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Research Guides are guides to researching particular subject areas. Quick Guides contain brief introductions to the subject. Quick Guides are marked with an asterisk (*).
Listed here are basic and introductory reference sources to get you started in your research. All of these items are in the Art & Architecture Reading Room and are available whenever...
The New York Public Library has the largest publicly accessible collection in the Americas of materials related to the history of art. The majority of publications are located in the Art & Architecture Collection, but other works can be found throughout the Library’s...
The following is a guide to auction sale indexes, price guides and catalogs. Since individual auction houses do not issue their own indexes, the use of these compilations provides the best approach to finding sale information.
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The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library collect extensively in the field of biography and autobiography; the collections in this area represent nearly every historical period, geographical area, and occupation and vocation.
Book reviews provide summaries, contemporary criticism, and succinct evaluations about published works. Here are a few ways to track down reviews at the Library.
Book reviews provide summaries, contemporary criticism, and succinct evaluations about published works. Reviews normally...
A brief guide to appraising and evaluating antiquarian books and other literary properties through resources available in the Rose Main Reading Room, through the Selected Electronic Resources Menu, and online from home.
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The General Research Division, located in Room 315 of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, collects materials related to Christianity, as well as those areas of religion which impinge on other scholarly disciplines. The Library collects the writings of the principal Christian...
This research guide will focus on primary and secondary sources in the collection of the New York Public Library pertinent to the four voyages made by Columbus. It will also cover other Spanish explorations, Native American reactions, and the methodology for...
The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library are an important resource for the study of classics in the New York metropolitan area. In addition to retrospective holdings in the subject, NYPL has a strong collection of current classics materials, mostly in English,...
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!!! Comics and comic books are one of the most pervasive and influential media forms of 20th-century popular culture. A survey of current scholarly indexes demonstrates that researchers in the fields of history, sociology, and literature are...
This blog post will explore how to research and find historical comics at NYPL. Start by using the Library's online Catalog. Under keyword you can type any of the following:...
The literature of costume and fashion history is diverse in nature. The first printed books on the subject appeared in the sixteenth century. Illustrated surveys of historic costume blossomed in the late eighteenth century and reached a peak by the mid-to-late nineteenth century....
The field of food and cookery has always held a strong interest for The New York Public Library. The retrospective collection on gastronomy and the history of foods is unusually extensive, and the cookbook collection alone numbers well over 16,000 volumes. From the beginning, the...
Furniture; Glass and Stained Glass; Metalware; Rugs and Carpets
Introduction to the Collections
The study of decorative art objects is an old practice, but has accelerated during the 20th century, with the founding of...
The detective story originated in the mid-nineteenth century. Although its basic form has remained intact, the genre has branched into numerous subgenres: espionage, gothic, psychological suspense, police procedural, courtroom, whodunit, the conspicuously British drawing room...
The 800-volume Dictionary Catalog of the Research Libraries of the New York Public Library, 1911-1972, also known as the "black books" or "retrospective" catalog, contains records of books and periodicals acquired by the Library prior to 1972. It is a...
Two distinctive movements, now known as the Empire Style and the Regency Style, were born out of the formal Neoclassicism that dominated late eighteenth century European building and decoration. These styles were stimulated in large part by the bitter rivalry of France and England...
This research guide to the photographic process includes a glossery of terms, a timeline of photography, a bibliography and selected internet resources.
Glossary of Terms
Désiré Charnay, Grand Palais, Mitla albumen print, 1862
NYPL Digital...
Music Visualizations, Synchoric Orchestra dancing Schubert's Unfinished Symphony ... (1919). Dance Division.
One of 700,000 pictures in the NYPL Digital Gallery
NYPL Photostore