Hill Memorial Library, Baton Rouge

Hill Memorial Library is the historical library on the Louisiana State University campus. It was the first library built for LSU in 1903. John Hill, Sr., a Scottish-born sugar planter, provided funding for the library in memory of his son, John Hill, Jr.

Before Hill Memorial Library was built, the library operated in a powder magazine of a former U.S. Arsenal. The newly built library housed 60,000 volumes and had seating for 375 students. Within 30 years, the library had more than 200,000 volumes, which required additional library branches on campus.

Many volumes and manuscripts were removed from Hill Memorial Library in the mid-20th century when the new Louisiana State University Library was built. Hill Memorial Library became home to the LSU press and the architecture department. It also held a psychology clinic and a photocopying center.

In the 1980s, Hill Memorial Library was reorganized to hold special collections, which required massive renovations, including climate control, a new gallery space, and a lecture hall. Some unique and rare collections at Hill Memorial Library are several books from the first 50 years of printing, an atlas by Ptolemy, first editions from John Donne, and a Second Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, printed in 1632.