This collection was processed by Zachary Brodt in September 2021.
Transferred to the University Archives by the Nationality Rooms Program in 2014.
Efforts to create a Romanian classroom in the Cathedral of Learning began in 1928 when a group of Romanian students at the University of Pittsburgh formed a committee that appealed to the Romanian government to support building the room. The following year, Pitt student Ionel Ionescu presented the room idea to Queen Marie and Romanian Prime Minister Iuliu Maniu while Western Pennsylvania's Romanian community organized a formal room committee to begin fundraising efforts. At the time, there were about 2,700 Romanian immigrants in Allegheny County of diverse religious affiliations including Orthodox, Byzantine, Baptist, and Jewish. In 1930, architects George Cantacuzino and N. Ghică-Budeşti began to collaborate on the room's design in Bucharest. The Great Depression slowed progress on the room's development, but the early success of the financial campaign ensured that it would be built.
In 1935 new Romanian students pushed for the formation of a new committee led by Pompiliu Popescu to complete fundraising and construction of the room. Meanwhile, Ruth Crawford Mitchell visited Bucharest to create a committee there and work with Ghică-Budeşti to complete the room's design, but reports from the committee in Romania ceased with the onset of World War II. As a result, the committee sought to acquire donations from the Romanian Pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair in New York and the Romanian Parliament approved the idea in November 1940. University architect Albert Klimcheck worked to incorporate the gifts into Ghică-Budeşti's designs. The Romanian Room was dedicated on May 16, 1943. Clergy from the Eastern Orthodox Rite and Byzantine Greek Catholic Rite participated in the ceremony, as did Metropolitan Opera singer Madame Stella Roman.
The Romanian Room is modeled after a Romanian Orthodox Monastery. A mosaic depicting Constantin Brâncoveanu, Prince of Wallachia, by ceramist Nora Steriade of Bucharest is embedded in the rear wall and wrought iron gates create an alcove separating the windows from the rest of the room. The lectern is modified from those used in an Eastern Orthodox church and religious icons frame the blackboard. The chairs were designed in Romania and carved using pocketknives.
This material is organized in groupings of records based on the Committee's original arrangement.
The Romanian Nationality Room Committee Collection contains correspondence, meeting minutes, and a chronological list of activities called Running Memos that document the progress of the development and construction of the Romanian Room in the Cathedral of Learning. The collection also includes a book listing donors to the room's construction, as well as photographs of architectural influences and conceptual drawings, the room dedication ceremony, and details of the completed room.
Romanian Nationality Room Committee Collection, 1927-1953, UA.40.18, University Archives, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
The University of Pittsburgh holds the property rights to the material in this collection, but the copyright may still be held by the original creator/author. Researchers are therefore advised to follow the regulations set forth in the U.S. Copyright Code when publishing, quoting, or reproducing material from this collection without the consent of the creator/author or that go beyond what is allowed by fair use.
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Ruth Crawford Mitchell Papers, 1914-1980, UA.90.F12, University Archives, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
Nationality Rooms- Romanian, University of Pittsburgh Archives Information Files, University Archives, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
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