Access to the College Green area of campus will be restricted until further notice. Current students, faculty and staff with a valid Penn card may enter and exit Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center through the Rosengarten Undergraduate Study Center on the ground floor, and may enter and exit the Fisher Fine Arts Library through the 34th Street entrance to Meyerson Hall. 

During reading period, April 30 to May 14: Access to both Van Pelt and Fisher Fine Arts Library is limited. Find more information.

Home Link Icon

Arthur H. Lea Library Endowment Fund and Lea Library Maintenance Fund

Henry Charles Lea (1825-1909), Philadelphia publisher and civic reformer, was also America's first distinguished historian of the European middle ages, focusing on institutional, legal, and ecclesiastical history, as well as magic and witchcraft. His library became a specialized working collection out of which Lea wrote his History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages (1888), History of the Inquisition of Spain (1906-1908), and other studies.

The room holding his collection, built in 1881 as an extension to his house at 2000 Walnut Street, was conveyed to the University in 1926 by Lea's children, Arthur H. Lea and Nina Lea. Arthur H. Lea further endowed the Lea collections with a generous bequest. Both the room and Lea's collection are part of the Penn's Kislak Center.