Los Angeles Public Library, South Facade

This side of the building faces Hope Street. The reliefs and figures are by Lee Lawrie. The following is a description from the "Hand Book of the Central Building Los Angeles Public Library", published in 1927, pp. 17-18: "...the light of learning, is the theme of the sculptural decorations and of the inscriptions which adorn the library building. The key to the whole plan is the ray-encircled book above the terrace entrance on the south front, upon which from Psalms 119:105 in the Latin of the Vulgate are the words, "Lucerna pedibus meis...lumen semitis meis," (a lamp to my feet...a light to my paths). Directly below the book is a panel bearing the inscription: "In the world of affairs we live in our own age; in books we live in all ages"....Flanking the image of the book, on either side of the lintel of the doorway, are two beautifully engaged images, to the left Reflection, or the Thinking, to the right Expression, or the Writer. For the first of these the sculptor has taken his inspiration from Greek art...for the second, his motive is the Egyptian scribe..."

To: Public Art in the Los Angeles Public Library and the Maguire Gardens