| Why is the library named after Dr. Oliver Wendell
Holmes?
Thomas Cochran, a major academy benefactor,
selected the name for the library to honor the famous physician
and poet, who was a member of the Phillips Academy Class of
1825. Much of Dr. Holmes's personal library, including songs,
medical papers, essays and poems, is contained in our Special
Collections. Dr. Holmes developed the popular model of
the stereoscope, a nineteenth-century entertainment in which
pictures appear three-dimensional. The first stereoscope which
he built with cardboard and an awl handle, received conservation
treatment in 1992 and is held in our Special Collections along
with stereoptic views.
Dr. Holmes's son, Supreme Court Justice Oliver
Wendell Holmes, Jr., did not attend Phillips Academy.
For questions about the writings of Doctor
Holmes, consult the OWHL's Special Collections.
Why is a chambered nautilus used as
a symbol for the library, and what do the words Per ampliora
ad altiora mean on the bookplate?
The chambered nautilus, a marine snail
whose shell grows as it does, has become for us a symbol of
the life-long learning the library represents. The words "per
ampliora ad altiora" mean "through breadth to depth." Dr.
Holmes used the chambered nautilus on his own bookplate.
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