Coordinates: 40°26′40″N 79°57′12″W / 40.444426°N 79.953423°W / 40.444426; -79.953423
The Nationality Rooms are a collection of 27 classrooms in the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning depicting and donated by the ethnic groups that helped build the City of Pittsburgh. The rooms are designated as a Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation historical landmark and are located on the 1st and 3rd floors of the Cathedral of Learning, itself a national historic landmark , on the University of Pittsburgh's main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Although of museum caliber, twenty-five of the 27 rooms are in almost constant use as functional classrooms and utilized daily by University of Pittsburgh faculty and students, while the other two are display rooms which can be explored only via guided tour. The Nationality Rooms also serve in a vigorous program of intercultural involvement and exchange in which the original organizing committees for the individual rooms remain as participants and includes a program of annual student scholarship to facilitate study abroad. In addition, the Nationality Rooms inspire lectures, seminars, concerts exhibitions and social events which focus on the various heritages and traditions of the nations represented. The various national, traditional and religious holidays of the nations represented are celebrated on campus and the rooms are appropriately decorated to reflect these occasions.
History
The Nationality Room Program was founded by Ruth Crawford Mitchell at the request of Pitt Chancellor John Bowman in 1926 in order to involve the community as much as he could in constructing the Cathedral of Learning and to provide the spiritual and symbolic foundation of the Cathedral that what would make the inside of the building as inspiring and impressive as the outside. Under the direction under Mitchell, invitations were extended to the nationality communities that made up the Pittsburgh area to provide a room that was representative of their heritage. Each group had to form a Room Committee, which would be responsible for all fundraising, designing, and acquisition. The University provided the room and upkeep in perpetuity once completed, while all other materials, labor, and design were provided by the individual committees. These were sometimes partly provided for by foreign governments which, "...responded with generous support, often providing architects, artists, materials, and monetary gifts to assure authenticity and superb quality in their classrooms." Each room's detail is carefully designed and executed down to the switch plates, door handles, hinges, and wastebaskets and work is often performed and designed by native artists and craftsmen and involves imported artifacts and materials. Mitchell's remained as Director of the Nationality Rooms program until 1956 having oversaw the creation of the first 19 rooms on the first floor of the Cathedral. A successor for Mitchell wasn't named until 1965 when current Director E. Maxine Bruhns took over program so far overseeing the completion of eight additional rooms on the third floor.
A typical room on the 1st floor (those built between 1938 and the 1957) took between three and ten years to complete, and cost the equivalent of $300,000 USD in 2006 dollars, no small undertaking during the fundraising and construction of the initial rooms during the Great Depression and World War II. More recent rooms have cost in the range of $500,000 USD and up. Upon completion of their rooms, the committees turn to a program of intercultural exchange and fundraising for nationality rooms scholarships which enable University of Pittsburgh students and faculty to study abroad. The room committees also sponsor cultural and fund raising events, lectures, concerts, exhibits, social events, workshops on ethnic studies that may utilize the rooms. The committee may use its room for non-political meetings, lectures, or other functions if no classes are scheduled. Distinguished international visitors are received by the committees, and special projects are undertaken including the purchase of books for the University libraries, publication of volumes on topics from comparative literature to ethnic recipes, and the fostering of courses in the mother languages. National, traditional, and religious holidays are celebrated on campus and committees decorate their rooms or mount displays to commemorate special occasions.
The first four rooms to be dedicated were the Scottish, Russian, German, and Swedish Rooms in 1938.” The newest rooms are the Indian Room dedicated in 2000 and the Welsh Room dedicated in 2008.
Original plans also proposed, in addition to the Nationality Rooms on the first floor, the creation of "Pennsylvania" classrooms on the second floor to be dedicated to the pioneering groups within the state along with third floor "Pittsburgh" classrooms dedicated to showcasing the history of the Western Pennsylvania or different eras of American history. Although the plans for the series of rooms were drawn up, only one room in was installed, the Early American Classroom, and is now counted among the other Nationality Rooms. The plans for the other Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania rooms were never executed, and the Nationality Room program grew to occupy all of the first and much of the third floor.
