French Nationality Room Cathedral of Learning University of Pittsburgh

During 1938-39-40, when the light of 'Liberté, Egalité, et Fraternité' was being extinguished, in a quiet room in the Cathedral of Learning there was being erected, stone by stone, panel by panel, a symbol that France and her great contributions to the stream of world civilization would never die.The Week that France was invaded, the coat of arms of the French Reoublic was carved on the stone shie

ld over the entrance to the room. All through those difficult days when alien armies were closing in upon French soil, the members of the French room were watching the emergence of this symbol of France and her enduring greatness. On January 23, 1943, during some of the darkest hours of French history, the key to the French room in the Cathedral of Learning was presented to the Chancellor of the University, and the French room was opened for daily use of faculty and students. The throng of visitors understood as they read inscribed upon the blackboard the fervent stanza's of Victor Hugo's poem:

C'est l'ange du jour;
l'espoir, l'amour
du coeur qui pense
Du monde enchanté,
c'est la clarté
son nom est France
ou Vérité! C'est l'ange de Dieu
dans le ciel bleu
son aile immense
Couvre avec fierté
l'humanité
son nom est France
ou Liberté