also painted the beams in the Texas Union Presidential Lobby and the ceiling of Hogg Memorial Auditorium.

The beam supports carry 16 famous printers' marks from the past four centuries, from Fust and Schoeffer of Mainz to Houghton, Mifflin and Company of New York to Southwest Press of Dallas.

And over the hall's door is "A representation of the top of the central tower of the old Main Building, carved in walnut…," according to Battle. The Hall of Texas sports a similar feature, and this walnut is thought to have been salvaged from Old Main itself.