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Search for a past exhibition. The Future Beneath Us: 8 Great Projects Under New York This joint exhibition, a project of the New York City Transit Museum and the Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL), focuses on eight megaprojects planned by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In a unique effort, exhibitions at two venues—SIBL’s Healy Hall and the Grand Central Gallery of the Transit Museum—combine to provide a single view of future directions. The Library spotlights City Water Tunnel No. 3, the Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel, the Water Filtration project, and the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. The Transit Museum features the East Side Access project, the Second Avenue Subway project, the Fulton Street Transit Center, and the #7 Line West Side Subway Extension. Images and sounds drawn from the resources of the Transit Museum, the Library, and the concerned agencies reveal the unseen and ongoing efforts. Projections from the agencies, reports on the current status of the projects, and design information serve to suggest the impact these projects will have on the future of New York City and its people in terms of quality of service, improved security, and overall economic and social well being. Katharine Hepburn: In Her Own Files  Katharine Hepburn’s elevation to the status of “icon” was due undoubtedly to her singular success on the screen. But her acting career began on the stage and it was there that she honed the skills that would later serve her so well in Hollywood. Yet even after her stature as a screen actress was solidified, she returned repeatedly to the stage, where each time she found new challenges, new audiences, new risks, and, more than once, failure. read more... Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 6 MB) Image: Katharine Hepburn in the title role of Jane Eyre, Theatre Guild tour, 1937. Photograph by Vandamm Studio. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Billy Rose Theatre Division, Katharine Hepburn Papers New York Choral Society: The First 50 Years The New York Choral Society and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts are celebrating the first 50 years of Choral Society history and the acquisition of the Choral Society's archive. One of the City’s most distinguished volunteer choruses, and proud of “New York” in its name, the Choral Society has performed in remarkable spaces here at home and abroad in a long list of cities that include Paris, Athens, Prague, Venice, Beijing and Shanghai. The Choral Society is celebrated for expanding the repertory through its commissions and premieres. Known for its Summer Sings and Mini-Maestro program for Public School students, the New York Choral Society is committed to expanding the audience and contributing to the City’s cultural vitality. Diaghilev's Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath Diaghilev's Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath, curated by dance historian Lynn Garafola, celebrates the legendary company that transformed 20th-century ballet and made it modern. Founded in 1909 by the Russian impresario extraordinaire Serge Diaghilev, the Ballets Russes taught audiences to hear, see, and respond to the art of the moving body in unprecedented ways. For the 20 years of its existence, a new repertory came into being—now-classic works like Michel Fokine's Les Sylphides and Petrouchka, Vaslav Nijinsky's L'Après-midi d'un Faune, and George Balanchine's Apollon Musagète and Prodigal Son—choreographed by artists whose talents Diaghilev was quick to discern and passionate to guide. He carried his quest for new expressive forms to music and design, commissioning scores from Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Manuel de Falla, Erik Satie, Francis Poulenc, and Darius Milhaud, thus creating a new body of work both for ballet and for the concert hall. The list of his painters, headed by Pablo Picasso, Natalia Goncharova, and Henri Matisse, reads like a who's who of international modernism, underscoring the fact that Diaghilev's stage also served as a gallery of modern art. St. Philip’s Episcopal Church Bicentennial Exhibition St. Philip’s Episcopal Church Bicentennial Exhibition presents the 200 year history of St. Philip’s, from 1809 to 2009. Notable church members include Rev. Peter Williams Jr., James McCune Smith, Elizabeth Jennings, Kenneth Clarke, and Thurgood Marshall. 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. Admission is free. They Won't Budge: Africans in Europe  A photographic exhibition reveals the determination, resilience, and struggle of Africans living in Europe. More than 100 photographs by award-winning photographers. Curated by the Program In Africana Studies at New York University. read more... Image: Anti-racism demonstration in Milan after the death of Abdul Salam Guibre, an African-Italian. Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under Nazi Occupation  The defeat of France by Germany in May–June 1940 transformed the lives of French writers and publishers. Freedom of expression, almost achieved after centuries of struggle, was now set aside. Writers matter in France, and writers were deeply implicated in the changes of 1940. Some of their colleagues were silenced for racial or political reasons. How should they respond? Should they collaborate? Resist? Wait and see? Or follow some more complicated pathway through the changing course of the war? All of them risked being used by one side or another. Yet they were expected, in a nation that placed a high value on its intellectuals, to offer moral leadership in a time of doubt and uncertainty. Spring Arrivals: Historic Debuts at SAB Workshop Performances  The School of American Ballet – official academy of New York City Ballet – has given spring Workshop Performances at Lincoln Center since 1965, dancing the works of George Balanchine, Peter Martins, Marius Petipa, and Jerome Robbins among others. Many of the students appearing in these annual performances have gone on to illustrious careers with major ballet companies. Dancers include Fernando Bujones, Darci Kistler, Maria Kowroski, and Ethan Stiefel and this exhibition – part of the School’s 75th Anniversary celebrations – chronicles their New York debuts with SAB. Renowned dance photographers Martha Swope and Paul Kolnik are among those represented in the exhibition. Image: Melinda Roy in her 1978 Workshop Performance. Photograph by Carolyn George. 1969: The Year of Gay Liberation  The year 1969 was a flashpoint in the history of LGBT civil rights struggles, marking a paradigmatic shift in the ways that gays and lesbians saw themselves and fought for their full inclusion within American society. In the wake of the Stonewall Riots on June 28 of that year, gays and lesbians in New York City radicalized in an unprecedented way, founding activist groups—Gay Liberation Front, the Radicalesbians, Gay Activists Alliance, and Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries—that created a new vision: Gay Liberation. This exhibition charts the emergence of this new vision through photographs and original documents that show the evolution of Gay Liberation in New York City from the Stonewall Riots to the first LGBT pride march—Christopher Street Liberation Day 1970. Art Deco Design: Rhythm and Verve What is the reason for the enduring appeal of Art Deco design? The answer lies in the vitality of the decorative style’s visual elements. Art Deco captured the mood of 1920s and 1930s modernism, an age of jazz and streamlined machinery, with designs that are colorful, geometric, and filled with an intense rhythm. This exhibition seeks to give viewers a more intimate exposure to the style’s incredible energy by focusing on boldly graphic plate books, portfolios, and masterworks of the pochoir stencil print technique from the Library’s Art & Architecture Collection. Art Deco’s international flavor has played particularly well in New York, with many examples of landmark architecture and interiors throughout the city. The exhibition offers a reappraisal of the style’s most notable features and its often-overlooked legacy to modern art. Starting with key Art Nouveau designs that reveal the origins of the Art Deco impulse, the exhibition presents developing traits that move through the 1920s and into the next decade. Aspects of the style’s legacy can be seen in the first volume of the significant art journal Verve(1937-60), a review of art and literature that took root from the fertile soil of mature Art Deco, and in the innovative works of Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), an avant-garde painter and designer, whose brightly colored and geometrically-shaped creations demonstrate the union of fine art and commercial design aesthetics. 40 Years of Firsts: Dance Theatre of Harlem In 1969, writing about Dance Theatre of Harlem, Clive Barnes, dance critic for The New York Times, began his article, “Black is beautiful, classic ballet is beautiful, so why are the two so rarely found together?” That changed when Arthur Mitchell, accomplished artistic director, astute educator, talented choreographer and extraordinary dancer, co-founded Dance Theatre of Harlem with his mentor, the renowned ballet teacher, the late Karel Shook. Inspired by the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Arthur Mitchell wanted to make a difference; by doing what he knew best, which was the focus and discipline of dance, he brought the art form of ballet to Harlem. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and Dance Theatre of Harlem are proud to collaborate on a multi-media exhibition that will bring these 40 years of art and accomplishment to Lincoln Center and then to museums and performance centers across the country. Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance  A collaboration with the League of Professional Theatre Women, this exhibition features works by 110 distinguished designers of scenery, costumes, lighting, props, and projections from various performing arts disciplines, including dance, theater, and opera, from the 1890s to the present. Including photographs, sketches, drawings, set models, costumes, performance videos, ground plans, and interviews with designers, augmented by public programs and educational workshops, it focuses on women designers as participants in the major artistic movements of the period, from experimental theater through the development of modern and, later, postmodern, dance. The exhibition also illuminates women’s roles in developing new technologies and materials for performance: for example, women took the lead in the new field of lighting design, from turn-of-the-19th-century experiments to the computerization of cues in the 20th century. The exhibition also investigates the connections among women designers and women-run businesses.
Image: Photograph of lighting designer Jean Rosenthal by her frequent collaborator, choreographer Jerome Robbins. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. A Centennial Exhibition Honoring Dr. James R. Dumpson A centennial exhibition honoring Dr. James R. Dumpson, African American, social worker, educator, humanitarian and social activist whose career has spanned the modern history of social welfare in the United States, from 1935 to the present. read more... 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. Becoming American: African Americans and American Politics Before Barack Obama, there was Crispus Attucks, Frederick Douglass, the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, Mary McLeod Bethune, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and a host of other heroes and sheroes of the African-American struggle for freedom and human dignity, fighting to make America and American Democracy real for all of its citizens. Like Attucks, people of African descent were there at the founding of the nation. And since Attucks, millions have fought, bled and died to help define, defend and protect the ideals of freedom, justice and equality embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Becoming American: African Americans and American Politics is a brief survey of that quest over the last 200+ years. Living Legacy: Portraits of NEA National Heritage Fellows, 1982 - 2008, photographed by Tom Pich  The National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowships, initiated in 1982, are the federal government's highest form of recognition of folk and traditional artists for their contributions to our nation's living cultural heritage. NEA heritage fellows are nominated by the public and a panel of experts convened by the agency reviews these nominations using the criteria of artistic excellence, significance within an artistic tradition, and contributions to cultural heritage. On display here are portraits by Tom Pich, who, since 1991, has visited and photographed the Fellows in their living rooms, workshops and community settings. In 2007, the NEA developed an exhibition of photographs to mark the 25th anniversary of the program. Those images have been augmented with photographs selected to represent fellows in the performing arts and in the New York metropolitan area for the display at the New York Public Library for the Perofrming Arts. They include singers, musicians, instrument makers, dancers, puppet artists, basket makers, and weavers from a world of traditions and cultures. Image: Etta Baker, guitarist and 1991 National Heritage Fellow. Photograph by Tom Pich OBAMA: THE HISTORIC CAMPAIGN & VICTORY IN PHOTOS  The exhibition Obama: The Historic Campaign & Victory in Photos presents 100 photographs documenting the campaign from its start with several thousand supporters gathered in Springfield, Illinois on a very cold day in February 2007 to that unusually warm evening in Chicago on November 4, 2008 when Barack Obama delivered his victory speech as President-elect of the United States of America. The images capture the vitality of the campaign and the passion and commitment of the millions who rallied to Obama’s theme, Yes We Can!, as his movement for Change grew and moved forward. The exhibition is curated by Deborah Willis and Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe.< read more... Image: Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., arrives for an election night rally with his wife Michelle in St. Paul, Minn., Tuesday, June 3, 2008. Photographer: Chris Carlson. AP Photo. William James Bennett: Master of the Aquatint View During the 1830s and early 1840s, William James Bennett (ca. 1784–1844) made a series of topographical prints that not only celebrated the beauty of the American landscape, but also recorded the young nation’s growing urban centers, with a special focus on New York. Bennett documented the bustling waterfront activity of thriving ports, bathing them in luminous light that unified water, ships, and architecture. Capturing the optimism of the new country, Bennett’s magnificent works—rendered in aquatint, a printmaking process that suggests the fluidity and transparency of watercolor—are regarded as the finest folio views of 19th-century American cities. The 40 prints and watercolors in this exhibition are drawn from the Print Collection of The New York Public Library, many from The Phelps Stokes Collection of American Historical Prints, donated to the Library by I. N. Phelps Stokes in 1930. This exhibition has been made possible by the continuing generosity of Miriam and Ira D. Wallach. Afghanistan, or The Perils of Freedom: Photographs by Stephen Dupont  Stephen Dupont is an award-winning photojournalist, documentary filmmaker, and war correspondent who is internationally recognized for his work in some of the world’s most dangerous areas, including Afghanistan, Burma, Cambodia, Iraq, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Somalia, and Zaire. This exhibition features selected photographs from his work in Afghanistan, where he has covered everything from civil war and the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s to the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom and the ongoing war on terrorism. Also included are photographs from the series Axe Me Biggie, a phonetic rendering of the Dari for “Mister, take my picture.” Dupont made these portraits during the course of one day (March 13, 2006) with a Polaroid camera in a makeshift studio in the streets of Kabul. Together, these photographs tell a story of poverty, warfare, and broken promises, but also of perseverance and hope, as they refocus attention on the state of Afghanistan today. This exhibition, drawn from the Library's Photography Collection, is Dupont’s first solo show in the United States. Yaddo: Making American Culture This exhibition explores the role of Yaddo, the artists‘ retreat, in fostering 20th-century American arts and letters. Founded in 1900 by financier and philanthropist Spencer Trask and his wife, Katrina Trask, Yaddo began receiving guests in 1926 and was immediately hailed by The New York Times as a “new and unique experiment, which has no exact parallel in the world of fine arts.” Since that inaugural season, Yaddo has navigated the roiled cultural and political life of 20th-century America while hosting thousands of artists and writers, including such luminaries as James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Flannery O’Connor, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, Jacob Lawrence, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Philip Guston and Sylvia Plath. Lloyd Goldsmith: Downtown at the End of The Twentieth Century “In setting out to paint the continuities, to focus on what’s the same day after day rather than on what’s different, Lloyd Goldsmith necessarily, and knowingly, paints an abstract city,” writes Kevin Oderman in the monograph Downtown at the End of the Twentieth Century. This exhibition of Goldsmith’s painting is complemented by illustrations from Oderman’s book, indicating the process and development of the painting over a period of several years. Notes Goldsmith, “My subject is New York—my hometown—the urban landscape. To me, the city is organic growth; layer over layer, always in transition, be it a small change of a storefront or a major destruction and redevelopment.” Divas! The Fabulous Photography of Kenn Duncan To celebrate the publication of Divas! The Fabulous Photography of Kenn Duncan, the Library presents a selection of Kenn Duncan’s photographs of celebrated women performers from the worlds of theater, ballet, and music, including Bette Midler, Angela Lansbury, Gelsey Kirkland, Suzanne Farrell, and Bernadette Peters. To purchase the publication of Divas! The Fabulous Photography of Kenn Duncan please click here Not a Cough In A Carload: Images Used By Tobacco Companies To Hide the Hazards of Smoking Early in the last century, questions about the health effects of smoking became a topic of widespread discussion, as terms like “smoker’s cough” and “coffin nails” (referring to cigarettes) began to appear in the popular vernacular. Recognizing the need to counter this threat to their livelihood, tobacco companies undertook a multifaceted campaign to allay the public’s fears. One strategy was to promote smoking as a beneficial practice through endorsements by healthy and vigorous-appearing singers, Hollywood stars, elite athletes, and actors posing as medical professionals. This exhibition, created by Dr. Robert Jackler of the Stanford University Medical School, examines the advertising in which, between the late 1920s and the early 1950s, tobacco companies tried to reassure the public of the safety of their products. Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist  Aaron Douglas (1899–1979) was considered the foremost visual artist of the Harlem Renaissance. In paintings, murals, and book illustrations, he incorporated elements from music, dance, literature, and politics to produce powerful artistic forms that had a lasting impact on American art history and the nation’s cultural heritage. Working from a politicized concept of personal identity, he combined angular Cubist rhythms and seductive Art Deco dynamism with traditional African and African American imagery to develop a radically new visual vocabulary that evoked both current realities and hopes for a better future. Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist, curated by the Spencer Museum of Art/The University of Kansas, is the first nationally touring retrospective to celebrate his art and legacy. This special traveling exhibition features the four Douglas murals from the Schomburg Center’s Art and Artifacts Division. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game": 100 Years of Music, Musicians, and the National Pastime  An exhibition for the whole family! To celebrate the 100th anniversary of baseball theme songs, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presents a tribute to the sport and the musicians who love it, organized around the lyrics -- beginning with a history of the song and its creators. "Take me out with the crowd" focuses on composers who were fans and wrote about the game, among them Charles Ives and William Schuman. "Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack" looks at baseball and promotion via vaudeville and the musical stage, as well as trading cards. "Root for the Home Team" features baseball musicians, among them Jane Jarvis, long-time organist for the New York Mets, and vocalists of the national anthem. The exhibition is based on New York Public Library collections, but includes unique items from the private collection of Andy Strasberg. Image: Sheet music for "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," as published in 1908. The featured performer is Nora Bayes. Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The Stadium: Daily News Photographs of the House That Ruth Built Yankee Stadium—The Stadium—is arguably the most iconic sports venue in America, and as much a part of the New York landscape as the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. The 2008 baseball season turned sports spectators into witnesses of history as New Yorkers and Yankee fans the world over watched the last season-opener, the last All-Star game, the final pitch, and the last catch ever to take place in the House That Ruth Built. Focus on the '70s: The Fabulous Photography of Kenn Duncan In the 1970s and early 1980s world of photography, Kenn Duncan was a name to be reckoned with. Duncan was a principal photographer for the entertainment magazine After Dark and for Dance Magazine, which chronicled the world of dance and choreography. Photographs by Kenn Duncan also appeared in Vogue,Harper’s Bazaar,Life,Time, and Newsweek. In addition, he photographed a dozen Broadway shows, including Hair, Applause, The Elephant Man, and Sophisticated Ladies, and published three volumes of his own photographs: Red Shoes, Nudes, and More Nudes. This retrospective of his 20-year career includes his iconic images of Mikhail Baryshnikov, Angela Lansbury, Rudolf Nureyev, Bette Midler, and the cast of Hair, as well as selections from his nudes and his work with hundreds of celebrities. Duncan’s complete archive was acquired by the Library in 2003 and is part of the Billy Rose Theatre Division. Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue: Their Impact on American Culture “Does She or Doesn’t She?” “Think Different.” “I Want My MTV.” “Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hands.” “Just Do It.” “Got Milk?” “Where’s the Beef?” These slogans are part of the American zeitgeist, but little is known about many of the people who created them—the culturally astute men and women who tapped so successfully into their generations’ desires and fears. This first-of-its-kind exhibition, presented by The One Club and The New York Public Library, shows that the people who created some of the most famous advertisements of the 20th century were as colorful as their slogans—from former spy David Ogilvy to scrappy street fighter George Lois, to tough, hardworking women such as Mary Wells Lawrence, Phyllis Robinson, and Shirley Polykoff, who held their own in the famously male world of 1950s and 1960s Mad Ave. The exhibition highlights the lives and work of dozens of brilliant copywriters and art directors who helped shape American consumption and culture over the past 80 years. The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue: Their Impact on American Culture features more than 200 advertisements, posters, books, TV commercials, and video and audio interviews that amount to a commercial history of 20th-century America. The majority of the men and women represented have been elected into The One Club’s Creative Hall of Fame. Nelson Mandela: Man of the People  In celebration of the 90th birthday of former South African President Nelson Mandela, the Schomburg Center presents a photo exhibition featuring portraits of Mandela taken by internationally acclaimed photographer Peter Magubane. Spanning five decades, Magubane’s images cover important milestones in Mandela’s life as well as major moments in South African history, pre and post-apartheid. Image: Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela in Soweto, South Africa shortly after Mandela's release from prison. Eminent Domain: Contemporary Photography and the City  The exhibition Eminent Domain: Contemporary Photography and the City features the work of five contemporary New York–based photographers drawn primarily from new acquisitions in the Photography Collection. Thomas Holton’s The Lams of Ludlow Street is an empathetic account of one family’s daily life in Chinatown and a photographer’s personal quest to better understand his own heritage. Bettina Johae’s borough edges,nyc is a digital project exploring the edges of the city's five boroughs, which the photographer physically traversed as a way of “remapping” the supposedly well-known city. In Window, Reiner Leist used a 19th-century camera to photograph the view from his 26th-floor apartment on Eighth Avenue overlooking downtown Manhattan. At different times on almost every day during the past decade, Leist captured a slice of Manhattan that includes One Penn Plaza, Madison Square Garden, and, until September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center towers. Over the same period of time, Zoe Leonard tracked changes and disappearances occurring on the Lower East Side as a result of the city’s economic transformation; her Analogue also serves as both elegy and homage to a long-standing tradition of documentary photography. In his series Untitled/This is just to say, Ethan Levitas photographs individual train cars and their passengers along the elevated lines of the New York City subway, capturing unexpected moments of connection and contradiction in the most obvious and overlooked of public spaces. Levitas’s project, like all of the works in Eminent Domain, deals with the life of the city in terms of passage (of seasons and time, people and place) and exchange (between individual and collective, interior and exterior). Turning on the nature of photography itself (which always complicates the relationship between private and public property), the works in the exhibition intersect and resonate with current concerns about the reorganization of urban space in New York City. A publication accompanying the exhibition will include written meditations on these themes by the Bronx-born artist Glenn Ligon, who is known for his multi-media explorations of critical issues in contemporary culture.
Exhibition Brochure (PDF) The Paper Bag Players: 50 Years of Theater Art  This adventurous theater for children has been, from their earliest performances at The Living Theater in the sixties through their tours of the Middle East, Asia and the British Isles, to their current performances in New York City and across the United States, profoundly influential artistically and managerially—and has performed for more then five million children! Under the artistic direction of Judith Martin, the company creates a distinctly contemporary theater. Their shows vividly reflect the everyday lives of children. Their performance style is direct, humorous and friendly. Their sets, props and costumes made of brown paper bags, cardboard boxes and household objects. Their shows are a memorable, personal experience for their young audiences. The artistic endeavors of the company have been strongly supported by a dedicated administration. Under the guidance of Managing Director, Judith Liss, The Paper Bag Players have achieved a series of “firsts.” The Paper Bag Players were the first theatre for children to receive a grant from The National Endowment for Arts, to receive an OBIE, to perform at Lincoln Center and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. This exhibit of photos, posters, historic documents, costumes and props, many drawn from the Paper Bag Players Archives, newly acquired by the Billy rose Theatre Division, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. It celebrates the 50th Anniversary of The Paper Bag Players. One of the longest running theaters for children in America, they are still as new, lively and imaginative as the youngest member of their audience. A Saint in the City  A Saint in the City--originally on view at Fowler Museum at UCLA--presents the visual culture of a dynamic religious movement known as the Mouride way that is inspired by a Senegalese Sufi pacifist, poet, and saint named Amadou Bamba (1853-1927). The Schomburg Center will feature selections from the original exhibition. Image: A Saint in the City New York Story: Jerome Robbins and His World  The most celebrated American choreographer of his time, Jerome Robbins belongs uniquely to New York. He was born in the city and died there, and his dances, both for Broadway and for the ballet stage, recounted its lore and the joys and travails of its ordinary folk. His dances touched a contemporary chord. They conveyed vernacular energies and communal pleasures, echoed the rhythms of jazz, and were set physically and psychologically in New York landscapes. New York Story: Jerome Robbins and His World explores Robbins's work in the context of the many, overlapping New York worlds that met in it. The exhibition draws principally on the very rich collections of Robbins material at the Library's Jerome Robbins Dance Division, as well as on material from other Library divisions, augmented by loans from the Museum of the City of New York, the Paley Center for Media, The Jerome Robbins Trust and Foundation, and private individuals. The exhibit has been curated by Lynn Garafola, professor of Dance at Barnard College. Exhibition Brochure (PDF) Image: Jerome Robbins. Photograph by Jesse Gerstein. Courtesy of the Jerome Robbins Foundation Monumental France: The Photographs of Edouard Baldus  Edouard Baldus came to Paris from Prussia in 1838 to pursue painting, at which he had only very modest success. By 1849 he had turned his attentions to photography, a still-experimental medium that had been introduced only a decade earlier. Baldus was one of five photographers selected by the Commission des Monuments Historiques in 1851 to make surveys of historic sites around France. These Missions Héliographiques, as they were called, were intended to help the Commission determine the preservation and restoration needs at the sites, many of which had never been seen by the Commissioners. Baldus’s itinerary took him south and east where he photographed the Palace of Fontainebleau, Roman monuments and ruins and medieval churches in Provence, Arles, and the Rhône Valley. These photographs won him additional government support, and in the following years he photographed the major monuments of Paris, returned to the southern countryside, and in 1855 documented the construction of the New Louvre. This exhibition presents rare Edouard Baldus photographs from this period. Sketches on Glass: Clichés-Verre from The New York Public Library Cliché-verre is a technique that combines aspects of printmaking and photography. Developed around 1839, this process begins with a glass plate on which an artist either paints a design or scratches a design on a prepared ground. The glass plate is then treated as a negative and placed on top of light-sensitive paper and exposed to the sun. Artists of the Barbizon school were the first, and most prolific, experimenters with this technique. These artists, who lived and worked near the forest of Fontainebleau, celebrated the natural world. They turned away from both classical and romantic treatments of landscape and chose to depict humble scenes based on their direct observations of nature. This exhibition draws from the extraordinary holdings of French 19th-century prints in the Samuel Putnam Avery Collection and features cliché-verre landscapes by Camille Corot, Théodore Rousseau, Charles-François Daubigny, and Jean François Millet. Writing to Character: Songwriters & the Tony Awards  For Broadway's lyricists, composers, and orchestrators, the Tony Awards represent the highest honor that their colleagues can bestow. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts delves into its peerless collections for this multi-media tribute to the creators of the Best Musicals, as well as winners of the occasional Best Score Tony. Working backwards from the award ceremony, the exhibition reveals the work of putting on a show -- from the opening night performance back through rehearsals, orchestrations and arrangements, demos and money raising, writing the songs, and plotting out the show to the original concept. Material is drawn from the archives of songwriters and their producer, designer, director, and performer colleagues in the Library’s four research divisions, including, among many others, Richard Rodgers, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Frank Loesser, Harold Prince, Michael Stewart, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, Fred Ebb, Charles Small, Edward Kleban, and the New York Shakespeare Festival. Image: The songwriters at the first rehearsal of Wonderful Town, 1953. (left to right) Betty Comden (lyricist), Rosalind Russell (star), Adolph Green (lyricist), George Abbott (director), Lehman Engel (musical director) and Leonard Bernstein (composer). Photograph by Vandamm. Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts John Milton at 400: “A Life Beyond Life”  Emblazoned high above the threshold, the expression “life beyond life” taken from John Milton’s stirring defense of free speech, aptly ushers visitors into the Rose Main Reading Room of The New York Public Library. With a reputation rivaling that of the work of Chaucer and Shakespeare, the poetry of John Milton (1608–1674) was avidly collected by the Library's founding fathers, Samuel J. Tilden and James Lenox. This Wachenheim Gallery exhibition fittingly celebrates the quadricentennial of Milton’s birth by giving as much emphasis to his masterworks as to revealing the different ways his poetry has been appreciated by admirers and critics. The first part of the exhibition consists of three sections introducing visitors to Milton’s life, work, and those influences most affecting his development; the exhibition’s second part is divided into three historical sections, showing visitors how in each century, Milton’s readers brought their own concerns, values, and biases to his poetry. The Abyssinian Baptist Church Bicentennial Exhibition  The exhibition traces the evolution of the church from its founding in Lower Manhattan in 1808 as the first African-American Baptist Church in the state of New York through its current work as an agent for positive social change in the Harlem community and the city of New York. Image: Abyssinian Baptist Church Benny Goodman: The Historic Carnegie Hall Concert January 16, 2008 marked the 70th anniversary of the historic concert at Carnegie Hall given by Benny Goodman and his Swing Orchestra. As it stated in the original concert promotion brochure: "Benny Goodman and his orchestra will give, under the pioneering auspices of S. Hurok, the first concert of swing music in the history of Carnegie Hall." The original concert announcement, programs record jackets and photographs will be on display through April 15th in the third floor reading room. 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.
