Elizabeth M. Cudahy Memorial Library

Elizabeth M. Cudahy Memorial Library Soundex Code C300

On the campus of Loyola University Chicago.

6525 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60626

Named for Elizabeth M. Cudahy, the wife of Edward Cudahy.

The Elizabeth M. Cudahy Memorial Library (dedicated: June 8, 1930) was designed by Architect Andrew N. Rebori of the architectural firm of Rebori, Wentworth, Dewey and McCormick. In contrast to the classical style of other buildings on the Loyola University Chicago Lake Shore campus, Rebori designed an Art Deco building. The library is constructed of concrete and structural steel with an exterior of limestone. The interior walls consist of Mankato stone.

A highlight of the Cudahy Library is the main reading room. A concrete monolithic arched ceiling, stained glass windows throughout by Giannini and Hilgart, and a mural by artist, John Warner Norton (1876-1934). This noted Chicago artist, who also taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is known for his mural such as Ceres (1930) in the Chicago Board of Trade Building and for collaborating with architects such as William Holabird, John Wellborn Root, Jr., and Frank Lloyd Wright. His mural painting on the west wall of the library reading room was conceived as "a pictorial cartographical record of Jesuit missionary activity in the Great Lakes region and the Upper Mississippi Valley during the 17th Century and 18th Century."

The original ornate exterior features a Frieze of Latin names of subject of study. Located over the doors of the main entrance (south side of the building) is a bronze sunburst symbolizing that books are the morning light to those seeking knowledge. To the left of the doors is a tower with a Sundial inscribed with Ad maiorem Dei gloriam (A.M.D.G.), the Jesuit motto, "For the greater glory of God." The original layout of the library consisted of one level with five floors of stack decks.