branching off of it. The Salomon Room branches off the McGraw Rotunda to the east. To the west is the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room, which leads into the large Rose Main Reading Room. Unlike on the first and second stories, the main north–south corridor does not span the entire length of the third floor, as there are offices on either end. McGraw Rotunda The McGraw Rotunda (formerly Central Hall), despite its name, is a rectangular barrel-vaulted space. The rotunda measures three bays wide from north to south and two bays wide from west to east. On the north and south walls, the western bay is occupied by the main corridor, while the eastern bay contains stairs from Astor Hall. The Public Catalog Room is to the west, and the Salomon Room is to the east. The entrances to both rooms are flanked by freestanding marble pedestals; the Salomon Room also contains a pair of bronze double doors with carved panels. The floors are made of Hauteville and Gray Siena marble. The rotunda's walls contain red marble bases with dark wood piers, topped by a Corinthian entablature with dentils and modillions. The piers support a plaster or stucco barrel vault. On the north and south ends of the barrel vault are glazed semicircular windows. There are alcoves on the side walls, supported by columns with Corinthian capitals, which were intended to contain murals. The rotunda contains a set of panels painted by Edward Laning in the early 1940s as part of a WPA project. The work includes four large panels, two lunettes above doorways to the Public Catalog and Salomon Rooms, and a ceiling mural painted on the barrel vault. The four panels are located on the east and west walls and depict the development of the written word. The lunette above the Public Catalog Room's doorway is "Learning to Read", and the lunette about the Salomon Room's doorway is "The Student". The ceiling mural is called "Prometheus Bringing Fire to Men". The four panels and two lunettes were completed in 1940, and the ceiling mural was completed in 1942. Rose Main Reading Room The Main Branch's Deborah, Jonathan F. P., Samuel Priest, and Adam R. Rose Main Reading Room, officially Room 315 and commonly known as the Rose Main Reading Room, is located on the third floor of the Main Branch. The room is with a ceiling measuring about