In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights by Ken Collins  Plays tell stories, and photographs tell stories. The words of a play begin on the page and come alive in real time with real people. That relationship created between the people onstage and those in the audience is an intimate one. Photography, I feel, works the same way, though in the opposite direction—capturing real people in real time, the image on the page creates an intimate experience for the viewer. I am completely enchanted by the passion, intellect, and grace of the playwrights who welcomed me into their homes. As a photographer, I could not have asked for better subjects. They wear their lives and their choices on their faces. To become a playwright is a leap of faith, and while these artists have achieved so much, they maintain enormous humanity and humility. That’s what I wanted to capture, and why I chose to photograph them as people, not as “personalities.” I wanted to invite the viewer in, to recreate the sensation of close contact found in the theatre, and, as best I could, to tell each person’s story. – Ken Collins The 45 photographs on display are selected from In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights (Umbrage Editions, 2006). Quotations are excerpted from longer interviews, conducted by Victor Wishna, in that book. The playwrights represented here live in The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts through published scripts on the Circulating Drama Collection shelves (on the 2nd floor) and in archival materials in the research divisions on the 3rd floor. Image: August Wilson. Photograph by Ken Collins. Graziella Vigo captures Verdi on Stage  This exhibition features 130 images by the famed Italian fashion, portrait, and performance photographer, Graziella Vigo. At the suggestion of maestro Riccardo Muti, Vigo photographed productions of Verdi operas at the Teatro alla Scala, in Milan, and the Teatro Regio, in Parma. Ms. Vigo also photographed productions touring at Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo. The over-sized photographs, hand-printed on canvas, comprise strikingly dramatic images of Verdi's most popular operas: Aida, La traviata, Il trovatore, Rigoletto, Un ballo in maschera, Macbeth, and two productions each of Falstaff and Otello. Image: Photograph by Graziella Vigo of Andrea Rost in Verdi's La Traviata, Teatro alla Scala, 2001. The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic  When the Willard Psychiatric Center in New York’s Finger Lakes region closed in 1995, several hundred suitcases filled with the personal belongings of former patients were discovered in an abandoned attic room. As a team of committed curators explored these belongings, individual histories were revealed and The Lives They Left Behind exhibition was born. These suitcases and their contents illuminate the rich, complex lives the individual patients led before they were committed to Willard and speak to their aspirations, accomplishments and community connections, as well as their loss and isolation. These stories make The Suitcase Exhibit a poignant illumination of both the humanity and struggle of those with mental illness historically, while illustrating the vital importance of quality care, compassion, and the hope of recovery today. Image: The Octagon. New York City Lunatic Asylum. Blackwell's Island (now Roosevelt Island) 1839. Lincoln Kirstein: Alchemist  At his centennial, cultural institutions around New York City are celebrating writer, poet, and arts patron Lincoln Kirstein and his impact on American culture. Lincoln Kirstein: Alchemist focuses on the five dance companies he founded – the American Ballet, Ballet Caravan, American Ballet Caravan, Ballet Society, and the New York City Ballet. Each was, in its own way, experimental and pushed the edges of American culture and society. He brought choreographers together with young artists and composers, leading to masterpieces as different as Billy the Kid, Concerto Barocco, The Seasons, and Orpheus. Among the designers whose art is featured are Cecil Beaton, Aline Bernstein, Isamu Noguchi, Tchelitchew, and Ben Shahn, whose designs for the unproduced Tom are on display. The exhibition also recognizes Kirstein's role in the founding of the Library's Dance Collection, now the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Exhibition Brochure (PDF) Image: Lincoln Kirstein. Portrait photograph by George Platt Lynes Gift of Marie-Jeanne, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Copyright Estate of George Platt Lynes 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. 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) Men at Dance -- from Noh to Butoh  Men at Dance–from Noh to Butoh", a photography exhibition by Miro Ito, is a visual representation of the dichotomy that characterizes Japanese performing arts of the past and present. Ito’s 50 photographs focus on two distinct forms of Japanese dance – Noh and Butoh – capturing the intrinsic qualities of each form, establishing a unique relationship between them. Noh, a traditional dance form, began in the 14th Century, whereas Butoh is a modern form, characterized by a subversion of conventional notions of dance.
Image: Fumiyuki TAKEDA (of the Kanze school)as Arsumori in the Noh play Atsumori. Photograph by Miro Ito. Moneta Sleet, Jr.: Pulitzer Prize Photojournalist  This retrospective collection of 125 photographs, drawn largely from images Sleet shot for Johnson Publishing, divides his work into six sections: the era of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; the Civil Rights Movement; Africa; Photo Essays; Portraits; and Children. read more... Black Art: Treasures from the Schomburg  To help commemorate the Grand Opening of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture's renovated facilities, this exhibition offers a sampling of the diverse forms of artistic expression and trends documented in the Center's collection. Part of a long and enduring tradition of art-making in the African world, these works eloquently attest to the fact that African peoples, like all members of the human family, have been actively and creatively involved in producing art of extraordinary beauty, meaning, and power, regardless of where and under what circumstances they have lived. Image: Dance Composition, 1976, by Eldzier Cortor Stereotypes vs. Humantypes: Images of Blacks in the 19th and 20th Centuries  This exhibition uses vintage photographs of black people, as well as representational paintings, sculptures and other artworks to challenge these mythological images and present accurate, humanistic depictions of these maligned black folk. read more... Image: Humantypes: Vaudevillians Ada and George Walker, 1905. Stereotypes: Topsy from a promotional poster for the Uncle Tom’s Cabin Company, mid-19th century; and Jim Crow, the stereotypical character portrayed in blackface by Thomas Dartmouth Rice (known as the “Father of American minstrelsy”) beginning in 1828. Invention: Merce Cunningham & Collaborators  A collaborative project of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Cunningham Dance Foundation, and the John Cage Trust. Image: Merce Cunningham in his Antic Meet, 1958. Photograph by Richard Rutledge. Courtesy Archives of the Cunningham Dance Foundation. Cloud Gate in Photographs  This photographic exhibition honors the Taiwanese experimental dance company on its fifth appearance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. The images focus on major works by the innovative choreographer LIN Hwai-Min: Nine Songs, Songs of the Wanderers, Moon Water, and the trilogy Cursive. This program is presented in association with Asia Society and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Image: Dancer CHOU Chang-ning in LIN Hwai-Min's Cursive, presented by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre. Photograph by LIU Chen-hsiang. Molly Picon: Yiddish Star, American Star  For years she was the "sweetheart" of New York’s Lower East Side Yiddish-speaking community. Her shows, her sheet music, her records, her films, her radio programs, won her a special place in their hearts. Then, as she increasingly began appearing in more English language shows, television programs, and films, an even larger audience fell in love with her: the American public. Picon's changing career reflects the contributions immigrant cultures have made to our entertainment industry, our city, and our nation.
Exhibition Brochure (PDF) Image: This photograph of Molly Picon was distributed by the William Morris Agency, ca. 1963. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 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. Lower Manhattan 2010: It's Happening Now  Lower Manhattan 2010: It's Happening Now is an exhibit designed by the Lower Manhattan Command Center (LMCCC) to present images and text describing the major rebuilding projects underway in New York City from Chambers Street south to the Battery.
Green Building Bibliography
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. The Performance of Self in Everyday Life: Photography by Dona Ann McAdams  The Performance of Self in Everyday Life: Photography by Dona Ann McAdams Image: Meredith Monk in her Volcano Songs at PS122, 1994. Photograph by Dona Ann McAdams. 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. William Godwin's Juvenile Library - POSTPONED POSTPONED Arturo Toscanini: Homage to the Maestro  A 50TH ANNIVERSARY RETROSPECTIVE Image: Arturo Toscanini aboard the U.S.S. Rex, December 28, 1933. Toscanini Legacy Collection, Music Division. 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. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 4.3 MB) "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. Stars and Treasures: 75 Years of Collecting Theatre  Since its founding in 1931, the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, a division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, has amassed more than nine million items, which together constitute the world's preeminent record of live theater in all its manifestations. The collection's holdings are of such repute that researchers from every continent have availed themselves of its treasures and resources. This year marks the 75th anniversary of this world-renowned collection and The New York Public Library will commemorate the occasion with celebratory events throughout the year. The centerpiece of this anniversary celebration will be a major exhibition featuring hundreds of rare or unique treasures from the collection. The exhibition will consist of artifacts that, in most cases, have been viewed by only a few researchers on-site and, in many cases, have never before been seen by the public. Among the items featured in the exhibition will be costume jewelry worn by Edwin Booth in Hamlet, costume designs by Cecil Beaton for the original production of My Fair Lady, a bejeweled belt worn by Sarah Bernhardt in Cleopatra, letters written by Harry Houdini, heartbreaking letters from American playwright Tennessee Williams describing the burden of alcoholism and its effect upon his writing, and a color caricature by Al Hirschfeld portraying George Bernard Shaw as a red-faced, horned devil. Many contemporary actors have loaned their personal treasures for this exhibition. One among many is a silver smelling-salts vial once owned by actress Ellen Terry and now a prized possession of actress Jane Alexander. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 4.5 MB) Image: Costume design by Gladys Monkhouse for a musical revue, probably Cheer Up (1917), presented at New York's Hippodrome Theatre. R. H. Burnside Collection, Billy Rose Theatre Division. Commemorating New York's African Burial Ground: A National Monument  This special exhibition will fully explore the African Burial Ground, from its unearthing in 1991 to the 2006 Presidential declaration making it America's first National Monument commemorating a community of enslaved African men, women, and children. From the local community's struggle to "stop the digging" and to properly protect and preserve the ancestral cemetery, Commemorating New York's African Burial Ground will include documents, photographs, artifacts reproductions, and video footage to recall the historic, but long-forgotten cemetery's origins, abandonment, and rediscovery--and the public's journey to transfrom the site into a national monument. Image: Rodney Leon's African Burial Ground memorial design 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 thirty-nine hand-colored lithographs, on view in this exhibition, and reproduced in a new edition of Pinocchio published by Steidl. This exhibition celebrates Dine's promised gift of these prints to the Spencer Collection of The New York Public Library, the most recent in a series of gifts to the Library from Jim Dine, documenting his extraordinary career as an artist of the book. read more... Image: Frontispiece for Pinocchio by Jim Dine and Carlo Collodi (Steidl, 2006). Lithograph, hand-colored with acrylic and pastel 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. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 1.4 MB) Image: Lewis Hine's "Two Mill Workers", ca. 1905. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan  The Japanese literary tradition, dating from as early as the 8th century, is among the richest and most enduring of any country in the world, and ehon, or "picture books," although little known in the West are one of the glories of world art. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 3 MB) In Character: Actors Acting  Each actor was given a direction, a character to play, a scene, and, at times, even dialogue. Photographs were made as each actor creatively developed the part. The results of these improvisations are revealed on the walls of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in Howard Schatz's enthralling close-up photographs. Based on the 2006 book by Howard Schatz and Beverly J. Ornstein, this landmark project provides a fascinating new vision of actors acting and the power of creative imagination. Image: Edie Falco as photographed by Howard Schatz. © 2006 by Howard Schatz and Beverly J. Ornstein 500 Years of Italian Dance: Treasures from the Cia Fornaroli Collection  500 Years of Italian Dance: Treasures from the Cia Fornaroli Collection pays tribute both to the rich history of Italian dance and to the remarkable Cia Fornaroli Collection, a jewel of the Library's Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Assembled by Walter Toscanini, son of the famed Italian conductor, and his wife the La Scala ballerina Cia Fornaroli, the Collection documents the full sweep of Italian dance history from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. The Collection is huge and multifaceted. It encompasses some of the earliest writings on dance, including one of the very first Renaissance dance manuals, scores of books, letters, programs, and libretti, and literally hundreds of designs, photographs, lithographs, and ephemera. It also includes Toscanini's personal research materials and manuscripts, as well as an important collection of memorabilia documenting the career of his ballerina-wife. Image: Sofia Fuoco dancing the Tarantella, [185-]. Engraving from Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The African Presence in the Americas  The African Presence in the Americas originally made its debut at the Center in April 1991. Fifteen years later, the traveling exhibition version will be on display. This exhibition was designed to introduce viewers to the dynamics and dimensions of African peoples' 500-year history in the Americas. African Presence explores four broad themes--migration, work, culture, and resistance--that cut across time and geography, illuminating the commonalities and differences in background, culture, gender, and social status of these African Americans. Please join us as we welcome back, for a limited time, this wonderful exhibition. Ads Matter  ADS MATTER is an Ad Council exhibit which documents the advertising industry's long standing commitment to better America by producing compelling public service campaigns. Smokey Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog are among the icons depicted in images from a dozen memorable ads. The exhibit will be accompanied by a number of programs related to advertising and the media. Dance in Cuba  In 2001 Gil Garcetti traveled to Cuba for the first of what would be several visits. Captivated by the essential role of dance in everyday life, he photographed dancers ranging from professional ballerinas to street performers. This, the first museum exhibition of Garcetti’s Cuban images, features fifty-nine photographs, most of which are drawn from his acclaimed new book, Dance in Cuba (2005). Image: Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, January 2004. Photograph by Gil Garcetti. Changing Streetscapes: New Architecture and Open Space in Harlem  Walk down almost any street in Harlem and you will see a transformation underway. Changing Streetscapes highlights recent construction and development in five areas: housing, commercial development, cultural and institutional projects, and landscape and planning. This exhibit offers a snapshot of the unfolding fabric of Harlem. Image: Changing Streetscapes From Color to Light: Beni Montresor  This multi-media exhibit on the international opera, ballet and theater career of designer Beni Montresor is a co-production of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in New York, Fondazione Aida, and Titivillus Mostre Editoria. Montresor designed for scenery, costumes and lighting for an international array of the major opera houses, ballet troupes, and summer festivals, as well as Broadway and Off-Broadway theaters. The exhibit will feature photographs and original designs, costumes from Turandot, loaned by the New York City Opera, and the set model for the musical comedy Rags. From Color to Light is presented in conjunction with House of Flowers House of Stars,a concurrent exhibit on his career as an author and illustrator of children's books at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura. Image: Beni Montresor arriving in New York City. Fondazione Aida Places & Spaces: Mapping Science  The exhibit compares traditional historical mapping of political entities with the mapping of individual fields of scientific research. Science is mapped by tracking citations to papers indexed in the Web of Science database. Panels in the exhibit will present traditional early maps and several specific instances of the mapping of science. An interactive module will permit the viewer to create a digital map of a specific area of science. Exhibition Brochure (PDF) 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. In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience  By boat, on foot, by train, car, and plane, Africans and their descendants have crossed oceans and land, sailed up and down rivers, and put down roots and pulled them up again. Like Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte, Wyclef Jean, Barack Obama, Edwidge Danticat, Ossie Davis, Colin Powell, 35 million African Americans are heirs to migrations that have shaped this country and the African Diaspora. With images, manuscripts, photographs, maps, and music, In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience tells the story of a people whose movements over the last 500 years, both coerced and willing, inspired a culture and shaped a nation. For public program information and exhibit hours, visit www.schomburgcenter.org.
