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Humanities and Social Sciences Library 
Current | Upcoming | Past | Online The Rose Haggadah  Special Display: The Rose Haggadah is a unique artists' book, bringing together fifty years of Passover-themed artwork, the results of an innovative annual commission from the Rose family—exceptional friends of The New York Public Library. Collected into three riotously eclectic volumes, the Rose Haggadah was presented to the Library's Dorot Jewish Division by the Rose family in 2005. Artists and approaches represented in this half-century collaboration range all the way from New York social realist Jack Levine to New York Review of Books caricaturist David Levine, via some of the most prominent American artists of the twentieth century. This Passover and in future years, the Library will show different openings of the Rose Haggadah; meanwhile, work has begun on volume four.
Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road  This exhibition will explore the life and career of the Beat writer and poet Jack Kerouac, including the evolution of On the Road and other works; his unique amalgam of Christian and Buddhist spirituality; and his attitude to the movement that he felt had forsaken its beatific roots and purpose. The exhibition will draw on the contents of the Jack Kerouac Archive, housed in the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, and will display many of Kerouac’s unpublished manuscripts, drafts and notes for published works, diaries, journals, correspondence, drawings and paintings; his minutely detailed fantasy baseball and fantasy horse racing materials; and unpublished photographs of him and his family. Punctuating the exhibition at various points will be the objects that Kerouac treasured throughout his life, including the crutches he used after suffering a football injury while playing for Columbia University, his harmonicas, Buddhist bells, and his railroad track lantern.
The original scroll of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road will be on view from Friday, November 9 through Sunday, February 24. The exhibition will be closed from Monday, February 25 through Friday, February 29. Reopening on Saturday, March 1, the exhibition will continue through Sunday, March 16; during this period, a full-size facsimile of the scroll will be on view.
Press Release Graphic Modernism from the Baltic to the Balkans, 1910-1935  This exhibition explores the interplay between post–World War I national revivals and the broader European modernist artistic and literary movements of the early 20th century until the establishment of authoritarian regimes in the mid-1930s. Over fifty works on paper, primarily printed materials including books, book jackets, posters, and printed ephemera in more than a dozen languages, will be drawn from eight departments and collections at The New York Public Library. A featured artist or artists whose vision and oeuvre dominated a given region will anchor each of the five exhibition cases, for example: El Lissitzky from both Germany and Russia; Karel Teige from Czechoslovakia and Jerzy Hulewicz from Poland; Sirak Skitnik from Bulgaria and Fran Krajl from Slovenia; Lajos Kassák from Hungary and Victor Brauner from Romania; and Niklavs Strunke from Latvia and Jaan Vahtra from Estonia. This exhibition of East European modernism will be the first of its kind organized by the Library, and many of the individual books and artifacts from the historic foundation collections of the Library will be displayed here for the first time.
Press Release Multiple Interpretations: Contemporary Prints in Portfolio at The New York Public Library  Prints by definition suggest multiplicity, and printmaking lends itself to projects that are best expressed through multiple images. The artists represented in this exhibition have taken advantage of printmaking’s penchant for serial imagery in order to tell a story, to take a stand on political and social concerns, to consider formal issues, and to explore the creative process. Among the 23 artists represented in this exhibition are: Christiane Baumgartner, Chris Burden, Ernesto Caivano, E.V. Day, Mark Dion, Olafur Eliasson, Tony Fitzpatrick, Wayne Gonzales, Elliott Green, Daniel Heyman, David Levinthal, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, Olaf Nicolai, Thomas Nozkowski, Juan Uslé, and John Wilson. Image: Ernesto Caivano (Spanish and American, born 1972 in Spain, lives in New York)
Making the Scene: The Midtown Y Photography Gallery, 1972-1996  While photographs are exhibited widely today, their acceptance into the mainstream art world has been a long process, periodically fraught with controversy and debate. One of the more recent manifestations of this debate occurred in the late 1970s, when the rise of postmodern theory led to a reevaluation of the medium and a critical scrutiny of the museum's role in the promotion of photography's status. Until recently, less attention has been paid to the role of alternative spaces, particularly those devoted to the exhibition of photography. If the triumph of art photography now seems like a foregone conclusion, prior to the 1980s, very few galleries showed photography exclusively and emerging photographers were faced with limited options for exhibiting their work outside museums. The Midtown Y Photography Gallery was the first non-profit organization in New York City with a mission to provide a public space for the display of photographs, helping dozens of photographers make the scene that it helped to bring about over 25 years, from 1972 to 1996 when the gallery closed. This exhibition offers a broader vision of the photography that was seen during the period in which photography became a mainstay of the art world, as well as an intimate portrait of one New York gallery. The Declaration of Independence  The Library is honored to safeguard a fair copy (clean, full-text version without corrections or alterations) of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson’s hand. In the days immediately following ratification on July 4, 1776, Jefferson made several copies of the text that had been submitted to the Continental Congress, underlining the passages to which changes had been made. The Library’s copy is one of two known to survive intact. It is shown together with the first Philadelphia printing and the first New York printing of the final version issued by Congress. These versions are complemented by the earliest newspaper printings; the second official version ordered by Congress, published by a woman printer in Baltimore; and a letter from Franklin to Washington mentioning that the Declaration was being drafted. In addition to the exhibition, the 14-minute film We Hold These Truths …, a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence, will be shown continuously in the South Court Visitors’ Center. Admission is free.
