This month in history (94 years ago)
Designed by architect Albert Kahn, a new library building — now known as the U-M Library’s North Hatcher Building, accessed from the Diag — is dedicated in 1920. Work began in April 1917, but lagged due to a lack of men and materials during World War I. Kahn, in developing the design, used the central axis for the approach of readers and the delivery of books to the main loan desk. The cruciform stack with a book conveyor in the center provided rapid service along the shortest possible lines.
— “The University of Michigan, an Encyclopedic Survey.”