Image: Stephanie S. Hughley (photo by Keith Hadley) 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) 60 Years of Tony Award® Excellence  The American Theatre Wing, The League of American Theatres and Producers, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts are proud to present the 60 Years of Tony Award Excellence exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The exhibition, which features the window cards from each one of the Tony Award Winning Best Plays and Musicals from the past 60 years, will officially kick-off the 2006 Tony Award® season. 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 Show Business: Irving Berlin's Broadway  From interpolations to the integrated musical, Irving Berlin's story tells the evolution of the Broadway musical as an art form. through photographs, drawings, set and costume designs, programs, and related ephemera, we present moments from every part of his Broadway career, as he and his audience first saw it. The exhibition is a project of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts that will also travel to the San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum (July - December 2005) and the Marion McNay Art Museum, San Antonio (July - October 2006). read more... Image: Irving Berlin (at piano), with (from left) Eddie Cantor, Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., dance director Sammy Lee, and members of the chorus of the 1927 edition of the Follies. Billy Rose Theatre Collection 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. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 7.8 MB) Image: John Seller's "A Mapp of the World" Opera on the Air: The Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts Turn 75  This multi-media exhibit documents the 75 years of live radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. It includes scores, correspondence, photographs and artifacts from the Music Division and Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, as well as costume pieces on loan from Metropolitan Opera's Archives. Available with the exhibit is an audio station featuring selections from the broadcasts' performances and intermission features. Harlem is...Music  Harlem is...Music is a component of Community Works' signature multilayered public art exhibition developed with NYC public schools and after school programs. The exhibit explores Harlem's unrivaled musical tradition through archival and contemporary photographs, commentary by contributing writers and poetry and prose by Harlem public school students. It examines the development of 8 musical genres: Jazz, blues, R&B, hip-hop and rap, gospel, classical, Latin, and fusion. Image: The Minton's Playhouse PHOTO CREDIT: Copywright William P. Goittlieb, Library of Congress Collection PICTURED FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Portrait of Thelonious Monk, Howard McGhee, Roy Eldridge, and Teddy Hill, Minton's Playhouse, New York, N.Y., ca. Sept. 1947 Vaudeville Nation  Vaudeville has been called the most influential entertainment genre in the nation's history. Vaudeville, and the related forms such as burlesque and prologs, provided freedom for self-expression of social and political commentary. It supported the development of America's two native art forms -- jazz and tap dance -- and served a model for radio, early sound film, and television. Unlike those media, it served the full diversity of the American public -- as performers and as audience. The research divisions of LPA, the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Music Division and Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, are the major source for vaudeville research. They document thousands of performers, promoters, tour managers, theater buildings, and the critics, composers, writers, dance directors, and designers who worked with them. The collections include the primary documents of vaudeville -- joke books, scripts, designs, and songs -- as well as promotional materials, such as photographs, illustrated letterheads, flyers, and calling cards, sent to turn-of-the-century critics. The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts at The New York Public Library  The New York Public Library possesses one of the finest collections of medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts in North America, yet its manuscript holdings are scarcely known to scholars, much less to a wide public audience. Medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts are vehicles of the collective memory of western European culture, and provide a material connection between the scribes, illuminators, and patrons who produced these works and the audiences who view them today. The works represent diverse genres, from Bibles and missals to romance literature and science texts. Drawn entirely from the Library's Spencer Collection and the Manuscripts and Archives Division, the 100 medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the exhibition will focus on the 9th through the 16th centuries -- seven hundred years of profound political, ecclesiastical, social, and intellectual change in Western Europe and the world. read more... Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 1 MB) Image: From Every Stage: Images of America's Roots Music  Bluegrass, folk, blues, zydeco, and cowboy country -- these genres are both America's roots and America's present. From Every Stage is a selection of photographs by noted journalist Stephanie P. Ledgin, revealing performances, practice and jam sessions. Among the performers are John Hartford, Odetta, Pete Seeger, Queen Ida, and Minnie Pearl in venues from the Grand Ole Opry to the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival. Image: Cajun band leader Steve Riley at the 1999 Crawfish Fest, Waterloo Village, Stanhope NJ. Photo by Stephanie P. Ledgin. 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. Through the Eyes of the Gods: An Aerial View of Africa  This limited exhibition, sponsored by National Geographic, features aerial pictures of Africa taken by award-winning photographer Robert Haas. For his new National Geographic book, Haas flew across the continent, hanging out of helicopters and light planes to capture an array of spectacular images offering a glimpse of Africa's landscapes, animals, and people. The Juilliard School, 1905-2005: Celebrating 100 Years  A collaboration with The Juilliard School to celebrate the 100th birthday of the esteemed conservatory of dance, music, and theater. Exhibition Brochure (PDF) "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, drawn primarily from the holdings of the Library's Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. read more... Opt In to Advertising's New Age  This exhibition focuses on the history of advertising, from print and radio to television and the Internet. Showcasing some of the most creative ads of all time, the exhibit also provides a vision of the ways in which technology will continue to be an integral part of how marketers and consumers experience advertising well into the future. The seminal advertising from each era – print, radio, television, and the Internet – will be brought to life through the devices that enabled them to be, all against a backdrop displaying the historical and cultural context in which the technologies first flowered. A large-screen monitor, set within a bezel of large offset letter blocks, will display the great milestone print advertisements from the 1900s to the present day. A gigantic radio will play the famed ads from the 1920s to the present, with the dial tuning in to each decade. And an oversized television will play some of the most decisive and effective television ads of all time. The exhibit will culminate with an interactive encounter that will allow users to experience the future of advertising, which embraces a synergy across all media, linked by the Web. Though the exhibit begins in a distant era, it will aptly demonstrate how all the ads and technologies remain very vital and important in today’s marketplace. By the end of the experience, viewers will also understand how creativity has always been the key to success when mastering any new advertising technology. The exhibit, produced in collaboration with the Online Publishers Association, runs in conjunction with Advertising Week in NYC – a week-long celebration of advertising in New York. Malcolm X: A Search for Truth  Malcolm X: A Search for Truth will provide the first opportunity for the general public to examine materials from the Malcolm X collection. The Malcolm X collection is unique in that it contains a wide range of speeches, sermons, radio broadcasts, diaries, correspondence, and other documents handwritten by Malcolm X or typed and edited at his direction. Most significantly, Malcolm X: A Search for Truth will offer the public fresh new insights into the nature of his thoughts and development, as well as his multifaceted, at times seemingly contradictory, persona and personality. A Community of Artists: 50 Years of the Public Theater  In conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the New York Shakespeare Festival and Public Theater I LA GALIGO: From the Sulawesi Epic to the Stage  An exhibition of photographs and texts documenting the Indonesian island cultural epic and Robert Wilson's production of I LA GALIGO at the Lincoln Center Festival, July 13 - 17, 2005. America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures: The First 100  An exhibit developed by the Dance Heritage Coalition representing the first 100 American Dance Treasures, among them, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts read more... Image: Ruth St. Denis in her solo Tagore Poem, 1929. Photo by Soichi Sunami. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dance Division. 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. 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. read more... 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. The Subway at 100: General William Barclay Parsons and the Birth of the NYC Subway  Celebrating the centennial of the opening of the New York City subway system in 1904, this exhibition both salutes William Barclay Parsons, the first chief engineer of the subway, and recognizes the importance of the subway system to the life and growth of the city. The exhibition focuses on Parsons as a collector, prominent New York City personage, military engineering specialist, educator, and, primarily, as chief engineer of the New York City subway system. Tracing the planning and financing stages of the project, the exhibition includes correspondence between Parsons and August Belmont, the major financier of the project, as well as photographs of the signing of the original contract. The construction phase of the subway system is documented by images of Parsons turning the first shovelful of earth and others showing the actual tunnel and street digging. Other items on view include images of the beautiful iron artwork supplied by the Hecla Iron Works, publications and documents illustrating station ceramic work and station design, and the first subway tickets. read more... Image: Inspection of City Hall Subway Station, 1904. Courtesy of Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc. 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. read more... 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. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 745 KB) In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience By boat, on foot, by train, car, and plane, Africans and their descendants have crossed oceans and land, sailed up and down rivers, and put down roots and pulled them up again. Like Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte, Wyclef Jean, Barack Obama, Edwidge Danticat, Ossie Davis, Colin Powell, 35 million African Americans are heirs to migrations that have shaped this country and the African Diaspora. With images, manuscripts, photographs, maps, and music, In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience tells the story of a people whose movements over the last 500 years, both coerced and willing, inspired a culture and shaped a nation. For public program information and exhibit hours, visit www.schomburgcenter.org.