From Revolution to Republic in Prints and Drawings  A celebration of the profound and diverse holdings of early American prints and drawings in The New York Public Library, this two-part exhibition draws primarily from the Phelps Stokes, Emmet, Eno and C. W. McAlpin collections, all part of the Print Collection of The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, and from the Spencer Collection. Dawn of the American Revolution, 1768–1776 features many firsthand visual accounts of the major battles and scenes of the early Revolutionary period, a number of them executed by British and American soldiers who participated in the incidents they depicted. Selections from the C. W. McAlpin Collection highlights a variety of pieces from this collection of portraits of George Washington, ranging from formal portraits to allegories and mourning pictures, and from etchings and engravings to textiles and badges. Russia Imagined, 1825-1925: The Art and Impact of Fedor Solntsev  The defeat of Napoleon in 1815 sparked a surge of nationalism throughout Europe, and the search for a national past was a European preoccupation in the early decades of the 19th century. From London to St. Petersburg, artists turned for inspiration to the new sciences of archaeology and ethnography. Artists A.W.N. Pugin in England and A.J. Davis in America looked to medieval cathedrals to create the Gothic Revival. In Imperial Russia, Fedor Solntsev (1801 – 1892), under elite patronage, worked on important commissions to record, preserve, and refashion the remains of medieval culture in a strikingly modern way. Solntsev’s meticulous drawings of regalia, icons, and weaponry, his watercolor portraits of the peoples of European Russia, his restoration of historic monuments, and his experiments at design in an “Old Russian” style helped to express a newly crafted sense of national identity. The exhibition, drawn from the Library’s incomparable holdings of Solntsev’s work, explores his prodigious career and the extraordinary range of his artistic endeavors within their historical context. It considers Solntsev’s role in developing a distinctive Russian-Slavonic style, from its initial archaeological and ethnographic origins to its final flowering in the lush sets and costumes of the famous Ballets Russes. A Rakish History of Men's Wear  This exhibition surveys men's dress from antiquity to the present, noting how through the centuries male style has swung from ostentation to restraint and back again. Masculine clothing has changed over time owing to a multitude of social, economic, and attitudinal transformations. At first, individuals chose garments that proclaimed their rank or special status as warriors and leaders. Later, sumptuary laws (restricting what could and could not be worn), chivalric codes, and the rituals of royal courts played a role in the development of masculine garments. By the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, male fashion leaders were admired both overtly and covertly. The growth of a new bourgeoisie in the late 18th century further influenced the outward expression of modern masculinity, as dandies took upon themselves the role of fashion leaders.
Press Release "I Was in the Neighborhood" To celebrate the opening of the "Spider-Man III" movie, New York City has declared April 30 to May 6 Spider-Man Week. Comic book and Spider-Man fans everywhere will also have an opportunity to see several, never-before-displayed, original Marvel Spider-Man comic books from the The New York Public Library's collection.
Where Do We Go from Here? The Photo League and Its Legacy (1936-2006)  In January of 1948, the photographer Walter Rosenblum published the article "Where Do We Go from Here?" in response to the blacklisting of the Photo League by Attorney General Tom Clark. Disregarding the actual photographs produced by the League's members, the FBI emphasized the organization's commitment to social causes in order to allege subversive activities and political alliances. The claims of subversion were never substantiated, but the Photo League, a cooperative of amateur and professional photographers, was forced to disband in 1951 after an informant testified that it was a front for the Communist party. Now recognized as an important force in the development of American photography, the Photo League trained an entire generation of New York photographers, a number of whom continue to practice today. In recognition of the 70th anniversary of the League's founding, this exhibition celebrates the diverse oeuvre of these photographers and their unflagging commitment to their medium. It also serves as a reminder that the political climate of the nation can have real consequences on its cultural life. Image: Lewis Hine's "Two Mill Workers", ca. 1905. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection
Press Release Jim Dine's Pinocchio  Painter, printmaker, sculptor, photographer, performance artist, and poet, Jim Dine (b. 1935) has devoted the last three years to a personal interpretation of a story that has engaged and intrigued him for much of his life, Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio. Dine has made his own the tale of the temptations, trials, tribulations, and ultimate triumph of this mischievous but endearing wooden boy in a series of thirty-nine prints, on view in this exhibition, which have been reproduced in a new edition of Pinocchio published by Steidl. This exhibition celebrates Dine's promised gift of these uniquely hand-colored lithographs to the Spencer Collection of The New York Public Library. Image: Frontispiece for Pinocchio by Jim Dine and Carlo Collodi (Steidl, 2006). Lithograph, hand-colored with acrylic and pastel Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan  Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan will demonstrate the variety of visual languages used by artists over many historical periods from 764 to 2005. It will include approximately 200 books with printed illustrations, as well as related manuscripts, drawings, woodblock prints, and photographs. Drawn from the Library's collections, a wide range of works will be featured, including two examples of Empress Shôtoku's Million Prayer Towers (764-770), Utamaro's celebrated Shiohi no tsuto (Gifts of the Ebb Tide, also known as The Shell Book, 1789), and Hokusai's Fugaku Hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji, 1834). The exhibition will also showcase more recent examples of Japanese book art, with books by some of the leading photographers of the 20th century, modernist books by artists like Koshiro Onchi, avant-garde works associated with early 20th-century movements such as MAVO, precursors of present-day anime, and works by internationally known contemporary artists like Hiroshi. The exhibition will be organized into five thematic sections. Section One, "Origins," on view in the Library's Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery, will introduce visitors to early Japanese manuscripts and Buddhist works from the 8th through 17th centuries, which were precursors to the printed books in the main body of the exhibition. Sections Two through Five will be on view in the D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall. Section Two, "The Art of the Book," focuses on the structural elements and choices available to artists, the language of the book, types of books, formats, bindings, and genres. In this section, the visitor will view some of the most celebrated, beautiful, and rare examples of the Japanese book with printed illustrations, many in the finest copies known. The final three sections present groups of pictures of similar subjects drawn in different styles, following a traditional Japanese classification that reflects an ancient Chinese division of the universe in "Heaven" (ten), which includes religious, cosmic, and supernatural themes; "Earth" (chi), which concerns nature, natural history, topography, and landscape; and "Humanity" (jin), which is devoted to scenes from literature, history, and fantasy, as well as representations of daily life. The Library has published a 320-page companion volume featuring 70 key works from the exhibition, with 250 color illustrations..
