Once in a generation comes a challenge that tests the mettle of a university and those who have passed through its halls. The preservation of the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library presents the Trojan Family with such a task. To ensure the vitality of the university’s most venerable landmark, USC now asks its alumni and friends for their support. • When USC was a mere fledgling institution – barely 50 years old – its leaders already had the temerity to dream of eminence. That they harbored such lofty ambitions is manifest in every line of the beloved, revered library. Carved in limestone, etched in redwo od, illuminated in glass and chased in bronze is the unmistakable message: “We aspire to greatness,” writ large in the language of architecture. • Doheny Library took two years and a then-staggering sum of $1.1 million to design and build. “The very heart of the university … sending out the lifeblood of truth and light” was how USC President Rufus B. von KleinSmid characterized the splendid Romanesque cathedral of knowledge in his dedicatory speech on September 12, 1932.
•A shrine to learning, it is also a monument to love. Love of parents Estelle and Edward Doheny for a slain son. Love of beauty, conspicuous in Boston architect Samuel E. Lunden’s spellbinding use of color, texture and exquisite ornamentation. Love of function, expressed in University Librarian Charlotte M. Brown’s watchful attention to details, such as trough lighting and acoustical-tiled ceilings. And a profound love of alma mater, palpable in the deep emotional response that the Doheny has stirred and continues to stir in generation after generation of the Trojan Family.

next page