On most days, between 10 and 5, anyone in Austin can walk in off the street, go through a small lobby and step into a booth which contains one of the first photographs every taken. You can enlarge the image above to read the details. The image is in a dark environment but it's on display all the time. It's hard to make out just what is happening in the frame but I guess that's part of the curatorial fun and games. Right? It's comforting, as a photographer, to know that this historically important relic is right here in my own home town. The rest of the collection of photos is awfully impressive as well. A collection of amazing depth and quality.
And while I was in the lobby, and since I am so devoutly spiritual, I had to stop by another light controlled booth and take a gander at the HRC's copy of the Gutenberg Bible. One of only five complete copies in the United States of America and one of only 48 remaining in the world. Hard to turn the pages through the thick, protective Lexan case in which the Bible resides. I had to use all of my psycho-kinetic powers to get back to Genesis....
But I'm betting you have one of these in your local library as well....
The HRC houses literally billions of dollars of rare art, manuscripts, photos and artifacts. The building has state of the art fire suppression and maintains a net positive pressure. Higher pressure inside than out. You would too if you had collected so many fragile prizes. Right?
But my story is more about this grating you see in the image just above.
When I first came to UT Austin in 1974 I was following in my older brother's footsteps. And two years later my sister joined us there. My parents were paying for tuition, room, board, books and fun for three children simultaneously, and did so all the way through graduate school. After my first year (and remember, this was before the discovery, or the consequences of, climate change and atmospheric temperature rises!) I decided to move into a huge corner room in the ancient Roberts dormitory. Just across the creek and a wide street from the UT stadium. The room was bigger and I had the whole space to myself --- and it cost less than the previous room I shared with a roommate.
How could that be? Well my previous room was in the Brackenridge dorm which was...air conditioned. The Roberts dorm was completely un-air conditioned. Warmish. Thermally challenging. But much cheaper.
The problem that cropped up was...seasonal. Even though we didn't have many hot days with temperatures over 100°, late August and most of September could be ... challenging. The most challenging aspect that I found was how hard it was to study if you're sweating and uncomfortable. One evening my girlfriend at the time, and I, were walking across campus and we stopped over by the HRC. We spied these giant grates that run around parts of that huge, bunker-like building. The positive airflow out of that building was air conditioned. Well air conditioned. Chilly. Cool. Comfortable. On the hot evenings and nights we'd grab our books (real, physical, printed books) and head over to sit on the grates and get our studying done. It was, in a way, a glorious thing. Far less crowded than the libraries and one could be both outside in "nature" while also being adequately chilled. Climate controlled.
As I left the HRC today I remembered (fondly) the many evenings over the course of three years that I spent comfortably ensconced in the flow of the great/grate air conditioning. For the next four years I was able to enjoy the miracle of AC. I didn't drink coffee back then but if I had I might have gotten out of UT in just six years instead of seven if I had. But you don't give up comfort just for expediency's sake. There are limits.
I should have asked for a key to the HRC building back then. They have nice bathrooms inside. And if I got bored with Milton's Paradise Lost I could have stopped and browsed through that musty old Guttenberg Bible...
The idea of not having air conditioning in dorms now seems unthinkable. But we made do back then. We generally always do.
I don't have any witty comments - just that you're on a roll the past few days and it's been fun to read. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteKen
Librarian here. You'd be surprised at the amount of time taken up with air conditioning (have Gutenberg* Catholicon to keep cool - well dry - here in the UK) *now, there's a quite story about whether Gutenberg printed it or not...
ReplyDeleteDon't think I ever had air conditioning in my rooms or apartments during the college years, but I was up in Denton, a bit less intense than Austin. Some of the older classroom buildings also lacked AC. Somehow we made it through.
ReplyDeleteIt is hotter on average now and the number of very hot days is disproportionately higher. So it is not just the younger generation. Does a gnome turn the pages of the GB at night so that you can see all of it through time?
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