Ehon Symposium, October 25, 2006
Press Release French Book Art/Livres d'Artistes: Artists and Poets in Dialogue  Paris in the 19th and 20th centuries witnessed a vivid collaboration between artists and writers, and they regularly produced spectacular results of their personal and professional friendships. Image: Alain Jouffroy (b. 1928) | René Magritte (1898–1967). Aube à l’antipode [Dawn on the Other Side of the World]. Paris: Le Soleil noir, 1966. Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet. © 2006 C. Herscovici, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph © Michel Nguyen The Declaration of Independence The Library is honored to safeguard a fair copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson's hand. In the days immediately following ratification on July 4, 1776, Jefferson made several copies of the text that had been submitted to the Continental Congress, underlining the passages to which changes had been made. The Library's copy is one of two known to survive intact, a third survivor being fragmentary. It is shown together with the first Philadelphia printing and the first New York printing of the final version issued by Congress. These versions are complemented by the earliest newspaper printings; the second official version ordered by Congress, published by a woman printer in Baltimore; and a letter from Franklin to Washington mentioning that the Declaration was being drafted. "We hold these truths ...," a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence, is a 14-minute film that is shown continuously in the South Court Visitors' Theater. Admission is free.
Recent Acquisitions: New York Street Photography from the 1960s and 1970s  This exhibition features the work of three New York photographers, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and Joel Meyerowitz, who played a major role in the emergence of street photography as a central photographic practice in the 1960s. Following the lead of William Klein and Robert Frank, these photographers helped to transform documentary photography with their eccentric vision of the world. As the practice extended into the 1970s, street photography absorbed other artistic movements, as evidenced by the work of William Gedney, Roy Colmer, and Thomas Struth, whose photographs demonstrate both the continuity and diversity of photography in the streets of New York. The show is the first in a planned series of exhibitions that will showcase recently acquired New York City photographs from 1950 to the present. Image: Joel Meyerowitz
Rockefeller Center, 1970 Recent Acquisitions: Old Master Prints  This exhibition will include 75 prints, acquired between 2000-2005, and will feature prints by Fontainebleu printmaker Pierre Milan, Jaques Callot, Jan van de Velde II, Domenico and Lorenzo Tiepolo, Philibert-Louis Debucourt and Ferdinand Olivier, among others. In addition to comments on each artist/printmaker, the exhibit will address the kinds of issues, which are considered when acquiring a print for the collection, from context to condition. Image: Jean-Baptiste Chapuy (French, ca. 1760-1802) Letters to Sala: A Young Woman's Life in Nazi Labor Camps  At age sixteen, Sala Garncarz entered the Nazi labor camp system, where she would be imprisoned from 1940 to 1945. During that time she was able to collect and preserve a collection of 300 letters sent to her by friends and family from outside and within the camps. The letters were recently donated to the Library's Dorot Jewish Division by Sala's daughter, Ann Kirschner, and form the basis for the exhibition, in which they will be displayed for the first time. In passionate terms, the letters document the harsh consequences of the Nazi slave labor system on both the interned Jews and their torn families. They also reflect Sala’s relationship with such noteworthy figures as Ala Gartner, one of four women hanged in Auschwitz after participating in an armed rebellion. Letters to Sala will reveal rare documentation of Nazi atrocities written by the victims of those events during the time they were unfolding. Image: Sala Garncarz at 12
Press Release Treasured Maps: Celebrating The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division  Established in 1898 as a separate collection of The New York Public Library, and named a Division in 1947, the Map Division is a treasure-filled place, with maps and atlases dating from the 16th century to the present. This exhibition celebrates the Map Division's reopening in December 2005 after months of renovation. The last public reading room to be renovated, the Map Division will double its reader capacity and services with its new look. With the use of compact shelving, remote storage and Internet resources, the Map Division will open up its former stack area for digital mapping and long term research projects based in the map and atlas collections. Image: John Seller's "A Mapp of the World"
Press Release The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts at The New York Public Library  Among the rare items on view will be a 10th-century Ottonian manuscript, with its imitation of Byzantine textile with gold decoration; the Towneley Lectionary, illuminated by Giulio Clovio (once praised as the "Michelangelo of small works"), which originated in Rome and probably belonged to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese; and a late 15th-century Book of Hours, which represents the leading style of illumination from Besançon, one of the French Regional Schools. The history of each work's patrons and owners -- from the Psalter-Hours of Blanche of Burgundy, the first wife of King Charles IV, to a copy of the Roman de la Rose owned by John Ruskin in the 19th century -- provides insight into the background of the works themselves and the centuries through which they have passed. A catalogue that will describe and illustrate the 100 manuscripts in The Splendor of the Word is being developed by the exhibition curators and the Library and will be published by Harvey Miller Publishers.
