Free Curatorial Talks and Classes at The New York Public Library Focus on Fashion, Japanese Books, and How to Conduct Electronic Research

Fall 2006 Schedule of Educational Events Announced

The New York Public Library's fall series of free curatorial talks and classes draws upon a wide variety of collections, staff, and other resources to explore the ways in which a society's culture is reflected in its fashions and styles. The events are presented in the Library's Celeste Bartos Education Center at South Court in the landmark Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.

Two of this fall's exhibitions at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, A Rakish History of Men's Wear and Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan, are the inspiration for many of these programs, which examine the ideas of fashion and style in the broadest sense. The classes will consider clothing fashion as stage costume, as a product to be merchandised in the City, and as a lens through which to view historical change. In addition, the classes will discuss the idea of style as it has evolved in books and graphic design. Trends in subjects as varied as Japanese picture postcards, American children's books of the colonial period, or the menus of stylish Manhattan restaurants all reveal surprising insights into the culture that produced them. In addition, the Library also presents a series of classes on such topics as genealogical research and New York City architecture.

Schedule of Curatorial Talks

All Curatorial Talks are free and open to the public, and will be presented in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library's South Court Auditorium (enter from Astor Hall). Reservations are required. To reserve a seat, send an email to training@nypl.org or call 212-930-9284.

Fashion on Stage
Tuesday, October 17, 3:15 p.m. & Tuesday, December 12, 6:00 p.m.
Barbara Cohen-Stratyner, Curator of Exhibitions at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, discusses how entertainment and fashion have been intertwined throughout the past century.

Fashion on the Map: Exploring National Dress as Decoration on Antique Maps
Tuesday, September 26, 6:00 p.m.; Thursday, October 26, 3:15 p.m.; Tuesday, December 19, 6:00 p.m.; Wednesday, January 17, 6:00 p.m.
Alice Hudson, Chief of the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, lectures on the rich insights into history that antique maps offer, specifically in their decorative aspects. The program will focus on fashion as it appears in map margins.

Gentleman Prefer Black: A Rakish History of Men's Wear
Wednesday, September 13; Wednesday, October 11; Wednesday, November 8; Wednesday, December 13, 12:30 p.m.
Paula Baxter, Curator of the Wallach Art & Architecture Collection, considers the powerful social forces behind the transformation of men's dress, based on historical precedents and the demands of modernism.

Reform Dressing: Garments and Banners of the Suffrage Campaigns in England and the United States
Tuesday, September 12, 6:00 p.m. & Tuesday, November 14, 3:15 p.m.
Barbara Cohen-Stratyner examines color codes and iconography of suffrage banners as well as the on-and-off fashions of suffragists around the country.

The Selling of Style
Wednesday, September 20, 3:15 p.m. & Wednesday, October 18, 6:00 p.m.
John Ganly from The Library's Science, Industry and Business Library focuses on the two hundred years of people, places, and events that sold New York style, as documented in books, periodicals, pamphlets, documents, and electronic databases.

Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan
Wednesday, October 25, 6:00 p.m.
Renowned scholar and Guest Curator Roger S. Keyes explores the history and evolution of the 1,230 year-old tradition of ehon ("picture books" in Japanese) through images from the Spencer Collection of The New York Public Library. Created by artists and craftsmen, most ehon also feature essays, poems, or other texts written in beautiful, distinctive calligraphy.

From the Winter Palace to the "People's Palace": NYPL and the Libraries of the Tsars
Friday, September 15, 3:15 p.m.; Tuesday, October 3, 6:00 p.m.; Friday, December 8, 3:15 p.m.
Robert H. Davis, Jr., Assistant Chief of the Slavic and Baltic Division, discusses The New York Public Library's fascinating Slavic and East European collections, which hold in excess of 500,000 titles, ranging from the 14th century to the present. The origins of the collection stretch back to the European peregrinations of the first Astor Librarian James Cogswell in the early 1800s, and it has developed uninterruptedly for more than 150 years.

Classes

The following classes are free and held in the Celeste Bartos Education Center classrooms, except where otherwise indicated; no reservations are necessary, but seats are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Classrooms will open 15 minutes prior to the class. Please note that classes are not part of a series but are repeated on various dates for the public's convenience.

