Carnegie Endowment for International Peace with financial assistance from the Carnegie Corporation of New York sponsored reconstruction of various cultural landmarks in Europe, destroyed in World War I. These photographs document the rebuilding of the Reims library. Hotel de Ville, where the library had been housed before the War, burned to the ground in May 1917. Notre-Dame de Reims is visible on the background. The architect Max Sainsaulieu used the library buildings in the United States as inspiration for the new state-of-the-art building.