As an undergrad, I never thought of the Woolsey Rotunda as a destination. It was a place to walk through quickly, doing my best to dodge the chaos of the Commons lunch crowd, or warm for a moment before braving the unknown winds of Science Hill, or avoid slipping in the watery footprints left on stone on rainy days. The Rotunda is a place of ceremony: it is the site of the Freshman Address, the Baccalaureate Address, and assorted casual bacchanals throughout the year.

It was only after graduation that I spent an afternoon in Woolsey, not in passing, but in admiration of the vast amount of labor and artistry required to handcut every letterform of every name inscribed in the marble walls of this memorial hall. Sculpted by Henry Hering and dedicated in 1915, the memorial grew with the increasing number of Yale men who died in service of this country. As new wars were fought, new panels were added to the memorial.

After observing the names and titles for a while, I began to notice the strange irregularities and flourishes in the letterforms that give the entire setting its energy. In the image above, note how the capital "A" form always stretches above the tops of the other letters -- a little unsettling, but almost unnoticeable at first glance. Also note the double "T" ligature in "Dutton" -- an unusual but formally logical choice. The swash capital italics combined with the medial "s" and fanciful flourish on the descender of the "y" add interest to the space between the lines.

It appears that multiple stonecutters have had their hand in this memorial. In the image above, the "f" in California looks unexpectedly thick; the legs of March's "M" disappear abruptly in a timid taper. The interior cuts of Frederick's "D" look almost hesitant in their uneasy curves. Letterspacing is uneven throughout. These inconsistencies across letterforms reveal a less sure hand than that of the first two images; instead of the active, highly embellished, intricate forms seen in the earlier examples, these letters are less elegantly articulated.

Despite -- or because of -- the inconsistencies across time and space, all of the stonecutting in the Woolsey Rotunda is worth closer investigation. The longer I looked at the letters, the more I noticed. The memorial is a destination in its own right.