Upon completion of a room, a dedication ceremony is held in which a formal presentation of a ceremonial key is presented to the University's Chancellor in order to symbolize the bestowal and acceptance of the gift with a commitment on behalf of the University to maintain the room in perpetuity. The particular nationality room committee's officers then become active members of the Nationality Council which focuses on providing summer study abroad scholarships for Pitt students along with other non-political cultural or educational events within the Nationality Program's scope. Today the Cathedral is home to 27 Nationality Rooms (twenty-five working classrooms and two display rooms), on the first and third floors. Each nationality room is designed to celebrate a different culture that had an influence on Pittsburgh's growth, depicting an era prior to 1787, the University's founding and the signing of the United States Constitution. Only one room does not follow this convention, with the French Classroom depicting the French Empire period of the early 1800s. There are currently eight additional rooms in the process of being approved and funded.
Set in the Cathedral of Learning's cornerstone in 1937 is a gift from the Nationality Room Committee chairpersons to the University: a copper plate engraved with these thoughts:
Since 1944, tours of the nationality rooms have been given to visitors by a Pitt student organization, Quo Vadis (meaning Where do you go? ); they guide over 40,000 tourists a year. An estimated 100,000 visitors, including self-guided and walk-in tourists, visit the Nationality Rooms each year.
Principles
The following principles, in order to assure commonality of purpose, authenticity, and non-political cultural emphasis, governed the creation of nationality rooms from the programs inception in 1926 until the completion of the Irish Classroom in 1957.
- A Nationality Room must illustrate one of the outstanding architectural or design traditions of a nation that is recognized as such by the United States Department of State.
- The design of a given historical period must be cultural and aesthetic, not political. The period depicted should be prior to 1787, the date of the United States Constitution, with emphasis on cultural roots.
- To avoid political implications in the room, no political symbol is permitted in the decorations, nor a portrait or likeness of any living person.
- The only place a political symbol may be used is in the corridor stone above the room's entrance.
- No donor recognition may appear in the rooms. Donor recognition to the rooms is recorded in a Donor Book.
- Most architects and designers of the rooms have been born and educated abroad. This has been instrumental in ensuring authenticity of design.
In the 1970s, policy revisions were implemented which retaining most of the earlier principles, utilized a broader definition of nation to include a body of people associated with a particular territory and possessing a distinctive cultural and social way of life. This allowed the creation of the Armenian and Ukrainian rooms prior to their establishment as independent nations following the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as allowing for the installation of the African Heritage Room.
The room must also be a functional teaching classroom with enough student tablet-armed seats, professor's le
Free Christmas Quilt and Block Patterns - Quilting
Christmas Tree Placemat - Another pattern for your table from Husqvana Viking. Wreath - 3" paper pieced quilt block from the World Wide Quilting Page.
Free Christmas Craft Patterns | Christmas Wreath Patterns | Crochet ...
Free Christmas Craft Patterns | Christmas Wreath Patterns ... We hope you find this selection of free Christmas patterns ... Quilt Information; Plastic Canvas Information; Yarn ...
Free Christmas Quilt Projects
Christmas Tree & Presents Block. Dove and Poinsettia Wreath ... Free Quilt Patterns A to B | Free Quilt Patterns ...
Christmas Quilt Patterns - Free Quilt Patterns - Christmas Quilts
This Christmas Stocking quilt block pattern is super easy, with just a few pieces ... moving in rigid stair-steps. The slight wreath-like appearance makes this an ideal Christmas quilt.
Country Angel Christmas Pattern-Quilt/Stocking/Wreath/+ - eBay (item ...
eBay: Find Country Angel Christmas Pattern-Quilt/Stocking/Wreath/+ in the Crafts , Sewing Fabric , Sewing , Sewing Patterns , Holiday Patterns category on eBay.
Christmas Wreath - applique pattern for quilting
Applique quilt pattern for a Christmas Holly Wreath with balls and ribbon. Easy to make instructions to brighten up any Christmas
Christmas Wreath Free Quilt Pattern
Free quilt block pattern for the Christmas Wreath Quilt.
PatrioticWreath.com | Patriotic Wreath | Wreath | Applique Quilt ...
VA Home Loan for Military Active Duty & Veterans Qualify for $0 Down ... Wreath; Applique Quilt Pattern; Christmas Craft Patterns; Patriotic Veterans Day
Free Christmas quilt patterns
50% off Fall Fundraiser - Free gift with donation of $20.00 $10.00 You'll ... Christmas Wreath Free quilt pattern: Applique
Christmas Quilt Patterns - Free Quilt Patterns for Christmas
Free quilt patterns for Christmas including quilts, dolls, angels, wall hanging and more. Christmas Wreath An elegant Christmas wall hanging that is easy to make from quick-cut ...