Selected Folios from The Tickhill Psalter (Flash plug-in required) Image: Historiated Initial B, depicting scenes from the Life of David. Psalter (The Tickhill Psalter), in Latin. England, Worksop Priory, Nottinghamshire, after 1303-ca.1314. (NYPL SP 26)
Press Release Prints With/Out Pressure: American Relief Prints from the 1940s through the 1960s  American artists in the mid 20th century were particularly intrigued by relief printmaking, whether woodcut, linocut, or experimental uses of plastic as a printing surface. While some artists continued to work in a realistic, illustrative style, others explored the expressive possibilities of the medium, often in service of abstraction. Among the artists represented in the Library's Print Collection whose work will be on view in the third-floor Print and Stokes Galleries will be Josef Albers, Leonard Baskin, Robert Conover, Werner Drewes, Antonio Frasconi, Naum Gabo, Misch Kohn, Paul Landacre, Boris Margo, Seong Moy, Anne Ryan, Bernard Reder, Luigi Rist, and Louis Schanker. "I Am With You": Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (1855-2005)  This exhibition commemorates the 150th anniversary of the publication of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Whitman revised and added to his great poem throughout his life, and the exhibition will feature first and rare editions of the major versions, as well as manuscript drafts, books, and trial proofs annotated in the poet’s hand. The exhibition will also indicate Whitman’s influence on the Beats, his most obvious literary heirs, through manuscripts and rare books containing works by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and others. Enhancing the exhibition’s visual appeal will be fine press and livre d’artiste imprints, as well as photographs of the poet and of the American countryside and cityscapes whose grandeur he praised.
Press Release Before Victoria: Extraordinary Women of the British Romantic Era  Before Victoria, drawn from the Pforzheimer, Berg, and Print Collections of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, will bring together literary and cultural history, and explore the transformation of British society through the lives of a number of remarkable women, some well-known today and some almost totally forgotten. The revolution in the lives of British women during the early 19th century was not the one that Mary Wollstonecraft would have ordered, but it certainly took place. In the half-century or so before Victoria came to the throne in 1837, a woman alone taking an active public role became unacceptable to the majority of her compatriots, male and female. This did not stop women of the Romantic period from making contributions of surprising magnitude and number to Britain’s public culture -- contributions that have too often been overlooked.
Press Release The Declaration of Independence The Library is honored to safeguard a fair copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson's hand. In the days immediately following ratification on July 4, 1776, Jefferson made several copies of the text that had been submitted to the Continental Congress, underlining the passages to which changes had been made. The Library's copy is one of two known to survive intact, a third survivor being fragmentary. It is shown together with the first Philadelphia printing and the first New York printing of the final version issued by Congress. These versions are complemented by the earliest newspaper printings; the second official version ordered by Congress, published by a woman printer in Baltimore; and a letter from Franklin to Washington mentioning that the Declaration was being drafted. "We hold these truths ...," a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence, is a 14-minute film that is shown continuously in the South Court Visitors' Theater. Admission is free. Drawings by Charles Addams  This exhibition is part of an ongoing, rotating selection of darkly humorous drawings by cartoonist Charles Addams, featuring many that appeared in The New Yorker. These drawings were donated to the Library by The Lady Colyton and Marilyn Addams. Their care and exhibition are supported by an endowment established through a gift from The Lady Colyton.
I Am the Rose: Passover Imagined in the Collections of The New York Public Library  With this exhibition, the Library celebrates the addition to its illuminated manuscript holdings of a distinguished 20th-century example of the genre, the gift of New York philanthropists Sandra, Daniel, and Elihu Rose and their families. The manuscript, in three volumes, is the result of eighty years of extended family seders in the homes of Joseph and Anna Rose and Samuel and Belle Rose and their descendants. The host of a given year's gathering would commission a notable artist of the day (people of the caliber of Leonard Baskin and Frank Stella) to create a work of art that gave new expression to the ancient themes of exodus from Egypt and the Passover festival. The result of this custom is an original and unique artifact, which stands firmly in the tradition of the sumptuous illuminated manuscript haggadot of the 15th-century Mediterranean and 18th-century Germany. Milton Avery: The Flying Pig and Other Winged Creatures  Milton Avery (1885-1965) was one of the foremost modernist American painters, recognized for his uniquely spare style combining figurative realism and lyrical abstraction with an extraordinary sense of color. In addition to painting, Avery produced nearly sixty drypoints, lithographs, and woodcuts in sporadic periods from 1933 to 1963. In 1946, at the instigation of his friend, painter Mark Rothko, Avery created his only illustrations, a set of eight witty and colorful gouache paintings for a children’s book entitled Paul, which remained unpublished during the artist's lifetime. Acquired in 2001 for the Library's Spencer Collection through the generosity of Milton Avery's family, the original illustrations for Paul will be exhibited publicly for the first time. The illustrations will be shown along with a selection of Avery’s prints, acquired for the Print Collection from 1948 to 2004.
Press Release Faith and Legacy: The Hellenic World from the Collections of The New York Public Library  In conjunction with the Hellenic Festival in New York, The New York Public Library is presenting a highly selective exhibition of approximately 25 important manuscripts and printed books in Greek and other languages as enduring reflections of contributions from Greece to the world in religion, literature, philosophy, history, science, and art, shaping civilization over an enormous span of centuries. The manuscripts and books are drawn from the Special Collections of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, and several will be exhibited for the first time at the Library.
Among the works on view will be a Greek Orthodox Lectionary of the Gospels, ca. 1250; two 15th-century manuscripts in Greek of Aesop's Fables; a Latin translation of Ptolemy's Geographia, ca. 1460; and a monumental Arabic translation of Dioscorides's De Materia Medica, the most important classical source for botanical and pharmacological terminology. First editions on view will include the Library's copies of the first printed Homer (Florence,1488/9), Sophocles (1502), Euripides (1503), and Plato (1513). Image: The man who promised the impossible. In Aesop's Fables, f. 10r. Spencer Collection, The New York Public Library
Decoration in the Age of Napoleon: Empire Elegance Versus Regency Refinement  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 by the rivalry of France and England and their rulers. Napoleon I (1769-1821), self-styled Emperor of the French, assumed the throne in 1804 and immediately launched an ambitious art and design program that lasted until his reign ended in 1815. Across the English Channel, the Prince Regent, the future King George IV (1762-1830), also proved to be an active patron of the arts. Romantic-era forces shaped the new Empire and Regency styles: the cult of personality, typified in the Byronic hero; the appeal of antique and exotic civilizations; the use of pageantry and spectacle; and new interpretations of traditional and nationalistic ideals. Image: "Clock in bronze doré on ebony base." Watercolor and pen original drawing in French Goldsmith's Designs, ca. 1800. Paris, ca.1800. Art & Architecture Collection, The New York Public Library.
