Press Release

Weird Science and Other-Worldly Discoveries in Drawings by Charles Addams at The New York Public Library

Imagine archaeologists unexpectedly unearthing the Chrysler Building; or a giant monarch butterfly in hot pursuit of a butterfly catcher; or a surprised astronaut held hostage by lilliputians. Who else but Charles Addams (1912-1988) could bring such a singularly mischievous imagination to the unanticipated, sometimes perilous, and often bizarre discoveries and adventures of scientists and explorers! These images are among the eleven original drawings on view in Adventures in Science and Exploration: Drawings by Charles Addams, an exhibition at The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, through January 29, 2000. Admission is free.

The exhibit is one of five related to scientific and medical imagery on view this fall: four at The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library and one at the Science, Industry and Business Library.

Addams's cartoons depicting everyday aspects of life with a humorous and macabre twist have continued to charm audiences with his clever and delightfully sinister perspective. He is perhaps best known for his Addams Family cartoons, which debuted in The New Yorker.  The Charles Addams Collection was generously donated to The New York Public Library by Charles Addams's widow, Mrs. Marilyn Addams, and by The Lady Colyton. The Lady Colyton also established a fund to create and endow the Charles Addams Gallery, and to preserve and exhibit materials from the Addams Collection. Selected drawings are exhibited in the gallery on a rotating basis.

The Charles Addams Gallery is on the third floor of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Exhibition hours are Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. - 7:30 p.m., and Monday, Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.; closed Sundays and national holidays. For information about exhibitions at The New York Public Library, the public may call (212) 869-8089 for a recorded message, or visit the Library's website at www.nypl.org.
 

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