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La Trobe Reading Room online jigsaw puzzle

Heritage wooden desks and chairs in the La Trobe Reading Room
19 September 2020

We've turned five of our favourite State Library Victoria images into online, customisable puzzles - just in time for school holidays!

Choose your desired level of difficulty for this puzzle by changing the number of pieces.

La Trobe Reading Room

When asked to name their favourite space in the State Library, most visitors nominate the glorious La Trobe Reading Room. Opened in 1913, the magnificent octagonal reading room is six storeys high and can house 32,000 books and 320 readers at its desks.

When it was built, the enormous reinforced-concrete structure was the largest in the world. Known as the Domed Reading Room until it was refurbished and reopened in 2003, the building is an architectural feat.

The upper galleries were originally serviced by spiral metal staircases, which can still be seen in the corners of the room. The reading room is a quiet space for study, with radiating reading desks featuring their trademark green glass light shades and original silky oak chairs.

Levels four and five house the permanent exhibitions World of the book and The changing face of Victoria. A viewing platform on level six offers a fabulous panorama of the dome and the reading room below.

Target audience: nine to 12 years old.

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