Rooms With A View; Achievements of The Nationality Committees and The Office of Cultural And Educational Exchange
Andrey Avinoff (Sixteen of the illustrations) and Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh, c1961. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. The format is approximately 8.875 inches by 11.625 inches. Personal inscription on fep regarding visiting the rooms.. No dust jacket present. Cover has some wear and soiling. Albert A. Klimcheck was the supervising architect. Designed and printed in four-color lithography by Herbick & Held, Inc. Pittsburgh. Type set in Monotype Bembo. Paper is 100 pound Yorkshire Vellum. The cover is stamped in gold. The eighteen International Classrooms which circle the vaulted Commons Room of the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning are rooms with a view, a view which encompasses all mankind. The Rooms are masterful renditions of the finest artistic traditions of ethnic groups, but they are also vital symbols of the University's far-reaching program of international cultural and educational exchange. The Nationality Committees had their beginnings in 1925, at the time that the University of Pittsburgh was engaged in erecting its soaring Cathedral of Learning. The Nationality Committees eventually comprised nearly a half million people. Some of the rooms are originals, some are re-creations, but all were designed by architects from the countries they represent. It was in 1946 that the University, in cooperation with these Committees, instituted a formal program of educational exchange. In June, 1960, U.S. Secretary of State Christian A. Herter said: "The University of Pittsburgh has caught the vision of a new horizon." The Nationality Rooms are a group of 31 classrooms in the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning depicting and donated by the national and ethnic groups that helped build the city of Pittsburgh. The rooms are designated as a Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation historical landmark and are located on the 1st and 3rd floors of the Cathedral of Learning, itself a national historic landmark on the University of Pittsburgh's main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Although of museum caliber, 29 of the 31 rooms are used as daily classrooms by University of Pittsburgh faculty and students, while the other two (the Early American and Syrian-Lebanon) are display rooms viewed through glass doors, utilized primarily for special events, and can only be explored via special guided tour. The Nationality Rooms also serve in a vigorous program of intercultural involvement and exchange in which the original organizing committees for the rooms remain as participants and which includes a program of annual student scholarship to facilitate study abroad. In addition, the Nationality Rooms inspire lectures, seminars, concerts exhibitions, and social events which focus on the various heritages and traditions of the nations represented. The national, traditional, and religious holidays of the nations represented are celebrated on campus and the rooms are appropriately decorated to reflect these occasions. The Nationality Rooms are available daily for public tours as long as the particular room is not being used for a class or other university function. The English Room, classroom 144, was designed by Albert A. Klimcheck in 16th century Tudor Gothic style, and reflects major aspects of American History: English language and law. It is the largest of the Nationality Rooms and contains a large amount original material from London's House of Commons which was destroyed by bombs during World War II. Each window bears a coat of arms representing an English city, or a famous English person from history. The English room was dedicated November 21, 1952. This room, along with twenty five other Nationality Rooms all with different architectural styles, was conceived in the 1920s by sociologist Ruth Crawford Mitchell as a means of linking the university with the immigrant culture of the steel working families. Condition: Good.
Keywords: University of Pittsburgh, Nationality Rooms, Albert Klimcheck, Ruth Crawford Mitchell, Immigrant Culture, Steel-working Families, Cathedral of Learning, Historic Landmark, Cultural Preservation, International Education, Andrey Avinoff, Richard Oden
[Book #87645]
Price: $275.00