Douglas Strain Reading Room
The Douglas Strain Reading Room in the Special Collections & Archives Research Center houses the History of Science book collection. The reading area offers a pleasant environment for researchers and visiting scholars. The spacious floor is made of giant timber bamboo from Central Northern China and the furniture is of white maple.
Douglas Strain Reading Room
The floor to ceiling windows provide an expansive view of Oregon State University's library quadrangle and the surrounding campus.
Douglas Strain Reading Room
The Special Collections & Archives Research Center provides two large worktables with network and power connections for researchers.
Linus Pauling's Office
Viewable from the Strain Reading Room is an area containing items from Linus Pauling's office at the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, including his desk and chalkboard. Hanging on the walls are other items including a panoramic image of Pauling's Caltech office, a portrait of Ava Helen Pauling, and a special keepsake from the United States Postal Service marking the release of the Pauling postage stamp in March 2008.
Linus Pauling's Office
Linus Pauling's desk and chalkboard, with Pauling's drawing of a "mystery molecule." When Pauling was asked in a 1977 interview about the origins of this drawing, he responded as follows:
Linus Pauling's Office
"I had an idea in the field of organic chemistry about 40 years ago. It involved this unusual compound. Benzine has a six-membered ring of carbon atoms and this compound has three six-membered rings consisting of six carbon atoms and seven nitrogen atoms and then it has these hydroxyl groups attached. It is known that the similar substance with only one ring can be made into certain derivatives that have anti-cancer activity. And I thought that this substance with only three rings might well operate in the same way and that we should study it."
Linus Pauling's Office
A close-up of Linus Pauling's desk, showing a research notebook, molecular model, lab coat and other equipment.
Linus Pauling's Office
A close-up of one of Pauling's many research notebooks. View all the notebooks in more detail at our Linus Pauling Research Notebooks site.
All photographs, except Reading Room #1 and Closed Stacks #3, are by Eric Arnold, 2003.
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