page_title: New York Public Library Main Branch
section_title: McGraw Rotunda
hierarchical_section_title: New York Public Library Main Branch / Interior / Layout / McGraw Rotunda
caption_attribution_description: English: A Monk of the Middle Ages is copying a manuscript while, behind him, is a scene of destruction and rapine (robbing). This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 66000546
context_page_description: The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, commonly known as the Main Branch or the New York Public Library, is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system and a landmark in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The branch, one of four research libraries in the library system, contains nine separate divisions. The structure contains four stories open to the public. The main entrance steps are at Fifth Avenue at its intersection with East 41st Street. As of 2015, the branch contains an estimated 2.5 million volumes in its stacks. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark, a National Register of Historic Places site, and a New York City designated landmark in the 1960s.
  The Main Branch was built after the New York Public Library was formed as a combination of two libraries in the late 1890s. The site, along Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, is located directly east of Bryant Park, on the site of the Croton Reservoir. The architectural firm Carrère and Hastings constructed the structure in the Beaux-Arts style, and the structure opened on May 23, 1911.
context_section_description: The McGraw Rotunda (formerly Central Hall) is a rectangular-shaped space on the third floor. It is situated between the Public Catalog and Salomon Rooms, which are respectively located to the west and east, and separates two passageways that lead northward and southward. The rotunda contains a red marble base with dark wood walls and a plaster barrel vault. There are alcoves on the side walls, supported by columns with Corinthian capitals, which are intended for murals.
  The rotunda contains a set of panels painted by Edward Laning in the early 1940s as part of a WPA project. The work includes four large panels, two lunettes above doorways to the Public Catalog and Salomon Rooms, and a ceiling mural painted on the barrel vault. The four panels are located on the east and west walls and depict the development of the written word. The lunette above the Public Catalog Room's doorway is "Learning to Read", and the lunette about the Salomon Room's doorway is "The Student". The ceiling mural is called "Prometheus Bringing Fire to Men". The four panels and two lunettes were completed in 1940, and the ceiling mural was completed in 1942.
caption: A mural in the McGraw Rotunda created by Edward Laning
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