History of the Design Library

The Harrye B. Lyons Design Library is located in Brooks Hall, now part of the College of Design. Brooks Hall was originally built to be the library on campus, D. H. Hill Jr. Library. The Design Library inhabits the space that was the original reading room of D. H. Hill Jr. Library. This first image is Brooks Hall being finished in 1926.

This image below is the Reading Room as it looked in about 1928; this space is now the Design Library. As this was the Reading Room, there are no bookstacks; they were in other parts of the building.

The School of Design was founded in 1948, and the Design Library was later named for Mrs. Harrye B. Lyons, who was the Design Librarian and headed the Design Library from 1947 to 1968.  See the article about the dedication of the Design Library to Mrs. Harrye Lyons (PDF) in the Technician on May 1, 1968 (on the second page).

This image below is a later image of Brooks Hall, about 1940, with the landscaping finished.

These images are from North Carolina State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center. To look at other North Carolina State University photos, go to the Historical State site.