“It is a beautiful and fitting resting place for the unique collections which fill it to overflowing–rare books, manuscripts, autographs, and objects of art. The bookcases which line the walls are of mahogany, and so fashioned that the title of every volume on the crimson morocco covered shelves can be seen. Opposite the entrance to the room there is a huge carved wood mantle shelf, surmounted by a sixteenth century ormolu clock of turquoise, with candelabra to match.”
From “The Library of a Brooklyn Bibliophile,” Pratt Institute Monthly (March 1894):
“This library, one of the choicest jewels of Brooklyn, it has been our privilege to examine, through the gracious hospitality of its owner; and by her kind permission we make mention here of some part of its rare and beautiful contents, reluctantly leaving undescribed many things of almost equal interest.
The room, which has been built especially to hold these riches, is worthy of the precious things it guards. The light is peculiarly pleasing; it enters from above, through flat skylights of artistic pale-tinted glass, and at night a soft brilliancy is shed by electric lights, also situated above the ceiling. …
Shelves, drawers, easels, book-cases, are all of choice woods and workmanship; the very cases that enshrine individual volumes of especial rarity and value are themselves good specimens of the binder’s art.”