Press Release The Newtonian Moment: Science and the Making of Modern Culture  Isaac Newton is a legendary figure whose mythical dimension perpetually threatens to overshadow the actual man. The story of the apple falling from the tree may or may not be true, but his revolutionary discoveries and their importance to the Enlightenment era and beyond are undeniable. The Newtonian Moment: Science and the Making of Modern Culture will explore the many facets of Newton's colossal accomplishments, as well as the debates over the kind of knowledge most worth having that these accomplishments engendered. Image: An orrery, a mechanical model of the solar system. Engraving in The General Magazine of Arts and Sciences, 1755. General Research Division, The New York Public Library.
Press Release James Gillray  The golden age of English caricature, from the late 1770s to the second decade of the 19th century, encompasses the life of its leading exponent, James Gillray (1756-1815), who contributed in no small measure to the brilliance and audacity of the political, personal, and social satires of this period. Gillray subjected all the key political figures of his day, along with the King, the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and assorted aristocracy, to his witty, telling, and often outrageous exaggerations, elaborations, and confabulations, and, in the process, transformed what was then the new genre of personal caricature into high art. A caricaturist of true genius who seemed to have an underlying distrust of those in power, he lampooned what he perceived as corruption, injustice, and abuse of power in public life, and the foibles of society at large. Image: "Midas transmuting all into gold paper," handcolored etching, 1797. Drawings by Charles Addams This exhibition is part of an ongoing, rotating selection of darkly humorous drawings by cartoonist Charles Addams, featuring many that appeared in The New Yorker. These drawings were donated to the Library by The Lady Colyton and Marilyn Addams. Their care and exhibition are supported by an endowment established through a gift from The Lady Colyton.
A Literary Christmas Miscellany from the Berg Collection  Special Display: A Christmas display of literary materials from the Library's Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. Featured are Charles Dickens's prompt copy of A Christmas Carol, from which he gave his public readings; books with Christmas themes by T. S. Eliot and Edmund Wilson; and Christmas greetings by James Joyce, Sean O'Casey, E. E. Cummings, and Maurice Sendak. Image: A portrait of Dickens, drawn in pencil, dry brush and crayon, heightened with white, by an unidentified artist, ca. 1869. Berg Collection.
Jewes in America: Conquistadors, Knickerbockers, Pilgrims, and the Hope of Israel  Acknowledging a pair of pamphlets once as influential as they now seem bizarre -- the English Protestant Thomas Thorowgood's Jewes in America; or, Probabilities that the Americans are of that race, and the Dutch rabbi Menasseh ben Israel's Hope of Israel -- this exhibition is the Library’s contribution to New York's yearlong celebration of the 350th anniversary of the arrival, in September 1654, of the first Jews in this city, and thus in the future United States. Image: Thomas Thorowgood, Iewes in America, or, Probabilities That the Americans Are of That Race. London: Printed by W. H. for Tho. Slater, 1650. Rare Books Division, from the Lenox Library.
Press Release The Declaration of Independence The Library's fair copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson’s hand, previously on display in July, returns for viewing for an additional two weeks. In the days immediately following ratification on July 4, 1776, Jefferson made several copies of the text that had been submitted to the Continental Congress, underlining the passages to which changes had been made. The Library’s copy is one of two known to survive intact, a third survivor being fragmentary. It is shown together with the first Philadelphia printing and the first New York printing of the final version issued by Congress. These versions are complemented by the earliest newspaper printings; the second official version ordered by Congress, published by a woman printer in Baltimore; and a letter from Franklin to Washington mentioning that the Declaration was being drafted. The Declaration of Independence The Library is honored to safeguard a fair copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson’s hand. In the days immediately following ratification on July 4, 1776, he made several copies of the text that had been submitted to the Continental Congress, underlining the passages to which changes had been made. The Library’s copy is one of two known to survive intact, a third survivor being fragmentary. It is shown to celebrate Independence Day, together with the first Philadelphia printing and the first New York printing of the final version issued by Congress. These versions are complemented by the earliest newspaper printings; the second official version ordered by Congress, published by a woman printer in Baltimore; and a letter from Franklin to Washington mentioning that the Declaration was being drafted. Cities in the Americas: A Celebration of The Phelps Stokes Collection  On the American continent, the 19th century was witness to the rapid expansion of boundaries, the growth of existing cities, and the establishment of new urban centers, all copiously recorded by the growing numbers of printmakers active in the United States and its territories. 19th-century American printmakers, frequently using the still new technique of lithography, transformed earlier topographical traditions into a vehicle for recording and promoting the new country's development. The exhibition will include examples of 18th-century views of America's founding cities, as well as such dramatic 19th-century formats as the bird's-eye view. Image: View of Boston, by F. Fuchs. Chromolithograph, published by John Weik, 1870. Drawings by Charles Addams This exhibition is part of an ongoing, rotating selection of darkly humorous drawings by cartoonist Charles Addams, featuring many that appeared in The New Yorker. These drawings were donated to the Library by The Lady Colyton and Marilyn Addams. Their care and exhibition are supported by an endowment established through a gift from The Lady Colyton.
