Public Rooms & Exhibit Space

In addition to the Dalton-Brand Research Room, the library has several public rooms and exhibit areas where visitors can view selections from its holdings. The most elegant of these is the Mary Duke Biddle Room. In 1946 Mrs. Biddle, grand daughter of Washington Duke, provided the funds for a major addition to the University Library, including this room later named in her honor. Among the materials shelved here are Aldine classics, English literature, early American theology, and notable first editions.

Adjacent to the Biddle Room are three smaller public areas. The Trent Room houses and displays books, periodicals, manuscripts, proof sheets, pictures, and other items principally from the Trent Collection of Walt Whitman. The Flowers Room contains printed materials from the George Washington Flowers Collection of Southern Americana and works of southern authors. Among the items shelved in the Dalton Room, named for Trinity College alumnus Harry L. Dalton, are incunabula, emblem books, and miniature books.

Display cases in these rooms and in adjacent corridors are used to mount periodic exhibits reflecting recent acquisitions or special themes and subjects. Digital versions of some of these exhibits can be found on the Perkins Library Web site.