Louisiana State University was established in 1859 as the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy. It was inaugurated with five faculty and twenty-four cadets, on a spacious campus at Pineville, Louisiana, on 2 January 1860, under the direction of its first superintendent, William Tucumseh Sherman.

            The first decade of the institution’s history was chaotic. Operations of the University were suspended during most of the Civil War, as Sherman left to join the Union army and most of the remaining faculty served in the Confederate forces. The buildings and equipment of the Seminary were spared the most serious ravages of the war, however—a blessing often attributed to Sherman’s personal interest—and the school resumed operations in the fall of 1865.

            Little is known of the library of the institution in its early years. At Pineville the library was undoubtedly housed in the single large building on campus. By 1869 it had grown to 6,000 volumes, and was claimed to be one of the best college libraries in the South. The Seminary building was completely destroyed by fire on 14 October 1869, but all of the library books were saved, and the Seminary resumed operations only two weeks later in temporary quarters in the State Deaf and Dumb Asylum in Baton Rouge. In March 1870 the name of the institution was changed to Louisiana State University, and in 1877 it was merged with the Agricultural and Mechanical College.

            By 1880 the library had grown to nearly 17,000 volumes, larger than all southern libraries except Virginia’s and South Carolina’s. A strange interval followed, however, when the Board of Supervisors directed that all books not immediately useful should be sold, and during the ensuing years many rare volumes were sent to other institutions. In 1884 the legislature appropriated $2,000 for library books, and the dispersal was halted.

            The temporary quarters in the Deaf and Dumb Asylum had proved rather permanent, for the inmates of the asylum were moved elsewhere in 1871 and the University remained there until 1886. In that year the United States government conveyed the ground and barracks of its abandoned military post in Baton Rouge to the State, and the “Ol’ War Skule,” as it was affectionately known by alumni, moved to its third home, where it prospered for forty years.

            The library continued to share quarters with other units of the University. By 1902, however, it had grown to more than 20,000 volumes and was desperately in need of space. Answering this need, John Hill, a wealthy planter and industrialist, gave the University $35,000 to erect a library building. The gift was to commemorate his son, John Hill, Jr., a member of the class of 1873 who was serving on the board of supervisors at the time of his premature death in 1893. This new structure, named Hill Memorial Library, was completed in 1903. It was widely held to be the most beautiful and elegant building on campus.

            The University continued to grow and, by the early 1920s, was clearly exceeding the limits of the space on the barracks campus. In recognition of this, the state constructed an entirely new campus on the southern perimeter of Baton Rouge. A new library building, planned to accommodate 300,000 volumes, was erected on the new campus at a cost of $350,000. In 1926 the Hill Library moved its 70,000-volume collection to its new home, which retained the name of the old building. The “New Hill Memorial Library” was said to be one of the most modern and well-equipped in the South. Its architecture was typical of the libraries of the time, with two monumental reading rooms on the second floor and a six-level tier of self-supporting stacks.

            The second Hill Memorial Library served for scarcely longer than the first; by the 1950s it was already bulging at the seams. In 1959 the University dedicated a new library building, now named after former University president General Troy H. Middleton, and Hill Memorial Library was relegated to use for classrooms, offices, and the storage of little-used library materials.

            In 1983, recognizing the need for additional space for the LSU Libraries’ prestigious Special Collections, the University allocated $3.5 million to completely renovate the dilapidated old library building. The renovation project retained and restored the best features of the old structure, like the oak paneling and high-ceilinged reading rooms, while providing all of the elements required in a Special Collections facility. These include spacious exhibition galleries, large conservation and photographic laboratories, extensive space for manuscript processing, and an auditorium. The facility is equipped with state-of-the-art fire detection and suppression systems, extensive security systems, and an air-conditioning system designed to maintain stable temperature and humidity.

            Hill Memorial Library now serves as the home for LSU’s most important and prestigious research collections. Foremost of these is the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collection, an integrated collection of books, manuscripts, maps, broadsides, newspapers, photographs, prints, and ephemera documenting the history and culture of the region. With special strengths in plantation agriculture and the slave economy, rice and sugar cultivation, timber and salt extraction, aquaculture, and southern political history, the LLMVC is an indispensable stop for scholars in a wide variety of fields.

            Complementing these materials are those in the Rare Books Collections, an administrative umbrella for a diverse assemblage of collections including the general Rare Book Collection, the E. A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection, the Warren L. Jones Lincoln Collection, the Oliver P. Carrier Collection of Poker and Hoyle, the Gladney Chess Collection, the Rendell Rhoades Crawfish Collection, and numerous other collections in specific subject areas. With great strengths in botanical and ornithological illustration, voyages and travels, the history and art of the book, southern literature, and American history, these collections provide numerous opportunities for research.

            Over the years a number of different bookplate designs have been used at LSU; there are no records extant to indicate the designer or printer for any of them. The oldest of these dates from about 1870, and presents the name of the institution—with Louisiana abbreviated to “La.”—in an elaborate gothic letter. It provides spaces for class, division, and shelf, as well as for recording the source, date of receipt, and cost of the book. Few examples of this bookplate are found in the collections. A later bookplate, with a simpler and cleaner design, produces the full name of the institution in a simple gothic type, and provides spaces for the accession, class, and book numbers only.

            The earliest use of the name Hill Memorial Library on a bookplate appears to be a simple revision of this plate. It retains the gothic typography, but adds a bold line border. This bookplate served throughout the life of the first Hill Memorial Library on the downtown campus.

            With the construction of the new Hill Memorial Library on the new campus in the 1920s, a completely new design for the bookplate was created. This design, reproduced on the cover, displays the seal of the University, featuring the state bird, the pelican, on the center of a row of hefty volumes. It is surmounted by an architectural panel in which are incised in strong lapidary capitals the name of the Library and the institution. In the lower portion of the plate is a blank where donors’ names were frequently added. This bookplate was used for all additions to the Library from 1926 until 1959; with the completion of the new Library building in that year, the University abandoned both Hill Memorial Library and the bookplate bearing its name.

            With his original benefaction more than eighty years ago, John Hill permanently linked his name, and that of his son, with the library resources of Louisiana State University. He could not have foreseen that, only twenty years later, the University would spend ten times his original gift to erect a new building continuing that link. Nor could he have imagined that ten times that larger sum would be spent to renovate this new structure only sixty years after that. In its third incarnation, however, Hill Memorial Library continues to serve the University and the state in much the same way that the original donor intended. And the bookplates permanently affixed to the treasures now housed in Hill Memorial Library serve as constant reminders of his largess.

Robert S. Martin

Assistant Director of Libraries

            for Special Collection

Louisiana State University