Image: Stephanie S. Hughley (photo by Keith Hadley) Beyond the Rainbow: Music of Harold Arlen  A multi-media tribute to composer and songwriter Harold Arlen on the 100th anniversary of his birth. read more... Image: Harold Arlen singing. Courtesy of S. A. Music. DISCO: A Decade of Saturday Nights  interactive exhibit from Experience Music Project, Seattle, on the culture and music of the influential social dance genre read more... Image: Disco: A Decade of Saturday Nights. Experience Music Project 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. read more... 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. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 4.4 MB) 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. Bedlam Days: The Early Plays of Charles Ludlam and The Ridiculous Theatrical Company  Photographs by Argentian filmmaker and artist Leandro Katz documenting seven early productions of Charles Ludlam and the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, 1968 - 1975. read more... Image: Charles Ludlam, photographed by Leandro Katz, 1971. 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. read more... 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. 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. With James Gillray, more than 160 of the artist's prints and drawings will be on view in the third-floor Print and Stokes Galleries. read more... 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. Romare Bearden: From the Studio and Archive  Drawing on the collections of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and collectors Russell Goings and Evelyn N. Boulware, this exhibition explores aspects of Harlem Renaissance painter Romare Bearden’s approaches to developing his craft. On display are selected works by Bearden, as well as rarely seen drawings, books and sketchbooks from the artist's personal library. Image: The Siren's Song, painting by Romare Bearden. From the collections of Russell Goings and Evelyn N. Boulware. World Music in Focus: An Exhibition Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of World Music Institute  In this multi-media exhibition, The World Music Institute (WMI) and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts have collaborated to showcase WMI's 20-year history as this nation's leading presenter of traditional music and dance from around the world. Featured will be the images of Jack Vartoogian, Linda Vartoogian, and Ira Landgarten, three prominent photographers who have documented WMI concerts for many years. The exhibit will also introduce new audiences to a wide range of music from many cultures and regions through concert videos from the WMI archive; traditional instruments from around the world, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Newark Museum; and interactive kiosks with music samples. read more... Image: Ravi Shankar performing on a sitar at the Alice Tully 70th Birthday celebration, May 16, 1990. Photograph by Ira Landgarten. Copyright Ira Landgarten. 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. Mirrors to the Past: Ancient Greece and Avant-garde America  American artists have long been moved by the august cultures of ancient Greece. Motivated by the enlightened minds that produced works of incomparable beauty and emotional resonance, they in turn forged new directions, discarded rules, and redefined their art forms. This multimedia exhibition, which draws on rare material housed in all four research divisions of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, focuses on the liberating force of archaic and classical Greece and the countless 20th-century American choreographers, theater artists, composers, visual artists, and designers it inspired. read more... Image: Isadora Duncan at the Parthenon theater, 1904. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Image ID: WWM9916/ISADORA/0058VA Mexico Now: Contemporary Dance Posters and Mexico Now: Sounds of Mexico  At the end of the 1970s and during the 1980s, a new wave of Mexican choreographers and dancers could be seen in parks, plazas, streets, fountains, church atriums, and other public sites, finding new audiences and alternative performance spaces. The independent groups of contemporary dance, as they call themselves, include, among others, Antares, Asaltodiario, Barro Rojo, Cebra, and Contradanza. Their work is characterized by a search for new styles, forms, techniques, and themes to reflect the social, political, and economic climate of change in Mexico. Posters and photographs were donated by the companies to Americas Exchange Program for Dance for the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, as part of a continuing collaborative effort. Posters will be mounted in the Plaza corridor gallery; additional archival and multi-media artifacts will be on display in the Dance Division, on the third floor. In addition, Sounds of Mexico, an exhibition of artifacts and audio material, is on display in the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, on the third floor. These exhibitions are part of the city-wide Mexico Now Festival, a project of Arts International. Image: Mexico Now, a citywide festival of contemporary Mexican arts and culture, will present the work of over 100 Mexican filmmakers, architects, writers, dance, theater, music, and visual artists at 28 of New York City's leading arts venues in November 2004 . Mexico Now is a project of Arts International, the nation's only nonprofit organization solely devoted to international arts exchange. More information is available at www.mexiconowfestival.org. hiphoproots: origins and impact  In celebration of Hip-Hop Month, the Hip-Hop Archive Project presents an exhibition focusing on the historical value of hip-hop and its preservation. The exhibition will feature hip-hop artifacts from the collections of Cold Crush Brother A.D. Harris and photographer Joe Conzo. Archives Image: Photograph by Joe Conzo 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. read more... 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. The City and The Theatre In tribute to Mary Henderson’s recently re-issued definitive history of theater in New York City, The City and the Theatre, this exhibit of photographs and architectural renderings follows The Great White Way from 41st Street up to 52nd Street in a fascinating look at the evolution of Broadway’s theater buildings from their beginnings to the present day. Among the many legendary buildings highlighted are the old Metropolitan Opera, the Belasco, the Empire, and the Alwin. On display are original architectural drawings by Anthony Dumas (1910s to 1930s) juxtaposed, in the cases of surviving theaters, with nighttime photographs by Christopher Frith of their current incarnations. Also on view are contemporary drawings by Stanley Stark of old theaters that have been integrated into new buildings, including the Gershwin, the Marquis, and the new Broadway theaters. Ademola Olugebefola at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors  New York artist Ademola Olugebefola spends his Augusts at the free performances of the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival. This exhibit focuses on recent art inspired by his sketching at modern dance presentations by Donald Byrd/The Group (of their In a Different Light: Duke Ellington, August 16, 2000) and Monte/Brown Dance (August 17, 2001); and at jazz concerts by Abdullah Ibrahim and Mary Stallings (August 24, 2001) and The Mingus Big Band (August 23, 2002). Image: Ademola Olugebefola's impressions of the piano improvisations of Ibrahim Abdullah, August 24, 2001. Lest We Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery  The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2004 as the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition, and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has elected Lest We Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery to be its official travelling exhibit, highlighting the triumph of the principles of liberty, equality, and the dignity of human rights. Lest We Forget documents and interprets the obstacle-ridden but life-affirming experiences of enslaved African peoples in the Americas, and examines the extraordinary capacity of human beings to confront and transcend oppression, and to triumph over state-sanctioned injustice. Blacks and the United States Constitution  Blacks and the United States Constitution examines the pivotal role of race in American Constitutional history, the black presence in American society, the dynamics of race relations in the United States, and the history of black freedom struggles. Highlights include proceedings of nineteenth-century black conventions, David Walker's fiery Appeal using natural rights philosophy to justify slave violence in pursuit of freedom, Secretary of State William H. Seward's signed certificate attesting to the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Supreme Court's formal judgment in Brown v. Board of Education. Image: The Colored National Convention held at Nashville, April 5, 6, and 7. Published: May 6, 1876 The James Baldwin Series  The James Baldwin Series is presented in celebration of Baldwin's 80th birthday year. Photographer and visual artist Ted Pontiflet creates a stunning tribute to the legacy of James Baldwin through his collection of montage digital prints and candid photographic prints. 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. Margot Fonteyn in America: A Celebration  Margot Fonteyn was probably the most famous, most successful, and most beloved ballerina in the second half of the 20th century. Her introduction to America came on October 9, 1949, when Sol Hurok presented the Sadler's Wells Ballet (later the Royal Ballet) at the Metropolitan Opera House, featuring Fonteyn in the role of Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. This exhibition, which includes costumes, haute couture, photographs, and film, takes the audience from the pointe shoes Fonteyn wore on that opening night to a stage heaped with flowers at the curtain call for her final Aurora in the United States -- and beyond. read more... Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 3.1 MB) Image: Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev in The Sleeping Beauty. Photograph by Mira. Harlem Is... The Gospel Tradition  Community Works presents an exhibition that celebrates the rich tradition of Harlem’s religious institutions by honoring four churches at the forefront of the migration to Harlem: the Abyssinian Baptist Church, Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Mount Oliver Baptist Church, and St. Philip’s Episcopal Church. The exhibition will feature a detailed history of each church as well as the powerful words of twelve of Harlem’s current spiritual leaders, reflections on the contributions that Harlem’s religious institutions have made to the community and to American and world culture. Exhibition Brochure (PDF) Image: Abyssinian Baptist Church EKANBAN: Kabuki Billboards by Torii Kiyomitsu  This summer, the Lincoln Center Festival will present the Heisei Nakamura-za Kabuki Theater, Tokyo, led by Nakamura Kankuro V. Like Kabuki, Ekanban, the colorful billboards that advertise Kabuki plays, are also produced by a family dynasty. Torii Kiyomitsu is the ninth master of the Torii school, and the first woman in this traditional of tratrical painting. 30 large rice paper billboards depict the characters, costumes and repertory of Kabuki, including Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami, the work presented in the Festival. Image: Billboard by Torii Kiyomitsu for Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami ... to illuminate the scene: Ellen Terry, Edith Craig, Edward Gordon Craig and John Gielgud  Four members of a British family redefined Anglo-American theater for the audience and profession. Ellen Terry, starring in the plays of Shakespeare and Shaw, epitomized the international appeal of English theater in the late 19th century. Her son, Edward Gordon Craig, was a revolutionary theorist, designer, and director of theater who also found the time to edit, design, and print books and magazines. Edith Craig, her daughter, first known as a designer and costumer, ran a theater company that produced suffragist and feminist plays, primarily by women. Terry’s great-nephew, Sir John Gielgud, presented and starred in both classics and innovative new plays of the British theater, and he created memorable characters in over fifty years of film. 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. Blacks and the United States Constitution Blacks and the United States Constitution examines the pivotal role of race in American Constitutional history, the black presence in American society, the dynamics of race relations in the United States, and the history of black freedom struggles. Highlights include proceedings of nineteenth-century black conventions, David Walker’s fiery Appeal using natural rights philosophy to justify slave violence in pursuit of freedom, Secretary of State William H. Seward’s signed certificate attesting to the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Supreme Court’s formal judgment in Brown v. Board of Education. Image: The Colored National Convention held at Nashville, April 5, 6, and 7. Published: May 6, 1876 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. read more... 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. read more... 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. Gift of Life Project 2004  The Gift of Life Project 2004 features collages created by The Boys & Girls Harbor art students from Genesis & P.A.C.T. programs, who learned about young people in Chad, Niger, and Brazil from research, presentations from UNICEF specialists, and photojournalists. The collages they created reflect the plights of their peers and were auctioned off to raise money to promote child advocacy, clean water programs, and medicine in those regions through UNICEF programs. (In the past, Harbor students have raised more than $20,000, of which 100 percent was donated to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that benefited youth in Sierra Leone, Angola, and India.) Their artwork has been exhibited internationally at the UN’s World Conference in Durban and nationally at the United Nations, Sotheby’s, Inc., Rush Arts Gallery, and the Blue Heron Arts Center. This year the students’ collages will be exhibited at the Schomburg Center, the Romare Bearden Foundation, the United Nations, and Lincoln Center’s Cork Gallery. Ninety from the Nineties: A Decade of Printing  As part of its mission, the Rare Books Division in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library collects representative works from printers engaged in the craft of letterpress printing. The purpose of Ninety from the Nineties: A Decade of Printing is twofold. It highlights selected works that were added to the collection over the past decade and it attempts to illustrate current trends among the artists and craftsmen engaged in the book arts. read more... 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. read more... Image: A Kalmyk horseman. Hand-colored engraving from: The Costume of the Allied Armies in Paris in the Year 1815. [Paris, 1816]. Spencer Collection. 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 Enduring Legacy of George Balanchine  Active at every level of instruction and performance, George Balanchine nourished the performers, teachers, and students who shaped the future of ballet in New York and across the United States. In celebration of the centennial of Balanchine's birth and in recognition of his profound impact on New York City, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will present this multimedia exhibition of photographs, designs, manuscript music and correspondence, costumes, set pieces, and models. Visitors will gain new insights from excerpts from oral histories of Balanchine dancers and from videotaped performances and rehearsals. Exhibition Brochure (PDF) Senegalese Contemporary Art Exhibition  Featuring works by four of Senegal’s leading contemporary artists: Chalys Leye, Mbaye Ousseynou dit Seyni, El Hadji Mboup, and Mbaye dit Tita. Prokofiev and His Contemporaries: The Impact of Soviet Culture  This exhibition commemorates the 50th anniversary of Sergei Prokofiev's death by focusing on Soviet culture of the 1920s through 1940s and its impact on American performing arts. It is a project of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the MusicaRussia Foundation and features artifacts from the Library for the Performing Arts, the Glinka Archives and State Central Museum of Music, the Bolshoi Theater Museum, and the Stanislavsky and Nemerovich-Danchenko Theater of Moscow. Exhibition Brochure (PDF) Image: Photograph of Sergei Prokofiev, inscribed to Carl Lachmund, New York, 1920. Lachmund, a pianist, teacher and founder of the Women’s String Orchestra, had been a student of Franz Liszt. Carl Lachmund Collection, Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The Buffalo Soldiers: The African-American Soldier in the U.S. Army  This exhibition, which features items from the collections of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anthony Powell and illustrations by Avel de Knight, explores the victories and challenges of the 9th and 10th Cavalries, composed of African Americans and established by the United States Congress in July 1866. Dubbed Buffalo Soldiers by Native Americans, the mounted regiments developed into two of the most distinguished fighting units in the Army during the remainder of the 19th and the early 20th centuries. They also explored and mapped vast areas of the Southwest, strung hundreds of miles of telegraph lines, built and repaired frontier outposts that bloomed into towns and cities, and protected crews building the railroads. Image: John T. Glass, Scout, ca. 1885 Collection of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Jubilee: The Emergence of African-American Culture  This exhibition, a companion to the Schomburg Center's four-color illustrated history of the same name (published by National Geographic), documents the courageous and innovative ways that enslaved Africans developed their own unique culture in the midst of slavery, and examines how that culture developed and flourished through the years after emancipation to the turn of the century. Invoking the Spirit: Worship Traditions in the African World  The product of more than twenty-five years of travel and research by New York Times photojournalist Chester Higgins, Jr., this photographic essay explores worship practices across ethnic, national, cultural, and religious boundaries throughout the African world and documents the vitality and diversity of the global African religious experience. The images featured in the exhibition also serve as the central theme of Higgins’s book, Feeling the Spirit: Searching the World for the People of Africa. Culled from his archive of almost a million photographs documenting the global African experience, the photographs in Invoking the Spirit explore the myriad ways in which African peoples venerate their sacred deities, invoking their presence and spirit in their life worlds. Documented here are the sacred places African peoples—in Africa and the Americas—create and/or consecrate; the diverse spiritual leaders who are involved in the conduct of worship activities; the universal use of prayer as a formal means of communicating with God and the spirits; the rites, rituals, and ceremonies Africans use to pay tribute to God and invoke His/Her presence; and the roles of music and dance in religious services, ceremonies, and rituals. Image: © Chester Higgins, Jr. All Rights Reserved. 