William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Rare book library in West Adams, Los Angeles, US.
The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library is a rare book library in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles, set within a landscaped garden with Mediterranean Revival architecture. The brick building includes garden pavilions and is administered by the University of California, Los Angeles.
William Andrews Clark Jr. had the library built in the mid-1920s, assembling his book collection over many decades before the building was completed. He then donated both the property and the collection to the University of California so they would be kept together permanently.
The library is named after William Andrews Clark Jr., who built it to house the collection he had formed since the early 20th century alongside bibliophiles such as Henry E. Huntington and J. Paul Getty. UCLA's Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies, based here since 1985, organizes conferences, lectures and concerts in the building.
The library sits in the West Adams district, about 10 miles southeast of the UCLA campus and 2 miles west of the University of Southern California. It is administered by UCLA's Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies, which awards long- and short-term fellowships for graduate and postdoctoral scholars. Any reader with an interest in the collections may study there.
The library holds one of the largest collections in the world devoted to Oscar Wilde, covering photographs, portraits, caricatures, playbills, and historical press coverage. This concentration of materials on a single writer makes it one of the most focused research destinations for anyone studying Wilde's life and work.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,899 contributors worldwide.