Utah State University’s library — the Merrill-Cazier Library — is a relatively new facility. It opened in the fall of 2005 and was officially dedicated in spring 2006. The numbers are impressive: 304,000 total square feet with 189,000 square feet of new construction; 2,200 available seats; 30 study rooms; 190 computer terminals; 24 wireless hubs; 230,000 feet of telecommunication cable; 1,360 telecommunication jacks and 13,000 yards of concrete. The building has earned honors and accolades for its architecture and for its high-tech features. Campus Technology, a California-based publication ranked the facility number one in the nation in 2006 in the “Smart Classroom Category.” Number two? Harvard University.

 

Those are the numbers. Facts. Figures. Statistics.

 

But not everything in the Merrill-Cazier Library is new. In fact, there are some intriguingly old features tucked away on the basement level in the Special Collections and Archives Division. The Hatch Memorial Library Room, to be specific.

 

The Hatch Memorial Library Room and rare book collection have been important resources in teaching and research at Utah State University for more than 50 years. The Hatch Room, with its architectural elements, art works and furnishings were all gifts to the university by L. Boyd and Anne McQuarrie Hatch in 1953. In addition to furnishing the room, Mr. and Mrs. Hatch had earlier developed a collection of rare printed materials for the library, including publications on art history, interior design, architecture and landscape architecture.

 

The donors envisioned the Hatch Memorial Library as an inviting place where scholars could experience the arts and conduct humanities-based research. In a recent effort by Special Collections and Archives, many books from that collection have now been returned to the shelves of the Hatch Room.

 

The room was officially dedicated in 1953, and Henry Aldous Dixon, then president of what was the Utah State Agricultural College spoke. He said the room served two purposes — to preserve the best expressions of the western hemisphere’s cultural heritage and to give students of the day an opportunity to work in the intimacy of artistic beauty.

 

Students could … “use books six hundred years old, as well as great books of our own era … study first hand the oil painting of an old Master … sit and dream at a table at which King Henry the VIII himself may well have sat,” he said. “It will be a spiritual and cultural haven in our busy world.”

 

 

In 1952, the Hatches proposed creating a reading room that would house the Ella Gardener McQuarrie Hatch Book Collection and other rare materials. Antique furniture and decorative arts were, and are, important elements in the room’s design and in its educational purpose. The proposed gift included a 16th century English refectory table, English oak linen-fold panels, a Ming Dynasty vase, 15th century Italian faldistorium (folding chair), a 17th century Flemish tapestry and other fine antique objects. The items were acquired from collections of international importance, including those of William Randolph Hearst; Davanzati Palace, Florence, Italy; and the Charles of London collection.

 

 

On Oct. 30, 2003, USU’s Merrill Library celebrated the golden anniversary of the Hatch Memorial Library. Shortly after, Special Collections and Archives began planning the move from the existing Milton R. Merrill Library to the new Merrill-Cazier Library. The relocation project required great care, expertise and collaboration among library administrators, art and architectural conservators, project architects, Special Collections curators and highly skilled craftsmen. The objective was to retain the historical integrity of the artifacts and to recreate in the new building the dimensions and layout of the room as it was designed for the USAC library in 1953.

 

 

The Ella Gardener McQuarrie Hatch book collection includes many rare publications that have aesthetic, artifactual and textual value. For a time, the materials were housed in secure, climate-controlled storage in Special Collections and Archives. But now, many of these items have returned to the shelves in the Hatch room and can be used for study. Appropriate procedures must be followed when handling these historical items, but the books are where they belong — on the shelves of the Hatch Room.

 

That would certainly please L. Boyd and Anne McQuarrie Hatch.

 

The Hatch Room is open during the regular schedule at Special Collections and Archives.

 

 

Contact: Brad Cole, director, USU Special Collections and Archives, (435) 797-8268, Brad.Cole@usu.edu