Image
Title

Art in the Library

Sections
library tympanum

Tympanum over the Historic Main Entrance

Designed by Carleton Winslow and executed by Marshall Laird in 1924, the Tympanum over the historic main entrance was completed seven years after the library opened (1917). Features include the City of Santa Barbara’s Coat of Arms and the figures Plato and Aristotle, surrounded by shields from famous libraries: University of Bologna (Italy), the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the University of Salamanca (Spain), and the Bodleian Library at Oxford University in England.

  • The tympanum was restored by Joseph Knowles in 1962; the figures Plato and Aristotle were restored by Nathan Zakheim in 1979.
  • Learn more about the tympanum

 Faulkner Memorial Art Gallery - Sunburst Over California Poppies

Designed by Myron Hunt and H.C. Chambers of Los Angeles, the Faulkner Memorial Art Gallery opened on October 15, 1930. Funds to build the art gallery were donated by Mary Faulkner Gould and the land was donated by Clarence A. Black. The architect, Myron Hunt, also designed La Arcada, the Huntington Library, and many other prominent buildings in Southern California. John Gamble designed the Egyptian Sunburst Poppies over the Gallery Entrance.