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, this exhibition traces Russia’s interaction with Europe, Asia and the Americas during its rise from relative isolation to global empire. 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. Depression-era Prints and Photographs from the WPA and FSA  During the Great Depression, a portion of the funding for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was designated for the aid of unemployed writers, musicians, actors, and artists, leaving them free to create. A number of their prints were then distributed to schools, libraries, museums, and other institutions around the country. The prints on display celebrate the 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, representing such authors as Charles Dickens, James Joyce, and E. E. Cummings, and will feature Dickens's prompt copy of A Christmas Carol, from which he gave his public readings. read more... 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. Honest Jim: James Watson the Writer  This exhibit will focus on Dr. James Watson, co-discoverer with Francis Crick of the DNA double helix, as a writer and will follow a timeline beginning with his boyhood. The exhibition will include letters to his family through his academic years, material from the University of Chicago Library collection, and his published books and papers reflecting his professional life. The exhibition will also include works by other scientists, such as Charles Darwin, who are of both literary and scientific importance. Image: James Watson lecturing about DNA in 1953. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Puppetry of Shadow and Light  The international art of shadow puppetry transcends time and geography. This exhibition presents artifacts and film honoring the ancient, traditional, and avant-garde forms of this vivid art. The exhibition features examples of traditional and modern puppets and screens from India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Greece, Turkey, and Western Europe. It also includes figures, designs, and performance videos representing contemporary innovators Stephen Kaplin, Julie Taymor, Mabou Mines, Mireya Cueto, Larry Reed, Janie Geiser, and Theodora Skipitares, who have been influenced by shadow puppetry’s traditions. Image: Thai puppet figure from The Ramayana. Traditional Nang Yi Theater Style. Jo Humphrey Collection. Ralph Johnson Bunche, Nobel Laureate: A Centennial Retrospective  A centennial exhibition honoring the achievements of Nobel laureate Ralph J. Bunche and featuring artifacts, documents, and other materials from the Schomburg Center’s Ralph J. Bunche Collection. The exhibition will be divided into four sections: family/education, scholarship/activism, government, and diplomacy. History, a sculpture by Dumile Feni The South African Consulate General and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture present History, a sculpture by Dumile Feni, to be permanently housed in the Constitutional Court, Johannesburg, South African, on view at the Schomburg Center through Friday, October 31, 2003. Photographs by Sherif Sonbol An exhibit of images of contemporary Egyptian performance by photographer Sherif Sonbol. The photographs of ballet, modern dance, musicians, and street performance are intensively colorful and range from precise documentation to abstractions. The artist is the resident photographer for the National Cultural Center, the New Cairo Opera House, as well as El Ahram Weekly and Kalam el-Nas magazines. 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. Original Cast Recordings  The exhibition documents the history of original cast recordings, the manner in which they are produced, and their role in preserving musical theater and spreading awareness of productions. Recordings from the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound and circulating recorded sound collections are augmented by photographs, posters, and archival materials such as letters and recording contracts from the Billy Rose Theatre Collection and the Music Division. The exhibition features touch-screens that enable the audience to access over three hours of music recordings, as well as a gallery soundtrack of favorite overtures. Image: Oklahoma! cast album, 1943. Courtesy Decca Broadway. Seeking the Secret of Life: The DNA Story in New York  The year 2003 marks the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the DNA double helix, one of the greatest and most influential scientific discoveries ever. Researchers in New York made significant contributions along the route to the double helix and the exhibition highlights these contributions. The exhibit's primary theme is the research that lay on a direct path to the double helix and was carried out at Columbia University, Rockefeller University, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The exhibit is intended for the lay public and will place the discovery in a social and historic context. Image: James Watson (left) and Francis Crick, with their model of the structure of DNA. Photo: Anthony Barrington Brown, Photo Research, Inc. Harlem Is ...  In association with Community Works and the New Heritage Theatre Group, the Schomburg Center presents a multimedia, intergenerational, living history program that celebrates 30 Harlemites (ages 50 to 100) whose contributions in the fields of art, music, politics, community service, and sports define Harlem’s rich and diverse cultural legacy. On view at the Schomburg Center before beginning a citywide tour, Harlem Is ... honors such luminary trailblazers as opera singer Betty Allen, historian Dr. Yosef ben-Jachannan, Afro-Latin Jazz musician Joe Cuba, author Rosa Guy, and many others. Community Works will present related performances, symposia, group tours, workshops, and tours of the community. Centennial Salute to Al Hirschfeld The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts pays tribute to Al Hirschfeld and marks the 100th anniversary of his birth with Centennial Salute to Al Hirschfeld, a display of ten of the artist’s specially-commissioned works. Hirschfeld, whose singular drawings captured American theater for the greater part of a century, died in January of this year. In the early 1970s, he was given a commission to commemorate a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning plays. For each play, he drew a scene from the show and also created a collage with a portrait of the playwright and the cast pages from the original Playbill. All of the drawings included in the show are signed, and the scenes from the plays incorporate Hirschfeld’s signature Ninas. Passion's Discipline: The History of the Sonnet in the British Isles and America  This exhibition considers the development of the sonnet, the structured poetic form that has provided writers with a vessel for passionate feelings on many topics since its development in 13th-century Italy, illustrating how a poem's intensity is enhanced and clarified by the discipline of confining it in a formal structure. Public tours of Passion's Discipline are conducted every day at 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. read more... Exhibition Brochure (PDF) The Declaration of Independence The Library is honored to safeguard a fair copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson's hand. It is shown to celebrate Independence Day, together with printed versions of the Declaration of Independence. read more... New York Eats Out  Curated by New York Times Restaurant Critic William Grimes, New York Eats Out tells the story of the city's love affair with dining out from the 19th century to the early 1960s. The exhibition traces the rise of the restaurant from the opening of Delmonico's in the 1820s to legendary spots like Le Pavillon, Lüchow's, the Colony, and the Four Seasons. read more... 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. read more... 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. read more... Exhibition Brochure (PDF) Image: Izaak Walton & Charles Cotton. The Complete Angler. 2 vols. London: [Charles Wittingham for] William Pickering, 1836. The Art of African Women: Empowering Traditions  The Art of African Women: Empowering Traditions exhibition and program series presents an unprecedented survey of African artistic traditions that have been passed down from mothers to daughters for centuries. The exhibition features more than 75 stunning photographs by internationally acclaimed photojournalist Margaret Courtney-Clarke. read more... Image: Francina Ndimande, Mabhoko, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. Photograph by Margaret Courtney-Clarke for the exhibition The Art of African Women: Empowering Traditions. The Malcolm X Collection: A Preview  In January 2003 a large collection of Malcolm X's diaries, photographs, letters, and other materials were placed on long-term deposit by the Estate of Betty Shabazz at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. While the papers will be available to researchers after approximately eighteen months of processing and preservation work is completed, The Malcolm X Collection: A Preview offers a glimpse into the viewpoints and personal reflections of the dynamic and vastly influential figure who spearheaded a vigorous fight for the rights of African Americans in the 1960s. Poetry of Sight: The Prints of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)  Famed painter, draughtsman, and designer, James McNeill Whistler was also a devoted printmaker. Commemorating the centenary of Whistler's death, this exhibition presents over 130 of his etchings, drypoints, and lithographs from the Library's Print Collection. read more... Exhibition Brochure (PDF) 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. Vaslav Nijinsky: Creating a New Artistic Era  Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950) was one of the 20th century's preeminent artists. The exhibition focuses on his career as a dancer and choreographer in a time marked by international disruptions of war as well as avant-garde collaborations and artistic energy. read more... Image: Ballet Russes poster for a performance on April 19, 1911 in Monte Carlo. Colored lithograph by Jean Cocteau of Nijinsky in Fokine's Le Spectre de la Rose. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division. 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. With the commencement of the 2003 baseball season, the Library's rare Honus Wagner baseball card, the most revered of all 20th-century baseball memorabilia, will be on view. read more... Image: Honus Wagner baseball card, ca. 1910. Best of Times: The Theatre of Charles Dickens  Dickens's passion for the theater began in his childhood; his influence upon the theater continues today. Best of Times: The Theatre of Charles Dickens is illustrated with rare 19th-century broadsides, prints, posters, photographs, programs, and the original, annotated promptbooks used by Dickens during his vastly popular public readings. read more... Image: Poster depicting Martin Harvey as Syndey Carton in The Only Way, a stage adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, 1899. Billy Rose Theatre Collection, NYPL. 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. I on Infrastructure  I on Infrastructure brings a new twist to civil engineering by exploring the intellectual, cultural, and social contexts that shape the world's infrastructure. Marrying art and technology concepts, this show juxtaposes pop art with images of bridges, plumbing fixtures, and traffic signs to examine how the eye and the mind perceive engineering design. The exhibition will be on display in Healy Hall from May 22 to December 14, 2002. Celebrating The Langston Hughes Centennial (1902 - 2002)  February 1, 2002, marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Langston Hughes, one of the most prolific American writers of the 20th century. Hughes first gained international renown as "the poet laureate of the Negro" during the Harlem Renaissance. read more... 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. Theater.Ink: the Art of Sam Norkin  A retrospective of the art of Sam Norkin, cultural writer and caricaturist for the New York Herald-Tribune (1940 - 1956) and the NY daily News (1956 - 1980s), as well as many out-of-town papers and magazines. The exhibits includs Norkin's ink drawings of theater, dance, clasical music, opera, pop and jazz. A selection of his sketchbooks and preliminary sketches will also be shown Image: Self portrait by Sam Norkin. 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. 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. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 1.6 MB) Rising Above Jim Crow: The Paintings of Johnnie Lee Gray  A trove of paintings by a previously unheralded, self-taught artist provides the core of this new exhibition, offering a personal vision of the strength and creativity of African Americans during the final decades of segregation. A textile worker and carpenter by trade, Johnnie Lee Gray completed some 150 paintings before his death in 2000, at age fifty-eight. read more... Image: Granny and the Holy Ghost by Johnnie Lee Gray. Used with the permission of Mr. Reginald Thomas. 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. Children's Books in Performance  This family-friendly, multi-media exhibition focuses on children's and young adults' books that have been turned into theater, dance, opera, concert music, radio, film, and television. The section "Fairy Tales and Fables" highlights performances based on tales such as Hoffmann's The Nutcracker, Andersen's Little Mermaid, and the Grimm Brothers' Puss in Boots and Snow White, as well as several versions of Cinderella. read more... Image: Poster for the pantomime Puss in Boots, as produced by Augustus Harris at the Drury Lane, London,1897. Billy Rose Theatre Collection. 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. Africana Age: African and African Diasporan Transformations in the 20th Century  This exhibition draws on more than 350 images, complemented by selected documents and artwork from the Schomburg Center's research collections, to survey the social, political, and cultural struggles of the black world during the 20th century. Music by Richard Rodgers  The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presents a major exhibition celebrating the composer and songwriter Richard Rodgers. The multimedia exhibit focuses on Rodgers' music for 45 complete professional theater works, 11 original films, and numerous radio and television productions, as well as ballets and symphonic scores. Through ambient sound and touch-screen audiostations, visitors will be able to hear commercial and noncommercial recordings of the scores and songs as performed on stage and as jazz standards. The exhibition is based on the Richard Rodgers collections in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, the Music Division, and the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, as well as the archival collections of his collaborators. 