Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

June 7, 2022

Joe and Dale led us on a tour of the Yale University campus in New Haven. We started out at the Yale Center for British Art. The museum houses the largest collection of British Art outside the UK. It is in a building designed by Louis Kahn, the famous American architect, who taught at Yale in the forties and fifties.

There were a number of paintings by Marc Quinn on display. Apart from the paint splattered across it, it was almost impossible to tell that the following is, in fact, a realist painting and not a photograph. The original photograph, taken by Jonathan Bachman of Reuters, is called Taking a Stand in Baton Rouge. It is of Ieshia Evans being arrested during protests in 2016, following the shooting by police of Alton Sterling.

There was also a large exhibit of paintings by Bridget Riley. Many of the paintings were hard to look at without feeling somewhat dizzy. We got the sense that if we sat and looked at them long enough we were in danger of becoming hypnotized.

From the museum we set out on a stroll through the campus, guided by Joe, who had worked on a number of buildings at Yale. The original buildings on the campus were Georgian style. The brick building below called Connecticut Hall was built in 1750 and is the oldest building on campus. Standing outside the hall is a statue of Nathan Hale. Hale was a soldier and spy for the Americans during the Revolutionary War. He famously said “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”. Hale studied at Yale and, in fact, had a room is Connecticut Hall.

Now, most of the buildings on campus are Gothic Revival, and it is easy to imagine that you are in Cambridge or Oxford in England. Just as in those universities, Yale is divided into different colleges with their own residences built around private courtyards.

There were also a number of less traditional buildings, including this Brutalist gem. Designed by Paul Rudolph and completed in 1963, it houses the School of Architecture.

Our favorite was the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Designed by Gordon Bunschaft, its facade is constructed of translucent veined marble and granite. The marble is milled to a thickness of 1.25 inches, so that on a sunny day the marble transmits filtered daylight into the interior. The building surrounds an interior glass structure that protects the rare books and manuscripts.

The most famous book in the collection is one of the 49 surviving copies of the Gutenberg Bible, the earliest major book printed using mass-produced metal type. Although one has not been sold since 1978, the bibles are thought to be among the world’s most valuable books.

School had let out for the Summer, so there weren’t many students around. However, there were some out enjoying the sunny day.

Later that day we flew back into Washington DC, and were treated to some great views of the city.