An intentional encounter with the decorations of Rush Rhees Library brought two students to the University Archives, in search of a book. You can read about their search for knowledge and what they found here.
Researching the question from Joshua Jung ’26 and Michael Ding ’26 uncovered many new facts about the creation of the Greater University Fund book--the decisions behind making it, the delays, its eventual completion, and who actually did the majority of the calligraphy: a history which was largely unknown for decades.
Perhaps the most intriguing information concerns the delays and who completed the work. Philipp Merz accepted the project and was able to begin in 1932, after the design work for Cutler Union was completed. The correspondence in the treasurer's papers indicates that he was paid $1600 in 8 installments, but he also may have received additional payments that he asked to have applied to the tuition of an undergraduate in the College for Women.
Librarian Donald Gilchrist sent a memo to treasurer Raymond Thompson that by 1938, the library had 46 leaves of the book in hand. These were:
- the title page and introduction (4 leaves)
- Committees (6 leaves)
- Teams (12 leaves)
- Contributor pages
- A-Cook, S. E. (18 leaves)
- Q and R (6 leaves)
But Gilchrist's letter also mentions that he and Leo Waasdorp, an architect in the Gordon and Kaelber office, believed that many more pages had been completed by Merz, but were not in storage in the library vault. Were they done and lost, or were Gilchrist and Waasdorp mistaken? Whatever the answer, the pages for D-P, S-Z, and the end of C were still undone.
By 1941, it appears that Merz was no longer responding to the letters sent by Thompson. The University sent a private investigator who reported that Merz was working as an architect for the New York City government, living at 145 West 77th Street, and considered a good tenant who paid his monthly rent of $60 reliably.
Finding another calligrapher was the only answer, and Ruth E. Gutfrucht, the daughter of a professor at what is now RIT, and future RIT professor herself, was hired. Her part of the work would continue until early 1943, when the book was bound and placed on display in a glass case at the foot of the Grand Staircase of Rush Rhees Library.