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. Exhibition Brochure (PDF) 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 Jarrell, Elizabeth Bishop, and Saul Bellow. A significant portion of the American half of the exhibition is devoted to the Beats, especially Jack Kerouac, whose archive was recently purchased. The Declaration of Independence The Library is honored to safeguard a fair copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson's hand, written to show the original text he had composed before it was revised by the Second Continental Congress. He sent out five or six copies in the days following ratification on July 4, 1776; the Library's copy is one of two known to survive intact, a third survivor being fragmentary. The Wachenheim Gallery will house it seasonally, in June and July, to celebrate Independence Day. It will be shown together with the first Philadelphia printing and the first New York printing of the final version issued by Congress. These versions will be 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. Drawings by Charles Addams: Unreal Estate The Library's ongoing exhibition of the work of New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams continues with his curious response to place. The drawings on view, ranging from the tantalizing conditions in Hell to the less than comforting settings of Mother Goose's nursery rhymes, make even the most familiar locales, stories, and associations of time and place seem bizarre. Souvenirs of a Veteran Collector: The Samuel Putnam Avery Collection at The New York Public Library  In 1900, the dealer, collector, and patron of the arts Samuel Putnam Avery presented his collection of nearly 18,000 prints to The New York Public Library, thereby establishing the first public print collection in New York City. To honor Avery and his gift, the Library will mount an exhibition culled from this rich and varied collection. The vast majority of the prints are works by Avery's American and European contemporaries, including some whose names remain familiar, such as Mary Cassatt, Camille Corot, Edouard Manet, and James McNeill Whistler, as well as others, such as the now more obscure but no less talented Félix Bracquemond, François-Nicolas Chifflart, Norbert Goeneutte, and Charles Jacque. Capturing Nureyev: James Wyeth Paints the Dancer  Through paintings, photographs, and designs, Capturing Nureyev: James Wyeth Paints the Dancer provides a multifaceted view of Rudolf Nureyev, one of ballet's rare superstars. Over 35 paintings and drawings of Nureyev by his friend, American artist James Browning Wyeth, plus more than 61 photographs and designs from the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and a sampling of Nureyev's costumes are on display. Image: Nureyev--Don Quixote--Yellow Background, 2001. Combined mediums on cardboard. Collection of the Artist. Diversity Endangered  Diversity Endangered,a traveling exhibition from SITES, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, examines the causes, consequences, and potential solutions to the loss of biological diversity. Included are reproductions of color photographs, artists' renderings, and text for 15 posters. Rain forest, coral reefs, and wetlands are among the issues covered. The Smithsonian material will be complemented by materials from the Science, Industry and Business Library's collections. The exhibition was on display in Healy Hall from October 15, 2001 to May 13, 2002. Making Music Theater: Kurt Weill and His Collaborators  No composer of the 20th century was committed more strongly to musical theater than Kurt Weill, and no composer worked in a wider variety of genres or with a wider variety of artists. The exhibition Making Music Theater: Kurt Weill and His Collaborators, at the renovated New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, opens a window onto the complex process of collaboration, the quintessence of musical theater. read more... The Public's Treasures: Americana from The New York Public Library  The Public's Treasures is an ongoing cycle of exhibitions offering a wide-ranging sampling of the Library's greatest treasures. As befits one of the world's great research institutions, The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library safeguards extensive collections of original materials in various media, ranging in date from three thousand years ago to the week before last. They come from East and West, are serious or lighthearted, and include both the noble and the poignant. Many of these collection items are by their nature unique or at least extraordinarily uncommon, and while they may be made available under stringent conditions to qualified researchers, they are rarely seen by the public save for selected items that are occasionally included in exhibitions on specific topics. Liturgical Manuscripts  The Library is home to approximately 300 medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, some of legendary rarity and importance. A choice gathering of those on liturgical themes will be displayed to mark the annual meeting in New York City of the Medieval Academy of America. Drawn from the Spencer Collection and the Manuscripts and Archives Division, they will represent the major categories of books used in church services across half a millennium. The celebrated Haarlem Gradual, recently a focal point of an exhibition in Utrecht, will be among them. Image: Padua Ashkenazi Mahzor. Ink, watercolor, and opaque pigment on vellum. Germany, ca. 1380. Dorot Jewish Division, The New York Public Library. Mother Africa: Masterpieces of African Motherhood  From the earliest sculpture of sub-Saharan Africa through the 20th century, one of the most dominant and recurring themes is that of the mother and child. These sculptures generally portray the mother as a nurturing presence, a symbol of strength and a source of power. Despite the fact that African peoples share a common respect for the relationship between mother and child, representation of that relationship has varied significantly among Africa's diverse cultures and religions. The exhibition Mother Africa: Masterpieces of African Art celebrates that diversity with the presentation of 50 unique sculptures selected primarily from the collection of Reynold C. Kerr. Immortal Treasures: Japanese Handscrolls from the Spencer Collection  From May 1998 through May 2000, eight of The New York Public Library's treasured 16th- and 17th-century Japanese scrolls received conservation treatment in studios in the Tokyo National Museum and the Kyoto National Museum as part of a program sponsored by The Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties. The scrolls are among the greatest treasures of the Library's Spencer Collection and include: a late 16th-century (late Muromachi to Momoyama period) version of the Sanjurokkasen Emaki (Handscroll of the Thirty-six Immortal Poets), the earliest known fully intact scroll of the Fujifusa type, with thirty-six meticulously painted, imaginary portraits of the most highly esteemed men and women poets of the Heian period (794-1185); a single scroll from the acclaimed mid-17th century, twelve-volume set of the Taiheiki Emaki (Handscroll of the Chronicle of Great Peace), attributed to the well-known painter Kaiho Yusetsu (1598-1677), with episodes depicted from the classic 14th-century military epic, the Taiheiki Monogatari; and six miniature scrolls of the Hakubyu Genji Monogatari Emaki ("White Drawing" Handscrolls of the Tale of Genji), the earliest illustrated, dated (1554, Muromachi period) version of the Tale of Genji, signed by Keifukuin Gyokuei, an aristocratic amateur woman painter from Kyoto. African American Writers: Portraits and Visions Over a period of thirty years, Lynda Koolish has been photographing African-American authors in their homes, in public readings, at universities, and at conferences and festivals. As this exhibition of her photographs presents the faces of acclaimed African-American writers, it also highlights the diversity within African-American literature and celebrates the many genres it explores. Drawings by Charles Addams: Cultural Differences New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams clearly had a singular perception of the creative process and the institutions that preserve and display cultural treasures. This selection of drawings and New Yorker covers, which complements the exhibitions American Originals: Treasures from the National Archives and The Public's Treasures: Americana from The New York Public Library, features a devious young student with a bent for the occult in a figure modeling class, a displaced phantom leaving the old Metropolitan Opera House for Lincoln Center, a library with a peculiar selection of non-circulating material, and a guard at a museum of natural history who looks as if he has been on duty since the Jurassic period. Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol and Holiday Greetings from the George Arents Collection  This seasonal display of Charles Dickens's beloved tale includes the prompt copy from which he gave his public readings. Assembled from pages cut from a trade printing (12th edition; London: Bradbury & Evans, 1849) and inlaid into large octavo pages and bound, it contains the author's extensive notations, including directions for vocal expression, throughout. Also on display are a photograph (ca. 1848) of the original Tiny Tim--Dickens's nephew Harry Burnett; the 1843 first edition of A Christmas Carol with illustrations by John Leech; and a Royal Doulton china bust of Dickens. read more... Image: A later opening from the prompt-copy of A Christmas Carol, heavily marked up by Dickens with cuts, interpolations and directions for vocal expression ("Tone down to Pathos" ... "Up to cheerfulness"). The scene, from stave III of the Carol, is the Christmas celebration at the home of Scrooge's nephew Fred, to which the old miser has been transported by the Ghost of Christmas Present. American Originals: Treasures from the National Archives  The New York Public Library is the first venue on the nationwide tour of this critically acclaimed exhibition of documentary treasures from the National Archives. American Originals features some of the repository's most significant and compelling documents and provides a rare opportunity to view American history in the making, from the earliest days of the Revolution through the 20th century. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 2 MB) Image: Deed of Gift, Statue of Liberty, July 4, 1884. National Archives and Records Administration, General Records of the Department of State. Transformations: A Celebration of the Creative Spirit in the Performing Arts  To celebrate the reopening of its Lincoln Center home, now named the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presents Transformations, an exhibition on transformations inherent to the creative process. This first exhibition in the renovated Library will fill both redesigned galleries and features treasures drawn from the nine million objects in the Library's collections in music, dance, theater, and recorded sound. read more... Image: Magic is reality transformed, as seen in the Houdini poster for The Double Fold Death Defying Water Mystery (Russell-Morgan Lithographers, 1911). The Legacy of Arthur A. Schomburg  This exhibition, presented in conjunction with the Center's 75th Anniversary celebration, traces the Schomburg Center's evolution from 1925 to the present. Herman Melville's Moby-Dick To mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, the Library mounted a small exhibition consisting of a copy of the first edition and a selection from our extensive manuscript holdings. Often cited as "the great American novel," Moby-Dick is the culminating masterpiece of the American Renaissance. Africana Age: African and African Diasporan Transformations in the 20th Century This exhibition presents a chronological survey of the political and cultural struggles of the black world during the 20th century. It also celebrates the achievements of African and African Diasporan peoples during the 20th century and reflects on the challenges facing them in the 21st century. Celebrity Caricature in America  In early 20th-century America, a young generation of caricaturists deployed a fresh approach to the genre, inventing a popular new form of portraiture. In combination with demands from the burgeoning mass media, modern caricature helped change the nature of fame, contributing to a situation in which celebrity and publicity overtook achievement as the basis for fame. Celebrity Caricature in America explores the roots of modern celebrity and shows how this new form of portraiture of the famous permeated the press (Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, the New York World, and other periodicals) and popular consciousness. Included are portraits of café society luminaries drawn by Miguel Covarrubias for Vanity Fair in the 1920s, portraits of theater personalities like George M. Cohan by Al Frueh, and abstract caricatures by Marius de Zayas. Also featured among the more than 200 images on view are works by Al Hirschfeld, Will Cotton, Ralph Barton, Paolo Garretto, William Auerbach-Levy, and Peggy Bacon. This exhibition was originally organized by and presented at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. It has been recreated at The New York Public Library, incorporating some additional materials from the Library's collections; among these are excerpts from audio recordings in the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, which may be heard at seven sound stations located throughout the exhibition. Touring West: 19th-century Performing Artists on the Overland Trails  Touring West complements Heading West and is curated from the research collections of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The exhibition focuses on the professional performances that toured the United States from the time of the Louisiana Purchase (1803) through the 19th century. From Italian opera ballet to melodrama to Suffragist lectures, a wide variety of performing genres were presented throughout the continent following the expansion of trade, shipping, and railroad routes. Some had "western" themes, but most productions came from the existing repertory of American and European performers. Touring companies and productions featured in the exhibition include the Solomon/Smith Noah Ludlow Mississippi River circuit; "Indian" heroic melodramas, such as John Augustus Stone's Metamora (1829); traveling singing groups such as the Hutchinson Family; and itinerant Shakespeare companies. read more... Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 1.5 MB) Touring West: 19th-century Performing Artists on the Overland Trails  Touring West, featuring materials from the research collections of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and presented at the Library's flagship building on Fifth Avenue, focuses on the professional performances that toured the United States from the time of the Louisiana Purchase (1803) through the 19th century. read more... Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 1.5 MB) Image: Promotional brochure for James O'Neill's Monte Cristo tours. The Currier Lithography Co., Buffalo, [used 1882-85]. Players Collection, Billy Rose Theatre Collection The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Odd Couples: Drawings by Charles Addams These drawings reveal Charles Addams's bizarre but humorous perception of familial, marital, and otherworldly relationships. This ongoing, rotating selection of drawings by Charles Addams features many which appeared in The New Yorker. Heavens Above: Art & Actuality  An online exhibit that compares the 19th-century chromolithographs of astronomical observations made by artist/astronomer Etienne Trouvelot with comparable images photographed by NASA as part of its space program. The Schomburg Center: A 75th Anniversary Retrospective An exhibition focusing on highlights in the Schomburg Center's history. Heading West: Mapping the Territory  From the Greeks to Columbus, the westward passage was always toward the new, toward hope. The earliest maps of America imply a constricted west, amounting to perhaps a two-week march over the mountains to the great Western ocean. The dream of a northwest passage, cutting through the American continent that was blocking easy passage to Asia and its riches, pulled many westward for more than 400 years. The Map Division has over 6,000 sheet maps of the American West, from which the materials in Heading West will be drawn, supplemented by materials from the General Research Division. There are military maps of various Indian territories; geological and railroad reconnaissance surveys; government maps conveniently citing locations of gold, silver, quicksilver, and coal; maps of land grants, military reservations, and Indian lands; maps of the gold rush lands; city plans; early maps of national parks; and explorers' maps. The maps also illustrate the evolution of mapmaking in this country, from copper plate engraving, to New York City "heliographer" Baron Von Egloffstein's fantastic relief map, to rough and ready lithographs from frontier presses. read more... Lest We Forget: The Triumph over Slavery  Based on recent scholarship, Lest We Forget: The Triumph over Slavery, the Schomburg Center's inaugural 75th Anniversary exhibition, acknowledges the oppression, exploitation, and victimization that characterized the transatlantic slave trade and 400 years of slavery in the Americas. read more... Utopia: The Search for the Ideal Society in the Western World  Conceived and developed in partnership with the Bibliothèque nationale de France, this exhibition looks at ideal societies, both imagined and attempted, from classical antiquity through the present day and presents the contrasting notions of paradises lost and ideal cities yet to be created. The exhibition begins with stunning medieval illuminated manuscripts that reveal the sources of Western utopian thought, including classical works about the Golden Age and the ideal republic, early images of Paradise and the Garden of Eden, and medieval travel narratives describing wondrous worlds. Renaissance theories of ideal architecture and the expanding geographical knowledge gained during the Age of Exploration provide a context for the display of a first edition of the first utopian fiction, Thomas More's Utopia (1516). Literary utopias are a significant thread of the exhibition which includes important editions of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Bellamy's Looking Backward, and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Attempts at creating utopias are documented, from the early American colonial experience through 19th-century socialist and religious colonies and into the commune movement of the sixties. The American, French, and Russian Revolutions are represented through prints and broadsides which capture the idealism behind the revolutionary fervor. The exhibit concludes with a look at 20th-century utopias and dystopias, including political and social upheavals, literary imaginings, particularly through the genre of science fiction, and new