Famous and Fashionable Restaurants of New York
Wednesday, September 27; Tuesday, October 24; Wednesday, November 15; Wednesday, December 6, 3:15 p.m.
Rebecca Federman of the General Research Division teaches a class about how to navigate New York City's vast history of fine dining using cookbooks, menus, historic newspapers, and guidebooks.

Ehagaki: Styles and Messages of the Japanese Postcard
Thursday, November 2; Tuesday, December 5; Thursday, January 11, 3:15 p.m.
Sumie Ota of the Asian and Middle Eastern Division explores the history and different styles of postcards in Japan from the appearance of illustrated postcards at the beginning of the 20th century to today's popular
e-cards.

Changing Styles in Children's Books
Friday, September 29; Friday, October 27; Saturday, January 26, 2:15 p.m.
Elizabeth Diefendorf of the General Research Division, taking a chronological approach, looks at representative examples of 200 years of children's books. Illustration techniques, period social and religious concerns, humor and pathos, and primers from the colonial era to Dick and Jane will all be considered.

Core Classes

Investigating New York City Architecture
Thursday, November 16; Thursday, December 14; Thursday, January 18, 3:15 p.m.
Vincenzo Rutigliano of the Wallach Art and Architecture Collection introduces print and online resources that can make researching the architecture of a building in New York City less daunting and more productive.

Uncovering Your Roots: An Introduction to Genealogy Research
Tuesday, September 19 & Tuesday, January 16, 2:15 p.m.
Ruth Carr of the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy introduces some of the many genealogical tools available in NYPL. Students will acquire the knowledge to begin an engrossing lifelong project of research and exploration.

Genealogy Computer Lab
Tuesday, November 21, 2:15 p.m.
Staff from the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy will introduce the Library's numerous genealogical databases to research family histories. An experienced genealogy librarian will be available to assist participants and demonstrate the electronic databases. This lab is self-paced, hands-on, and not recommended for beginners, as there is no formal instruction.

New Tools in Map Research
Thursday, September 7; Thursday, October 5; Thursday, November 9; Thursday, December 7, 11:30 a.m.
Matt Knutzen of The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division teaches a hands-on class in the newly renovated Map Division. Users learn how to research antiquarian maps using traditional methods as well as new geographic information systems accessible only in the Map Division, as well as learn new tools to research the latest New York City property information and make your own map with the latest GIS software.

Research 101: The Basics
Wednesday, September 6; Friday, November 10; Tuesday, January 9, 3:15 p.m.
The Library's staff teaches the ins and outs of effective research, including how to use and interpret CATNYP, the online catalog of NYPL's Research Libraries, as well as how to search a variety of electronic databases in order to locate relevant journal articles and other types of information.

Research 102: Getting the Most Out of Online Databases
Friday, October 13; Friday, December 15; Wednesday, January 23, 3:15 p.m.
In this hands-on workshop, students learn hidden tricks to use with CATNYP, the aforementioned online catalog of NYPL's Research Libraries, such as how to limit and export your searches. Students will also be assisted in exploring several of the more than 300 databases to which the Library subscribes.

About the Humanities and Social Sciences Library
Housed in the magnificent Beaux-Arts landmark building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, the Humanities and Social Sciences Library is renowned for collecting, preserving, and making freely accessible to the public an astounding range of documents charting human history and cultural expression. Counted among its literary treasures, for example, are the first Gutenberg Bible to come to the New World; Shakespeare's first folio; a copy of the first printed book in America; the so-called Bay Psalm Book; the manuscripts of George Washington's Farewell Address; and Thomas Jefferson's handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence. The Humanities and Social Sciences Library's collections were initially formed from the consolidation of the Astor and Lenox Libraries and have evolved into one of the world's preeminent public resources for the study of human thought, action, and experience. The collections at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library comprise two main areas: General Reference and Special Collections. General Reference includes the General Reference Division; Map Division; U.S. History, Local History, Genealogy Division; Dorot Jewish Division; Asian and Middle Eastern Division; and Slavic and Baltic Division. The Special Collections contain general reference works as well as unique and invaluable items.

Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan is co-sponsored with the Ukiyo-e Society of America.

The Celeste Bartos Education Center at South Court is made possible through the extraordinary generosity of Celeste Bartos.
Additional leadership support was provided by The Starr Foundation and the Altman Foundation.

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Contact:    Jennifer Lam    212.704.8600
jl:07.20.06:nypl045.1