The Art Deco Bookbindings of Pierre Legrain and Rose Adler  French bookbinders led the world in their craft in the earlier part of the 20th century, especially from the 1920s to the 50s, and fostered the designer-bookbinder movement that took firm root in several other countries. Two of the most influential were Pierre Legrain and Rose Adler, who between them created some 525 bindings for Jacques Doucet, the French bibliophile, couturier, collector, and
philanthropist. A highly select group of 43 Art Deco bindings, drawn from the Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet in Paris — plus two rare examples from The New York Public Library's Spencer Collection — will be featured in the exhibition. The majority of these bindings have never been exhibited before. Image: Paul Morand. Les Amis nouveaux. Illustrated by Jean Hugo. Paris: Au Sans Pareil, 1924. Binding design: Pierre Legrain, 1927. Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet. Photograph by Michel Nguyen.
Press Release Ninety from the Nineties: A Decade of Printing  Ninety from the Nineties is part of a tradition at The New York Public Library that began in 1968 with Sixty from the Sixties: An Exhibition of Distinctive Editions. Once every ten years since then the Library has mounted an exhibition of books acquired by the Rare Books Division during the preceding decade. These exhibitions featured books, pamphlets, broadsides, and printed ephemera from printers at work in the Americas, Great Britain, and Europe. Image: Julie Chen. Bon Bon Mots: A Fine Assortment of Books. Berkeley, Calif.: Flying Fish Press, 1998. NYPL, Rare Books Division. Julie Chen designed and made the five miniature books and the box, which resembles a box of chocolates. Russia Engages the World, 1453 - 1825  This revised version of the exhibition presented at the Library last fall contains a number of items not part of the original presentation, including several spectacular items acquired by the Library in 2003. Through a wide variety of rare works on paper drawn from more than a dozen New York Public Library divisions, complemented by a small selection of loan items representing the decorative and fine arts, the exhibition traces Russia's interaction with European as well as Asian and Islamic societies during its rise from relative isolation to global empire. All the materials on view date from 1453 to 1825. More than fifteen world languages are represented in the exhibition, which places Russia in a global cultural space and stresses interactions within and outside of its borders. Image: A Kalmyk horseman. Hand-colored engraving from: The Costume of the Allied Armies in Paris in the Year 1815. [Paris, 1816]. Spencer Collection.
Press Release Baseball at The New York Public Library Special Display: On view is a scrapbook opened to show two cards from the Mecca Double Folders series, which pictures two players per card. The players share the bottom part of the card, usually showing the calves and feet; the top, when folded, depicts one player and, when flipped open, another. On the back are the statistics for both players. The card on the top left of the page features Christy Mathewson and Al Bridwell of the New York Giants; the card on the bottom shows first baseman Frank Chance and, inside, second baseman Johnny Evers. Chance and Evers made up two-thirds of the famous double-play combination "Tinker to Evers to Chance." This scrapbook includes the rare Honus Wagner baseball card and other baseball memorabilia and is preserved within the Goulston Collection, housed in the Library’s George Arents Collection on Tobacco.
The Gutenberg Bible  Special Display: The first substantial printed book in the West is the royal-folio two-volume Bible on display, comprising nearly 1,300 pages and printed in Mainz on the central Rhine by Johann Gutenberg (ca. 1390s–1468) in the 1450s. Probably completed between March and November 1455, when Gutenberg's bankruptcy deprived him of his printing establishment, the Bible epitomizes Gutenberg's triumph, arguably the greatest achievement of the second millennium. Over possibly twenty or more years, at Mainz and perhaps at Strasbourg, he succeeded in developing printing from movable type in the West.
Russia Engages the World, 1453-1825 Through a selection of approximately 230 rare works on paper, drawn from the collections of twelve New York Public Library divisions, the exhibition traces Russia’s interaction with Europe, Asia and the Americas during its rise from relative isolation to global empire. All of the materials on view date from 1453 to 1825 and nearly a third are in languages other than Russian. The exhibition places Russia in a global cultural context and stresses the exchange of ideas within and outside of its borders. Image: A Kalmyk horseman. Hand-colored engraving from: The Costume of the Allied Armies in Paris in the Year 1815. [Paris, 1816]. Spencer Collection.
Press Release Depression-era Prints and Photographs from the WPA and FSA  The Great Depression of the 1930s affected the life of every American, including writers, musicians, actors, and artists, and in 1935 a portion of the funding for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was designated for the aid of these unemployed professionals. This unprecedented largesse from the federal government employed over 250 artists, with 80 in the New York workshop alone. The artists, including Mabel Dwight, Louis Lozowick, Nan Lurie, and Raphael Soyer, were given a place to work and a salary, leaving them free to create, unfettered by financial concerns. In return, the artists created 20 to 25 copies of each print, which were then distributed to schools, libraries, museums, and other institutions around the country. In 1943, as the program ended and the New York workshop was closed, approximately 1,200 prints were deposited with the Print Collection of The New York Public Library. This exhibition is drawn exclusively from that 1943 allocation, and celebrates that unique relationship between the government and the arts. Image: Harry Gottlieb, Rock Drillers. Screen print. Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. A Literary Christmas Miscellany from the Berg Collection This year’s Christmas display includes a variety of literary materials from the Library's Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. Featured are Charles Dickens's prompt copy of A Christmas Carol, from which he gave his public readings; books with Christmas themes by T. S. Eliot and Edmund Wilson; and Christmas greetings by James Joyce, Sean O'Casey, E. E. Cummings, and Maurice Sendak.
Drawings by Charles Addams This exhibition is part of an ongoing, rotating selection of darkly humorous drawings by cartoonist Charles Addams, featuring many that appeared in The New Yorker. These drawings were donated to the Library by The Lady Colyton and Marilyn Addams. Their care and exhibition are supported by an endowment established through a gift from The Lady Colyton.
