The Library Door
Simpson, James Alexander, 1805-1880.
Oil on wooden panel. Georgetown, ca. 1831. 33.75 x 29.5 inches. The surviving fragment of the painted door created by Simpson, Georgetown's first teacher of fine arts, for the "new" college library in the Old North Building. Names of Jesuits then teaching at Georgetown grace the folio tomes on the bottom shelf, each allied to the person's academic specialty; the florid penmanship of James Van de Velde, S.J., the librarian, is no doubt the reason for his "authorship" of the tome on calligraphy.