Gift From Baker Trust Aids Library Lighting

A GIFT of from the George F. Baker Trust of New York City has been received by Dartmouth College to be used for installing new lighting in Baker Library.

This gift and supplementary funds will be used for the project which, it is estimated, will cost between $45,000 and $50,000.

Mr. Willard Thompson of the Thompson Engineering Company of Boston, designers of the lighting installations at the Lamont and Houghton Libraries at Harvard University, the John Hay Library at Brown University, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, will be in charge of the installation work which is scheduled to be completed during the summer vacation period.

The gift from the Baker Trust supplements an original gift of one million dollars from the late George F. Baker of New York which enabled the College to build the library in 1927-28 as a memorial to his uncle, Fisher Ames Baker of the Class of 1859. Following the library construction, Mr. Baker contributed an additional million dollars as an endowment fund for the library building maintenance.

The new installations will combine fluorescent and incandescent lighting at a 25-foot-candle level as compared with present levels which run as low as 3- to 5-foot-candle power. Library areas to be affected include the main corridors on the basement and first floors, the third floor Tower Room, the reference and periodical rooms, and various other reading rooms and studies embracing virtually all the library areas open to the general public.

Improved lighting in Baker Library has been an urgent need for some years, but limited college funds have restricted the changes to only a few spots such as the Public Affairs Laboratory. The gift from the George F. Baker Trust is a boon not only to Dartmouth students and faculty members but also to the hundreds of visiting scholars and writers who make use of the library collections.