The above quote is from Alan Wells (Class of 1979). Read the full memory below:

Basement, north stairwell was the place to socialize while studying.

The above quote is from Patrick M. McCarthy (Class of 1971). Read the full memory below:

I came from the Chicago area. As a small child, my family lived in the city, in a neighborhood known as “Uptown”, which actually was going through a major transition when I was very young. Fast forward to a 19-year old sophomore at Brown, in 1968, just switched from ScB Engineering to the 5-year AB, ScB program, and searching for a concentration for the AB degree. I was wandering in the stacks in the Rock in some sections on social sciences, and came upon a book on Poverty in America. It talked about Appalachia and such. Flipping through the pages I came upon a chapter on Urban Poor, it talked about Chicago, I read a little more and it was talking about streets I recognized. It became clear. It was focused on Uptown. That moment I decided my AB concentration would be Urban Studies.

Three other mini-memories:
1. As an engineer with a liberal-arts side I was fascinated with the history of technology. In the Rock one day I found a copy of Newton’s “Principia”. It was amazing. Written in Latin!!! I checked it out and took it back to my room and tried to read it (altar boy, knew a little latin). Couldn’t read much, but I was amazed by the pictures!!! He actually figured out acceleration by scores of intricate drawings of things in motion, and all those drawings were by him (I assume) and in the book. It was like “Classics Illustrated” of physics and math. Only in the Rock.

2. After I decided on Urban Studies for my AB concentration, I was doing a paper for a class and wanted to do something about Providence, a city that has always fascinated and delighted me (even in the bad old days of ’67-’71). I found a book on the “Civic and Architectural Development of Providence, 1636-1950”. Authored by someone named John Hutchins Cady as I recall. Great book. Had pen and ink sketches of “the Cove” the basin that used to be at the bottom of the hill below the state house, and the Cove promenade, and just wonderful illustrations of Providence in the Victorian era.

3. One time, in doing research for an Urban Studies paper, I found books and ledgers from the US Census that went back to the Census of 1790.

The above quote is from Antonia L Baum (Class of 1982 BA, 1985 MD). Read the full memory below:

The magical stacks at the rock breathed life into this MedSci who spent way too much time at the SciLi.

The above quote is from Mica Fidler (Class of 2012). Read the full memory below:

The Rock always makes me think of musty tweed. With its brutalist architecture, sprawling front steps, cozy carrels, and endless rows of dusty texts it evokes the era when the new Brown was born. It allowed me, a student reading e-books and typing on my laptop in the twenty-teens, to feel the history of Brown all around me. There is a concept in Dutch called Gezelligheid: a cozy, convivial atmosphere filled with a sense of belonging. The Rock epitomizes this concept and welcomes all Brown’s scholars into its temple of knowledge. There is nothing better than entering the Rock with a group of friends, a cup of Tealuxe tea, and a muffin from the Blue Room, and settling in to share the camaraderie of silent reading.

The above quote is from John Butcher (Class of 1966). Read the full memory below:

I attended the dedication of the library in November 1964, when I was a junior (and either on crutches or using a cane in the aftermath of a knee operation). What I remember most was David Rockefeller’s charm and wit, nicely captured in Ellwood Carter’s report in the BDH. Strangely, I barely remember using the John Hay Library (except when as a senior those of us taking Peter McGrath’s course on constitutional law went there to examine allegedly pornographic material then the subject of a Supreme Court case) but I certainly have lots of memories of the Rock. Two stand out. Later in my junior year I wrote a paper for Philip Leis’s course on religions of non-literate people using monographs kept in the Rock. It was my first real experience of not merely reading such scholarly work but really trying to interpret it in light of the issue I was examining. The other memory is much more personal: sometime during my senior year I discovered a couple stunning family secrets simply by studying a few of the multitude of directories of various organizations and institutions held in the library. I still feel a shiver of excitement whenever I set foot in a great library.

The above quote is from Nicole Israel (Class of 2000). Read the full memory below:

I spent so many hours in the Absolute Quiet Room (absqui, as we called it). And while I followed the rules and was indeed absolutely quiet, I couldn’t help but notice all of the absolutely quiet non-verbal communications that existed in that room…the eying, the gestures, the aggressive coughing. Though probably my most meaningful memory was the day I finally finished Ulysses there….such an exuberant ending in such a quiet room! I might have let out my own aggressive cough just to appropriately punctuate the moment.

The above quote is from Judy Finkelstein Kashtan (Class of 1974). Read the full memory below:

I have so many fond memories of the long hours I spent at the Rock … I probably spent more hours there over four years than anywhere else on campus …studying (or sleeping) in the reading rooms in one of the prized chairs that faced the windows, looking out at a view of Providence … looking up words in the large dictionary on the pedestal while stealing surreptitious glances on a crush … nights working at the student run coffee shop hidden back in the stacks … walking out with leftover doughnuts and cookies at the end of the night … sitting in “my carrell” in the stacks with endless flashcards of organic chemistry flashcards. Although I sometimes studied in the new-at-that-time sky-high-sci-li, it was soulless and cold. The Rock was the heart of the campus for me and revisiting it during reunions was like visiting a treasured old friend.

The above quote is from Richard Barlow (Class of 1971). Read the full memory below:

We were requested to stop referring to the library as “The Rock”. After the students started calling it “The John”, “The Rock” became acceptable.

The above quote is from Andy Miller (Class of 1975). Read the full memory below:

I noticed one day when I was on my way into the Rock that there was a big yellow inflated Chiquita banana hanging over the checkout desk with a checkout card attached to it. So on my way out I asked the staff at the desk whether I could check it out and they said yes. I checked the banana out and had it on a table in my dorm room for a week or so when the inevitable happened. I was making myself a sandwich and the knife slipped and sliced into the banana, which deflated. I went looking for a replacement and when I couldn’t find one, I was so mortified that I didn’t bring the banana back to the library when it was due. When I got a late notice I finally confessed and told them what had happened. Within a few days I got another notice from the front desk that said “Wanted, dead or alive.”

The above quote is from an anonymous member of the Class of 1989. Read the full memory below:

Rockefeller Library brings back many fond memories of me cramming for film and history classes and discovering new ideas and alternative world views. It was also a place of great self-discovery and an occasional location for some inappropriate “PDA” for me and my then girlfriend. Rock on Rockefeller Library. Rock on!!