Blog Posts by Subject: Geography

Digital Schomburg's online exhibitions on various aspects of the black experience have truly become a global phenomenon. They are attracting visitors from all over the world. From Argentina to Zimbabwe and Montenegro and the Maldives in between. What do they know that perhaps you don't?

As New Yorkers get ready for Back to School this week, I'll be loading the trunk of my car with library books and heading off with my family for our own version of school.

We call it "homeschooling at the library." With a library card and our library books, we can take our school anywhere. Next week it will be to New Hampshire and Maine.

Something MAPnificent is happening at Mulberry Street Library through August 27, 2012. MAPnificent features paintings, works on paper and sculpture that reflect the artists' concerns for the current state of our society, conveyed though charts and diagrams, and their admiration of the map as a symbol of longing and the unknown. Includes works by Elaine Angelopoulos, Joseph Burwell, Marie Christine Katz, Paul Fabozzi, Peter J. Hoffmeister, Alastair Nobel, and Amy Pryor.

On view at Mulberry Street Library through August 27th is the multi-artist collaboration called MAPnificent. MAPnificent features paintings, works on paper and sculpture that reflect the artists' concerns for the current state of our society, conveyed though charts and diagrams, and their admiration of the map as a symbol of longing and the unknown. 

In 2010, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded The New York Public Library's Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division a three-year grant for its New York City Historical Geographic Information Systems project, which builds digital cartographic resources from NYPL's historical paper map and atlas collections.

Fresh from my mid-winter cruise, and a bit disappointed because the ship did not make one of its appointed stops in the Cayman Islands due to stormy weather, I was looking for something new to read, especially if it had to do with travel. Back on terra firma, and ignoring my "For Later" shelf (books to read later), a feature which I use on the New York Public Library's newly acquired interface to the catalog, Bibliocommons, I picked up Paul Theroux's The Tao of Travel. In it, he surveys travel writings and includes excerpts from a variety of writers, including the essayist and novelist, Pico Iyer. A short time after completing Theroux's book, I happened to 

When socialite Rose de Rose accompanied her mother on the 1928 round-the-world cruise aboard Empress of Australia, it was one of Canadian Pacific’s most luxurious vessels. By the 1920s, Canadian Pacific had diversified from rail travel to launching its own fleets of ships — first for the movement of goods, and then for travel and leisure. The very popular round-the-world cruises were offered on its three luxury ships — the Empress of Britain, the Empress of Canada, and the Empress of Australia.

Hope your school year is off to a great start! Below, you'll find a list of resources which offer background information in a variety of formats about the geography, history, and culture of New York City. We hope these highlights get your second graders thinking about their community, New York City, and maybe even a bit beyond. Feedback is greatly appreciated. Feel free to leave comments and suggestions below!

I had not slept for 34 hours. After a bad flight and two long bus trips, I was hiking, ecstatic, in a muddy mine. I touched the walls from top to bottom. Perhaps “he” had put his hands there too. I was walking in the steps of Galanga, renamed Francisco, and known as Chico Rei (King Chico).

Crystal clear, turquoise water. White powdery sand. Intoxicating rum punch.

Second degree sunburn.

What do all these things have in common? Just a smattering of experiences I recently acquired during a six-day trip to Barbados.

The Maine of my imagination finally became a reality this summer, with a brief road trip to the land of many lobster.

After the fourth hour of highway driving towards our destination, entertainment hit a plateau. "What's the state motto of Maine?" I wondered aloud to my co-pilot.

Are you ready to fall in love? Last summer, I put together the romance booklist Summer is for Lovers, full of sun, sand, and moonlit make-out sessions. This summer, in honor of the Summer Reading theme, “One World, Many Stories,” I am taking the romance overseas. I have created a list of globe-trotting books filled with hot foreign boys, romantic strolls along the Seine in Paris, seductive swims in the Mediterranean Sea, and rooftop make-out sessions in the English countryside. So put away that suntan lotion and get out your passport, because it’s time for some foreign encounters.

“Spring Learning Celebration Tonight!” reads a handmade sign in the Tompkins Square Library’s Center for Reading and Writing. Paper flowers decorate the folding tables, and green and yellow streamers festoon windows and bookshelves. The first student arrives two hours early, toting two huge aluminum trays of macaroni salad. “Can I leave this here for the celebration?” she says, depositing the heavy trays on a table.

Twice a year, each of the eight Centers for Reading and Writing hosts a Learning Celebration, a night for adult literacy students and volunteer tutors to come together, read and share writing, receive the newest issue of the student 

Regina Spektor's music, summer nights, and NYC are intertwined inside of me. As the air grows warm, I find myself listening to her music as she sings of summer in the city and selling butterflies on street corners. This summer, I am attending my first American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans. I am bursting with pure joy to visit such a literary and musical city while attending my first professional conference. I have had a few summers in this city, and now I am ready to experience a small slice of another. 

When Ginny Blackstone received 13 little blue envelopes last summer, she recognized them for what they were: a wild adventure laid out by her Aunt Peg — Ginny’s wildly interesting relative who could never do anything the simple, mundane way.

Something interesting happened when I started working at the Children's Center at 42nd Street in July 2010. I have lived in New York for over 13 years and up until last summer, I could count on one hand the number of times someone has recognized my accent. People would often say "you're not from here," but they could not place me on a map. I now have customers commenting on my Canadian accent on a weekly basis. I always laugh and ask them what tipped them off since I do not say "eh." The word "about" gives me away every time.

The first Saturday of May is approaching, and with it comes derby day in Louisville, Kentucky, the city where I was born. It's a time when celebrities flock to town, the bars stay open all night, and the nation focuses on Louisville for the two minutes the Kentucky Derby takes to run. These books, films, and recording artists will give you a little bit of Kentucky any time of year.

Sometimes it isn't about the destination. Here's a list of all things that take me on a mental trip across America's highways.  

Sick of NYC’s cold weather?  Got the traveling bug in you?  Why not stop by the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building to check out our latest travel magazines for the newest tips, trips, and activities abroad?  With over 100 international, regional and local traveling magazines, the DeWitt Wallace Periodicals Division can help you plan your next destinations!