The Low Memorial Library of Columbia University was built in 1895 by University President Seth Low as the University's central library. Financed with $1 million of Low's own money due to the recalcitrance of university alumni (a recurring problem throughout the university's history), he named it in memory of his father, Abiel Abbot Low. "Neither low nor a library," (as described by a popular quip) however, it has housed the central administrative offices of the university ever since the completion of the Butler Library in 1934, and is the focal point and most prominent building on the university's Morningside Heights campus.The steps leading to the library's columned facade are a popular meeting place for Columbia students as well as home to Daniel Chester French's sculpture, Alma Mater, a university symbol. Low Library was officially named a New York City landmark in 1967, with the interior being designated in 1981, then a National Historic Landmark twenty years later.
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