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A Self Guided Tour: Adult Services 

  • Main Floor (Floor 1 in Elevator)
  • ¼ of the Library Collection is dedicated to the Arts.
  • 90% of the tiles are original to the building itself, as is the wooden flooring
  • Shutters on the windows were added in the 1980s
  • The chandeliers are not original but were designed to replicate the appearance of the gas fixtures that would have once hung here.
  • Golden oak was used throughout the building for all woodwork
An ornate, oval, gold frame encases a vintage portrait of a woman in profile.

 

A collection of open books arranged in a grid-like pattern on a surface.

 

 

 

Col. Charles Harvey Denby 

1830-1904

  • He served as a U.S. Congressman and, during the Civil War, held the rank of Colonel in the 46th Indiana Volunteer Infantry.
  • One of Willard Carpenter’s friends and peers who encouraged him to establish a library rather than a women’s college. Rumor also suggests he may have served as Carpenter’s ghostwriter.
  • What is now Berry Plastics was once home to Cigar City, a company that even named a cigar after Charles Denby.
Louise Carpenter 

1843-1908

  • Portrait was donated by her grandsons
  • Passed away in Massachusetts
  • Was known to have a strained relationship with her father (Willard Carpenter)
  • In August 1896, she filed a lawsuit against Willard Library, claiming her father had been of unsound mind and unduly influenced when establishing the Library. The court ultimately ruled in the Library’s favor.
A portrait of a woman in a white dress with a pink flower in her hair, housed in an ornate gold frame.
Mary Elise Euler 

1930-1982

  • She donated one-fifth of her estate to Willard Library, along with her favorite portrait—a painting commissioned by her parents when she was 16 years old. A frequent patron, she was also an avid reader with a particular fondness for Westerns.