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FRIEDSAM MEMORIAL LIBRARY 

The Rare Book Wing

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Track the progress via the Library Construction Cam!

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Friedsam Memorial Library and the Franciscan Institute are eagerly anticipating the start of construction on the new rare books addition.  

The uniqueness of the Rare Books Collection, which includes treasures gathered over more than a century, prompted the gift. In an early review of the collection, scholars from the National Endowment for the Humanities described it as “a unique national asset of great value to American humanistic scholarship.” Since that time, the collection has doubled in size.  The collection includes the most important collection of Franciscana in North America.

The collection includes more than 9,000 rare books and manuscripts dating from the 12th century up to and including the seminal journals of renowned monastic Thomas Merton, who taught English at St. Bonaventure in the early 1940s, as well as collections from various provincial and college libraries that were entrusted to St. Bonaventure when the institutions closed.

It includes such treasures as an 18-foot vellum scroll recounting biblical history from the time of Adam to that of Christ and the Apostles, hand-lettered and drawn by a Franciscan friar in the form of a genealogical tree, as well as hand-lettered commentaries and psalters and early printed books.

“This collection is truly one of the precious treasures, not only of St. Bonaventure University and the Franciscan Institute, but of the worldwide Church,” said University president Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., S.T.D. 

The library expansion will protect this stunning collection with state-of-the-art mechanical, electrical, security and fire suppression systems. The design also provides the required vault storage space incorporating high density shelving to maximize floor space and efficiency.

The design of the addition, rather than replicating the existing structure, will complement both the original library and the 1970s addition with an assemblage of materials and textures.

The terra cotta roofing that for decades has helped distinguish the St. Bonaventure campus will be incorporated into the design, with high-performance glass offering a way to safely open the reading rooms and common areas to beautiful southerly views and to integrate with the glass and brick of the 1970s addition. 

The addition will be set back from the main north facade, providing an outdoor contemplative garden area.  At night, the glass walkway surrounding the inner building core will be lit up, highlighting the unique collection contained therein.

The University is working with Cannon Design Architects (Buffalo) and Duggan and Duggan General Contracting (Allegany) on the addition.