The excitement in the Woodson yesterday mostly (but not completely) centered around the arrival of new chairs for our conference table. And very handsome chairs they are too:

What’s actually important, of course, is not the chairs, lovely and comfortable as they are, but the table itself. It’s an antique, made of beautiful heavy oak and ornately carved at the posts:

It was original equipment in Dr. Lovett’s office. It’s easy to imagine him sitting there, doing big business:

Dr. Edgar Odell Lovett’s presidential office in Lovett Hall (Administration Building), Rice Institute

We were lucky enough to get this table when in the course of shifting people around for various inscrutable purposes some folks were given space in Lovett Hall and had no need for it. I don’t know what they were thinking but I’m glad that it has found a home where it will be used and loved. The new chairs really work with it too. We’re so cool in the archives I can hardly stand it.

Bonus: Excuse the finger!