The September 11 Photo Project  The New York Public Library will display photographs and personal statements submitted to the September 11 Photo Project, initiated in a SoHo gallery as a community-based response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the downing of United Airlines flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Following the close of the New York exhibition, the Project traveled to Washington, D.C., Sacramento, Pasadena, Chicago, Detroit, and Atlanta. Additional photographs were collected in each city from anyone wishing to participate. Included in the Library’s exhibition are images of the events of September 11, 2001, in New York and the two other disaster sites, as well as photographs from California and other states, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The photographs range from amateur snapshots to finely printed larger-format photographs and digitally manipulated works. The Declaration of Independence The Library is honored to safeguard a fair copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson's hand. In the days immediately following ratification on July 4, 1776, he made several copies of the text that had been submitted to the Continental Congress, underlining the passages to which changes had been made. The Library's copy is one of two known to survive intact, a third survivor being fragmentary. It is shown to celebrate Independence Day, together with the first Philadelphia printing and the first New York printing of the final version issued by Congress. These versions are complemented by the earliest newspaper printings; the second official version ordered by Congress, published by a woman printer in Baltimore; and a letter from Franklin to Washington mentioning that the Declaration was being drafted. The Library will be closed on Friday, July 4 and Saturday, July 5, 2003. Passion's Discipline: The History of the Sonnet in the British Isles and America  The exhibition considers the development of the sonnet, the structured poetic form which has provided writers with a vessel for passionate feelings on many topics since its development in 13th-century Italy. The exhibition makes the case that the intensity of a poem's feeling is enhanced and clarified by the discipline of confining it in a formal structure. Materials on view, drawn primarily from the Library's Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, include a 1576 edition of Dante, and a lavishly illuminated 15th-century Petrarch manuscript, both of which show the origin and early development of the sonnet form.
Press Release New York Eats Out  New York is a city that changes with blinding rapidity, but one thing has remained constant throughout its 350-year history: good food. Whether at the inns and taverns of Dutch Manhattan, gilded-age palaces like Delmonico's, or today's four-star culinary shrines and humble ethnic eateries, New Yorkers have always eaten better than the rest of the country. Curated by New York Times Restaurant Critic William Grimes, New York Eats Out tells the story of the city's most enduring passion, the love affair with dining out from the 19th century to the early 1960s. The exhibition, drawing on the Library's extensive Buttolph Menu Collection, materials from other divisions, and selected loans, traces the rise of the restaurant from the opening of Delmonico's in the 1820s to legendary spots like Le Pavillon, Lüchow's, and the Colony to the visionary restaurants that Joe Baum created in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Charles Addams Mother Goose In conjunction with the reprinting of The Charles Addams Mother Goose, the Library is pleased to present Addams's singular interpretation of these classic nursery rhymes.
Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, 1653-2003  In celebration of the 350th anniversary (May 2003) of the first publication of Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, this exhibition offers a rich sampling of editions of this classic and eminently readable guide to fly-fishing, along with splendid copies of Walton's other works, including those he inscribed to friends. In addition, diverse examples of artwork show us the decorative skills that artists have employed to bring "the contemplative man's recreation" to graphic life. Image: Izaak Walton & Charles Cotton. The Complete Angler. 2 vols. London: [Charles Wittingham for] William Pickering, 1836.
Press Release Poetry of Sight: The Prints of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)  Commemorating the centenary of James McNeill Whistler's death, this exhibition presents over 130 of Whistler's etchings, drypoints, and lithographs from the Library's Print Collection. Famed painter, draughtsman, and designer, Whistler was also a devoted printmaker. His best-known prints are those he published in his French, Thames, and Venice sets, all of which will be on view, along with selections from his drypoint portraits and a selection of his lithographs. Image: James, McNeill Whistler (American, 1834-1903). Early Portrait of Whistler. Etching, only state, 1857-58. S. P. Avery Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library.
Press Release Baseball at The New York Public Library  The Library's collections document the national pastime from its origins, in books, photographs, prints, clippings, drawings, scrapbooks, and other memorabilia. The Library's rare Honus Wagner baseball card will be on view. The legendary card was distributed with Sweet Caporal cigarettes, ca. 1910, until Wagner had it pulled from circulation. Speculation as to why abounded until his granddaughter set the record straight in 1992: "[H]e always had a wad of chewbacca in his mouth, and he wasn't against tobacco at all. His concern was he didn't want children to have to buy tobacco in order to get his card.... That's the fact behind it. It wasn't that he didn't get paid for it, or that he was against tobacco, he just didn't want children to have to buy tobacco at a young age in order to get his cards." The card and other baseball memorabilia are preserved in a scrapbook within the Goulston Collection, housed in the Library's George Arents Collection on Tobacco. Image: Honus Wagner baseball card, ca. 1910.
Renaissance Bindings for Henri II  Often gilded and highly decorated with onlays and inlays, the bindings from the royal libraries in France on view at The New York Public Library represent the golden age of French bookbinding. Created primarily during the reign of Henri II (1547-59), these bindings overwhelm the eye with their richness and variety of color, scale, and mass. The Library will display 26 bindings, a choice selection of those that were on view in 1999 at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. As the bindings are essentially intact since their production four and a half centuries ago, this exhibition serves as a clear window onto French Renaissance craftsmanship, materials, and design. Image: Henri II alla greca orange goatskin entrelac binding, ca. 1552-53, on: Clement of Alexandria, Opera (Florence, 1550). Bibliothèque nationale de France. Urban Neighbors: Images of New York City Wildlife  Urban Neighbors is a celebration of the diversity and abundance of New York City wildlife, as documented in artistically striking visual images selected from The New York Public Library's vast resources. Pigeons, House Sparrows, Crows, Starlings, Gray Squirrels, House Mice, feral cats, Blue Jays, and Robins (and an occasional Library Lion) are inhabitants of New York City's "concrete jungle," as are the Peregrine Falcons nesting on skyscrapers and bridges, Monk Parakeet communities thriving on Brooklyn utility poles, and House Finches waking apartment dwellers with their melodious early morning song. The city's extensive green areas -- parks and wildlife refuges, lawns and backyards -- are rich in diverse species of birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles, insects and other invertebrates. The waters surrounding and within the city are now cleaner than they have been in many years, and are home to numerous fishes and invertebrates, as well as water birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.
