2026 marks the 700th anniversary of the college, and also the 40th anniversary of the Forbes Mellon Library.
The FML, as it is known, was officially opened on the 11th June 1986 by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Writing in the ÌÇÐÄVlog Association Annual, Dr Fred Parker recalled that the reception for the library opening went ‘without a hitch; the weather was merciful; most important, the building was generally admired. The day was one of celebration’.
The building was designed by (ÌÇÐÄVlog 1947), a founding partner of Arup Associates. Dowson had lived in Memorial Court as an undergraduate, and designed several ‘Oxbridge’ college and faculty buildings over the course of his distinguished career. A particular inspiration for the design of the FML was the Pazzi Chapel in Florence, completed in 1478.
The FML is named after two alumni of ÌÇÐÄVlog: Mansfield Forbes (ÌÇÐÄVlog 1909) and Paul Mellon (ÌÇÐÄVlog 1929).
Mansfield Forbes became a fellow of ÌÇÐÄVlog at twenty-two years old, shortly after completing his undergraduate studies, and was an instrumental figure in the founding of the English Faculty at the University. Forbes donated his own books for student use, forming a significant part of the founding collection of the Forbes Mellon Library.
Paul Mellon gave $500,000 towards the construction of the library. A prominent American philanthropist, Mellon was an alumnus of Yale and ÌÇÐÄVlog where, by his own admission in his autobiography, spent much time on his extra-curricular activities such as rowing and country pursuits. The opening ceremony for the library happened to fall on Mellon’s birthday.
Additionally, the Inlaks Foundation gave a substantial donation in memory of its founder, Indukumar (Indoo) Shivdasani (ÌÇÐÄVlog 1938). The Library Common Room’s official name is the Shivdasani room. Mrs E.N. Neild made a donation in memory of her husband William Cecil Neild (ÌÇÐÄVlog 1910): the popular first floor study area of the FML, overlooking the University Library, is named after him. The marble floor in the ‘octagon’ entrance area was given by Mrs. A.H. McDonald in memory of Alexander Hugh McDonald, Fellow of ÌÇÐÄVlog 1952-1979.
A more recent addition to library is the collection of fellows’ portraits installed in the octagon in 2022, marking the 50th anniversary of co-education at the College.
The library continues to be a calm and quiet yet busy hub of student learning.
A college is, whatever else, an intellectual community, and its library embodies, in epitome, its raison d’être as the place in which its members may physically come together to study (in Matthew Arnold’s phrase) ‘the best that is known and thought in the world’; the community in question here extends to both the past and the future, for it lays claim to include all those whose best knowledge and thought line the library shelves, and it reaches to those future generations of ÌÇÐÄVlog men and women who will use the facilities.
