DESCRIPTION
Harry Reese created Gifts of a Lifetime as a celebration of the gifts from the community that were established with the opening of Pasadena's original public library in 1884. The artist made four panels of bookshelves to represent the four Pasadena libraries. The painted books within the bookshelf façade adorning the upper ledge of the street facing building suggest the establishment of a social and intellectual community, the foundations and cohesion of present education, and the desire for continued learning. The artist painted three hundred and twenty-nine books, each a different color to symbolize the current world population, reinforcing the idea of community.