Image: Bullfrog (Rana catesbiana). Hand-colored etching by Mark Catesby from his drawing. In: M. Catesby, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands …, Vol. 2 of 2 (1771). Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. Drawings by Charles Addams: The Unnatural New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams seems to have considered nature to be anything but natural. A bear commutes to work by unicycle, lumberjacks chop down a tree with numbered rings, and an exacting dog herds sheep in formation in this exhibition of the plant, animal, and otherworldly kingdoms. This exhibition complements Urban Neighbors: Images of New York City Wildlife, an exhibition in Gottesman Exhibition Hall.
A Legacy in Landscapes  A Legacy in Landscapes pays tribute to a bequest made in 1992 to the Print Collection of The New York Public Library for the purchase of landscape prints. The more than 100 prints in this exhibition were acquired through funds bequeathed by a generous donor and dedicated volunteer, Mary W. Covington, in honor of Elizabeth E. Roth, the Library's Curator of Prints from 1968 to 1981. Among the prints on view, ranging in date from the early 16th century through 2001, paralleling the scope of the Print Collection, will be work by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Caspar David Friedrich, Eugène Delacroix, Camille Pissarro, Edvard Munch, Salvador Dalí, Alex Katz, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Marcus Raetz, and Jorge Pardo.
Press Release A Literary Christmas Miscellany from the Berg Collection This year's Christmas display includes a variety of literary materials from the Library's Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. Featured are Charles Dickens's prompt copy of A Christmas Carol, from which he gave his public readings; books with Christmas themes by T. S. Eliot and Edmund Wilson; and Christmas greetings by James Joyce, Sean O'Casey, E. E. Cummings, and Maurice Sendak.
Reviews of Two Worlds: French and American Literary Periodicals, 1850-2002  For the past 150 years, literary magazines have served as the telegraph/telephone/e-mail connection for a variety of literary dialogues between French and American writers, permitting, with relative speed and facility, the transmission of poetry from one people to the other. The ephemeral, periodic quality of the "little review" has provided a unique forum for the sustained exchange of ideas that continue to inform the writing of French and American poets up to the present day. With the advent of web-based publishing, the products of this exchange have been projected into another dimension, and endowed with a presence and immediacy that seem to erase the real time and space separating the two countries, thus moving their respective poetries even closer. The goal of this exhibition is to document the high points of this exchange, following it as it writes itself on the pages of French and American literary magazines from 1945 through the present. By documenting the practice of publishing translations in journals, the exhibition will reveal the many ways in which the two parallel traditions have informed and influenced one another. Illuminated Manuscripts and the Dawn of Printing  This is the first of a series of exhibitions highlighting selections of the most precious items from the many divisions of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library. Many of these treasures have been part of The New York Public Library's collections since it was founded in 1895 by the consolidation of the Astor Library, the Lenox Library, and the Tilden Trust. Others have been acquired by subsequent generations of the Library's staff. Items featured include the Gutenberg Bible, the first substantial printed book in the West (ca. 1455); a selection of leaves from The Towneley Lectionary (ca. 1550-60), with miniatures attributed to Giulio Clovio, the most celebrated Italian illuminator of his day; and the 1501 Aldine Virgil, the first volume of Aldus's "Portable Library," which launched a revolution in the book arts. Also on view will be the illuminated manuscript "Medici Aesop" (late 15th century) and two early printed editions, the renowned Neapolitan edition Vita; Fabulae published by Francesco del Tuppo in 1485 and illustrated with 88 wood-block prints, and the first Japanese publication of Aesop's fables, Isoho Monogatari (1659), to include illustrations. New American Literary Magazines  Literary Magazines, or little magazines as they are sometimes called, have played a critical role in our culture. They provide a forum for new and experimental writing, nurture important literary developments, and document social and political movements.
The Public's Treasures: A Cabinet of Curiosities from The New York Public Library  The Library's Salomon Room has become a veritable cabinet of curiosities in the second installment of The Public's Treasures. A phenomenon of the Renaissance, cabinets of curiosities (also known as Wunderkammern, or cabinets of wonder) proliferated throughout Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Encyclopedic in approach, the cabinets emphasized the exceptional, the rare, and the marvelous, attempting to encompass the results both of God's creation (nature) and of man's (art). Today the world's great research libraries exemplify the eclectic and universal nature of the cabinet of curiosities.
Press Release Victorians, Moderns, and Beats: New in the Berg Collection, 1994-2001  This exhibition will display a selection of materials acquired by the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature since 1994 (the year following the last such exhibition) to the present. Divided into two sections--Great Britain/Ireland and America--it will include books, manuscripts, notebooks, photographs, and other archival materials of noted poets and writers. The British portion of the exhibition opens with an autograph manuscript of an unpublished poem by George Crabbe (1754-1832), dating probably from the late eighteenth century. The nineteenth century is represented by Herman Melville's inscribed copy of The Piazza Tales, and three albums of largely unpublished literary fragments by Walt Whitman. However, the great majority of the writers in the exhibition date from the twentieth century, including T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Lawrence Durrell, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas, Randall Jarr |
