Clockwise from top: the Israel Heritage, Syria-Lebanon, and Chinese Nationality Rooms.

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of Pitt’s Nationality Rooms Program and to honor the many immigrants who contributed their time and hard-earned funds to create the 26 beautifully appointed classrooms and give them to the University, a celebration will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. June 11 in the Cathedral of Learning Commons Room.

In keeping with a time-honored Pittsburgh tradition, the celebration will feature the world’s most diverse “cookie table” with an assortment of delectable treats, including Indian Naan Khatai and Greek Kourabiedes baked by Nationality Rooms representatives. Copies of the cookie recipes also will be available. Chinese, Greek, Indian, Filipino, and Scandinavian dancers will perform, and various Nationality Rooms chairs and committee members will appear in national dress. The rooms will be open to visitors during the afternoon.

The Nationality Rooms Program, begun in 1926 under the direction of Ruth Crawford Mitchell, provided the spiritual and symbolic foundation for the 42-story Cathedral of Learning that houses the Nationality Rooms. A long-held dream of Pitt Chancellor John G. Bowman, the Gothic skyscraper has long been known as the world’s tallest schoolhouse. (Among higher-education facilities, only the main building of Russia’s Moscow State University is taller—and current Nationality Rooms Program Director E. Maxine Bruhns likes to point out that Moscow State’s skyscraper is topped by a decorative tower and spire. Based on inhabitable space, Pitt’s Cathedral actually is taller, she says.)

Top: His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, after blessing the design of the Indian Nationality Room, 1998. Middle, from left: H.R.H. Princess Ileana of Romania; unidentified man; Pitt Professor George Crouch; and Ruth Crawford Mitchell, founding director of the Nationality Rooms Program, 1953. Bottom, from left, in a 1968 photo: Hungarian Nationality Room Chair Samuel Gomory; Hungary’s Cardinal Josef Mindszenty; Albert C. VanDusen, currently Pitt vice chancellor emeritus; and E. Maxine Bruhns, current director of the Nationality Rooms Program. Mindszenty was a symbol of Catholic resistance to Nazism and communism in Hungary. Freed briefly during Hungary’s 1956 uprising from a life sentence to hard labor, Mindszenty sought asylum in the U.S. embassy in Budapest after the communists regained control. He lived in the embassy for 15 years before leaving Hungary in 1971 for Vienna, where he died in 1975.

Ground was broken for the Cathedral in 1926, but construction was delayed by the Depression, and the building would not be dedicated until 1937. Responding to an invitation by Bowman, nationality communities throughout the Pittsburgh area were asked to create classrooms that would represent highly creative periods or aspects of their heritage. Members of churches and schools, as well as fraternal, labor, and social organizations worked to finance the rooms and to present them as gifts to the University, where their descendents would be educated. The 26 Nationality Rooms that now encircle the Cathedral’s Commons Room were completed between 1938 and 2000.

Among the documents placed in the Cathedral’s cornerstone, set in 1937, is a copper plate engraved with a proclamation written by the Nationality Rooms committee chairs to the University. During the June 11 celebration, Bruhns—program director since 1966—and representatives from each room will participate in a rededication of this proclamation, which reads: “Faith and peace are in their hearts. Good will has brought them together. Like the Magi of ancestral traditions and the shepherds of candid simplicity, they offer their gifts of what is precious, genuine, and their own, to truth that shines forever and enlightens all people.”

Constructed of wood and glass, iron and stone, fabric, color, and words, the Nationality Rooms hold a treasure trove of original or reproduced pieces from each of the countries they represent. All room designs predate 1787, the year the University was founded.

Artifacts from Britain’s House of Commons, destroyed by bombing during World War II, grace the English Nationality Room, dedicated in 1952. The room includes the fireplace from the Aye Lobby framed by the original linen-fold paneling bearing the initials VR, for Victoria Regina. (The English Nationality Room contains more artifacts from the old House of Commons than does any other site in the world.)

The floor mosaic in the Israel Heritage Room, dedicated in 1987, replicates the festival symbols segment of the sixth-century mosaic in Israel’s Beth Alpha Synagogue. A few original tesserae from Beth Alpha were placed in the Eternal Light symbol of this mosaic.

The African Heritage Room, dedicated in 1988, is the first Nationality Room to represent a continent. Its design was inspired by an Asante temple courtyard in Ghana. Above the blackboard is a quotation by the queen of Sheba in Geez: “For I desire wisdom.” The entrance door features carvings from Africa’s ancient kingdoms of Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, Benin, Kongo/Angola, Kuba, Mali, and Zimbabwe.

The last completed classroom is the Indian Room, dedicated in 2000. The fourth- and fifth-century Buddhist Monastic University of Nalanda inspired the room’s design. The three murals reflect the admission of women to this ancient university.

To RSVP for the 80th anniversary event, call 412-624-6150.

Nationality Rooms

In 1926, ground was broken for the Cathedral of Learning. Keeping pace with the energy and idealism that gave form to this soaring structure was the University of Pittsburgh Nationality Rooms Program, directed by Ruth Crawford Mitchell. Pittsburgh’s ethnic communities raised funds and helped create these internationally famous Nationality Rooms as gifts to the University. Of museum quality, often designed by architects from the country they represent, the 26 classrooms incorporate Classical, Byzantine, Romanesque, Baroque, Renaissance, Tudor, Empire, Minka, and folk styles to recreate the countries’ cultures prior to 1787, the year Pitt was founded. Today, E. Maxine Bruhns directs the Nationality Rooms Program.

Existing Nationality Rooms

African Heritage (1989)
Armenian (1988)
Austrian (1996)
Chinese (1939)
Czechoslovak (1939)
Early American (1938)
English (1952)
French (1943)
German (1938)
Greek (1941)
Hungarian (1939)
Indian (2000)
Irish (1957)
Israel Heritage (1987)
Italian (1949)
Japanese (1999)
Lithuanian (1940)
Norwegian (1948)
Polish (1940)
Romanian (1943)
Russian (1938)
Scottish (1938)
Swedish (1938)
Syria-Lebanon (1941)
Ukrainian (1990)
Yugoslav (1939)

Planned Nationality Rooms

Danish
Finnish
Latin American / Caribbean
Philippine
Swiss
Thai
Turkish
Welsh