The Book
How do you say “thank you” for a brand-new campus? Over 13,600 donors contributed to the 1924 campaign which raised the funds to build the River Campus, renovate buildings on the Prince Street Campus, and add to the rather meager endowment of the College of Arts and Science.
President Rush Rhees had heard of the “books of remembrance” that recorded the names of British soldiers killed in the first World War—he wanted something equally distinctive for the University’s donors, along with an inscription at the base of the Grand Staircase in Rush Rhees Library.
But where the Greater University Campaign lasted ten days, and the campus construction required three years, thirteen years would pass before the book was completed: if its existence had not literally been carved in stone, it might have been forgotten.
The Artists
Philipp Merz (1870-1946) was the designer for the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White and worked on the designs for the Eastman School of Music. A few years later he joined the Rochester architects, Gordon and Kaelber, on the River Campus project.
Evidence of Merz’s genius can be seen from the weathervane at the top of the library tower to the lampposts at the tunnel entrance, and throughout the library. He redesigned the University seal in 1928 to include the schools of music and medicine, and would design the University mace in 1935 for the inauguration of the fourth president, Alan Valentine.
Ruth E. Gutfrucht (1918-1993) was a native Rochesterian. A freelance designer, she graduated from what is now RIT, where she joined the faculty in 1941, just prior to beginning the calligraphy work on the Greater University Fund book.
According to correspondence in the Librarian’s files, she completed 160 pages of the book, primarily the list of contributors.
