arts&life

PHOTO BY SAM SKLAR

books

Arts&Letters

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A tour guide

co-authors a guided

tour of the historic

and exquisite

Detroit Public Library.

details

Barbara Madgy Cohn will sign
copies of The Detroit Public
Library: An American Classic 3-7
p.m. Thursday, June 8, at the
House on Main, Royal Oak. (313)
481-1358; wsupress.wayne.edu/
books/detail/Detroit-public-library.

TOP: Frederick J. Wiley designed
the barrel-vaulted ceiling above
the Grand Staircase.

34

June 1 • 2017

O

n a snowy January day,
Barbara Madgy Cohn
was preparing for a tour
group at the Detroit Institute of
Arts. It was 2013, and she had
been a docent for five years.
When Cohn learned that the
group had cancelled, she decid-
ed to explore some different
artistic territory and headed
across the street to the Detroit
Public Library.
Cohn, a retired nurse with a
bachelor’s degree in art history,
wanted to get a full look at the
art and architecture the library
showcased. She asked about a
tour and was told none existed.
Touring on her own, she
admired the building design,
wall murals, fixtures and win-
dow treatments. Cohn came up
with an idea.
“I set up a meeting with
Patrice Rafail Merritt, executive
director of the Detroit Public
Library Friends Foundation,”
recalls Cohn, a member of

jn

Women on the steps of the library in 1921

the Jewish Historical Society
of Michigan. “I asked if she’d
like me to work on setting up
art and architectural tours,
and that’s how the program
started.”

With research, the initiative
grew to three public tours a
month and special tours for
groups — and now offers 18
docents, including Cohn.
“At the end of many tours,

people would ask if there was a
book available on the subject,
so Patrice and I decided to
develop one,” says Cohn, who
has set up a series of meetings
to introduce The Detroit Public
Library: An American Classic
(Wayne State University Press;
$34.99), which was recently
published.
The next meeting will fea-
ture book signings by Cohn
and impromptu discussions
of the content. It runs 3-7 p.m.
Thursday, June 8, at the House
on Main in Royal Oak. Marcy
Feldman and Judy Weiner, both
active with library programs,
will co-host the event.
“The book is completely
based on the tour,” says Cohn,
who enlisted the help of 18
volunteer photographers. The
pages cover the history of how
the library came to be and
describe each area, moving
from the entrance, through
the grand staircase and into