Lower South Stairs

Below the large dedicatory plaque of the entry hall is a staircase leading down to basement study areas and general stacks. The landing and short lower flight feature framed prints related to the history of Bridwell Library. The names of Joe and Lois Perkins, their daughter Elizabeth Prothro, founding director Decherd Turner, and oilman Joseph Sterling Bridwell crop up regularly in accounts of the birth and growth of the institution. Not appearing as often in school histories is J. S. Bridwell’s prize bull, Real Silver Domino 203d. His hand-tinted portrait is met at the basement level, and a related item, an etching by Belgian biochemist Ernest Schoffeniels, offers the opening words of James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, displayed here in recognition of two important collections at Bridwell of the works of the Irish avant-garde novelist.

South Stairs.jpg
Lower South Stairs