architectural endeavors. read more... Dystopias and Alternate Realities: Drawings by Charles Addams This display of drawings and New Yorker covers by Charles Addams features bizarre but humorous depictions of different, but not necessarily better, worlds. Included are Adam and Eve as the coming attraction in Eden, a sidewalk wheeler-dealer selling nooses, two archaeologists excavating the Chrysler Building, and, in an updated version of Gulliver's Travels, a surprised astronaut who finds himself tied to the moon and surrounded by tiny aliens. (Complements the exhibition Utopia.) The Struggle for Black Freedom & the Emancipation Proclamation  Abraham Lincoln's handwritten draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued on September 22, 1862, is considered by many to be the third most important document in United States history, after the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It has rarely been seen by the general public, and has never before been exhibited in a black community. The unique viewing of this historic document (on loan from the New York State Library in Albany and exhibited in a specially constructed display unit) begins on September 22, exactly 138 years from its original signing, and runs through October 1, 2000. In the Off-season: Drawings of Spring and Summer by Charles Addams New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams clearly had a singular perception of the rites of spring and the lazy days of summer. The drawings on view reveal Charles Addams's humorous but bizarre take on Valentine's Day, Easter, and golf etiquette. Several of these drawings appeared on the cover of The New Yorker; in honor of the magazine's 75th anniversary, a few of those covers will also be on view. Black New Yorkers/Black New York  The final exhibition in the series Black New Yorkers/Black New York offers a historical overview of the last century of growth and development of the black population in the five boroughs, utilizing documents, photographs, and memorabilia to present demographic, chronological, and thematic surveys reflecting the diversity and complexity of the 20th-century black New York population. read more... Seeing Is Believing: 700 Years of Scientific and Medical Illustration  Seeing is Believing presents a wide range of subjects including astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, medicine, and natural history, and such significant subtopics as geometry, electricity and magnetism, optics, mechanics, microscopy, and zoology. The exhibition examines this material on three levels: the scientific, by exhibiting many seminal texts; the illustrative, by focusing on the illustrations found in these books; and the artistic, by explaining the various techniques and tools used to render these illustrations. Seeing Is Believing features the extraordinarily rich holdings of The New York Public Library in the field of illustrated science and medicine. The materials on display are drawn primarily from the Library's Rare Books Division and the historical holdings of the Science, Industry and Business Library, with selected items from most of the other divisions of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. In addition, the New York Academy of Medicine is loaning many important works. read more... Drawings by Charles Addams: Adventures in Science and Exploration The drawings on view reveal Charles Addams's singular interpretation of the unexpected, sometimes perilous, and often bizarre discoveries and adventures of scientists and explorers. This ongoing, rotating selection of drawings by Addams features many which appeared in The New Yorker. Drawings by Charles Addams 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. Earth from Above: An Aerial Portrait on the Eve of the Year 2000  The photographs of Yann Arthus-Bertrand portray the marvels of the natural world and man's presence as seen from the air. This fascinating series of giant color photographs was on view in Earth from Above: An Aerial Portrait on the Eve of the Year 2000, in Healy Hall of The New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library, 188 Madison Avenue at 34th Street, October 26, 1999 through January 29, 2000. In Company: Robert Creeley's Collaborations  By exhibiting the collaborative projects of poet Robert Creeley -- with such well-known and influential visual artists as Georg Baselitz, Francesco Clemente, Jim Dine, Robert Indiana, Marisol, Susan Rothenberg, and others -- In Company: Robert Creeley's Collaborations encourages viewers to consider profound connections and lasting influences between contemporary visual art and writing. Robert Creeley began his collaborative work in the 1950s with the French painter René Laubiès. Since then he has explored the possibilities of a multi-layered field for poetry, and continues his projects to this day. In Company includes illustrated books, print portfolios, letters, and photographs -- some from the collections of The New York Public Library -- all documenting Creeley's efforts at collaboration with other artists. read more... Sight/Insight: Visual Commentaries on the Physical World Sight/Insight puts a lens to more than 100 contemporary prints, portfolios, and illustrated books by artists who have drawn inspiration from the natural and physical sciences. Included are works by Louise Bourgeois and Kiki Smith, whose involvement in women's issues is reflected in images that suggest medical illustrations, and by Frank Moore whose own health problems inspired Vital Signs, a powerful and cryptic set of etchings that weave together the symbol of DNA cells and chemical formulas. Other artists with works on view include Terry Winters, Lesley Dill, Yukinori Yanagi, Richard Deacon, Mark Francis, Georgia Marsh, Sandy Gellis, Suzanne Anker, Grenville Davey, and Marcus Raetz. The materials are all drawn from the Library's Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs and from the Spencer Collection. Berenice Abbott: Science Photographs Berenice Abbott's scientific photography grew out of her search for a new subject following the conclusion of her Federal Art Project "Changing New York." The approximately 40 prints included in the show are all from the Library's collections and encompass images of equipment, phenomena, and principles. Many of these photographs toured the United States in the late 1950s under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, providing many viewers with their first look at contemporary art photography. Abbott's photograph "Interference of Waves" depicts a spellbinding pattern of colliding and overlapping circular forms. Her close-up view of soap bubbles offers entrance to a strange world of natural geometric construction. Other photos show multiple exposures of items moving through space, an enlarged view of penicillin mold, and beams of light passing through a prism. New York Black 100 Prominent African American civic, cultural, business, and religious leaders of the past century are honored in this exhibition. Suggestions for inclusion were received from thousands of New Yorkers on forms attached to a special Black New York 100 Project brochure. Black New York Photographers of the 20th Century This exhibition features the work of African American professional photographers who were invited to photograph blacks in all walks of life in the five boroughs. These images present the many faces of black New York on the eve of the 21st century. "Such Friends": The Work of W. B. Yeats  This exhibition surveys the multi-faceted career of William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) as poet, playwright, and editor. Yeats's contribution to the literary currents of his time, including the Irish literary renaissance signaled in part by the flowering of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, is strongly represented, as is his involvement in the unprecedented social and political upheaval that resulted in the creation of the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) in 1922. Through his relationships with such contemporaries as Sean O'Casey, George Bernard Shaw, Maud Gonne, Ezra Pound, J. M. Synge, James Joyce, Lady Gregory, and AE (George) Russell, as well as members of his family, including his ambivalently beloved father, Yeats created a transcendent literary community that nurtured his work. read more... Nabokov Under Glass: A Centennial Exhibition  The most elusive of novelists and men, there sometimes seem to be at least as many Nabokovs as there are readers of his work, or at least twice as many Nabokovs as there are works by him. Yet behind all the masks, there is still only one man, whom the writer once called the "anthropomorphic deity impersonated by me." To celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth (April 23, 1899), this exhibition unveils that impersonation by focusing on the artifacts of Nabokov's artifices, through books, manuscripts, drawings, letters, and notes from the Nabokov archives once assembled atop the Hotel Palace in Montreux, Switzerland, and since 1991 part of The New York Public Library's Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. The exhibition offers a chronological look at Nabokov's career, ranging from the earliest poems and metrical experiments of his late teens to the butterfly drawings and texts of his later years. read more... Inventing the American Past: The Art of F.O.C. Darley  This exhibition celebrates the work of one of America's greatest 19th-century draughtsmen, the illustrator of Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the popularizer of such national types as the Pilgrim, the Pioneer, the patriotic Minuteman, and the canny Yankee Peddler. So great was Darley's fame in his own lifetime that many books were advertised as "illustrated by Darley." The exhibition explores various aspects of Darley's achievement, from the earthly realism and humor of his early illustrations for popular fiction through the heroic grandeur of the large engravings of historical subjects and the deluxe editions of his later career. Many original drawings, including vibrant and powerful preliminary sketches and highly polished finished designs ready for reproduction, demonstrate Darley's great skill as a draughtsman, while a wide array of wood-engravings, steel engravings, lithographs, and photomechanical reproductions--and one bas-relief--reveal how other artists interpreted his work. read more... Netherlandish Prints at The New York Public Library  The 16th and 17th centuries were a rich period for printmaking in the Netherlands. With the establishment in the 1550s of major publishing houses with an international clientele, the big business of prints in the north was off and running. The prints in this exhibition are broadly representative of that market, which included subject areas ranging from religious representations, portraits, ornament designs, allegory, mythology, ships and seascapes, landscapes, popular prints, and book illustration. Together, these prints provide a fleeting but indelible impression of the knowledge and beliefs of the people who bought and produced them. read more... Drawings by Charles Addams: More Selections from Mother Goose The self-professed "normal American boy" clearly had a singular reading of Mother Goose. The drawings on view reveal Charles Addams's versions of the classic nursery rhymes, featuring peculiar children, a hag as Mother Goose, and a very threatening spider. Order and Disorder: Architectural Transitions in Prints and Photographs  The rubble of buildings destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake and gleaming skyscrapers under construction are among the subject matter of over 150 prints and photographs in this exhibition documenting architectural transition. read more... Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 6.2 MB) Image: Tower Under Construction, Washington Bridge NYC, n.d., etching.by Gottlob Briem (1899-1972). Black New York Artists of the 20th Century: Selections from the Schomburg Center Collections Works by 125 black New York artists who are represented in the Schomburg Center's collections reflect the art of the Harlem Renaissance, the WPA period, the Abstract and Neo-Expressionist styles, up to today's computer-generated imagery. "In thy map securely saile": Maps, Atlases, Charts, and Globes from the Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection  The exhibit's title, taken from a 17th-century poem by Robert Herrick, describes exploration of unfamiliar territory through maps rather than actual travel. A spectacular collection of maps, atlases, charts, and globes from the 17th and 18th centuries recently donated by the estate of Mr. Lawrence H. Slaughter enables visitors to explore the world as it was viewed at this time. The exhibit draws from the unique and extremely valuable Slaughter collection comprising about 600 maps, 100 atlases, and 50 books of Dutch, French, and primarily English origin. "In thy map securely saile" examines the English mapping scene in the 1700s, Dutch cartography in the early 17th century, and the Dutch influence on English map making, navigation, and the English charting heritage. The exhibit features early images of the New World including the West Indies and Bermuda, the Chesapeake colonies, and the northeastern colonies, and post-Revolutionary maps, with particular emphasis on the planning of the new Capitol in Washington. read more... Drawings by Charles Addams: The East Side, the West Side, and the Other Side Having spent considerable time living and working in New York City, Charles Addams naturally commented on his surroundings. The vampires, witches' broomsticks, and King Kong on view in these drawings make familiar locales and everyday street scenes seem bizarre and reveal the peculiarities of urban living. Eight Million Stories: Twentieth-century New York Life in Prints and Photographs from The New York Public Library  In the Print Gallery: Barney Tobey of The New Yorker  This exhibition on the work of noted New Yorker cartoonist Barney Tobey is drawn primarily from the artist's collection, and focuses on Tobey's wry perspective on contemporary urban life. The collection, which includes sketches, covers from The New Yorker, greeting cards, photographs, and letters, was given to the Library's Manuscripts and Archives Division in 1995. The Performing Arts in the Visual Arts An art exhibition celebrating black performing arts traditions, with more than 30 works by Romare Bearden, Allen Stringfellow, and Charles Alston. This show complemented the Schomburg Center's major exhibition Blacks on Stage: Selections from the Helen Armstead-Johnson Collection. Blacks on Stage: Selections from the Helen Armstead-Johnson Collection Over 300 items from the Helen Armstead-Johnson Collection and related materials from other Schomburg Center performing arts collections are used to survey the presence of blacks in the performing arts -- music, dance, and dramatic expression -- during the 19th and 20th centuries. Ademola: Graphic Art & Design A retrospective survey of graphic and illustrative art by Ademola Olugebefola. A War in Perspective, 1898-1998: Public Appeals, Memory, and the Spanish-American Conflict  The events of 1898 are known by such diverse names as the Spanish-American War, guerra hispanoamericana, El Desastre del 98, guerra hispano-norteamericana, guerra hispano-cubana-americana, guerra hispano-yanqui, and the "Splendid Little War." This exhibition presents the political and social context and antecedents for the war in the several countries and colonial territories involved (mainly Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Spain, and the United States). One of the central themes of the exhibit is the influence of public appeals and popular expressions in the mass communication of the time. Emphasis is also placed on the participation and expressions of common soldiers, sailors, volunteers, and nationalist fighters of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, as well as some of the political and military decisions that affected this popular participation. The exhibit concludes with an examination of the resulting public or popular memories and commemorations and the changing historical perspectives on the war over time. A Secret Location on the Lower East Side: Adventures in Writing, 1960-1980  This exhibition focuses on the writers, artists, publishers, and communities producing the colorful and inexpensive publications associated with the use of the mimeograph machine from the 1960s through the early 1980s. Writers represented include Anne Waldman, Vito Acconci, Bernadette Mayer, Diane DiPrima, Bill Berkson, Clark Coolidge, Aram Saroyan, Jack Spicer, and Jeff Wright; artists include Andy Warhol, Robert Indiana, Alex Katz, Joe Brainard, George Schneeman, Philip Guston, Rudy Burckhardt, and others; publishers and magazines include Yugen, Trobar, Angel Hair, Adventures in Poetry, Mag City, Joglars, Lines, and Siamese Banana. read more... "Particular Voices": Robert Giard's Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers Since the mid-1980s, Robert Giard has traveled the country photographing contemporary American gay and lesbian literary figures for a project he calls "Particular Voices." The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs of The New York Public Library is the largest institutional collector of Particular Voices, with 150 of his exquisite black-and-white prints. Coinciding with the recent publication of Particular Voices: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers (MIT Press, 1997), this exhibition presents more than 100 portraits from the Library's collection, accompanied by a selection of related books and manuscripts from other divisions of the Library. Writers featured include Quentin Crisp, Edward Albee, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Audre Lord, Tim Miller, Kenward Elmslie, Lillian Faderman, Jonathan Williams, Tony Kushner, and Kate Millett. Drawings by Charles Addams: Selections from Mother Goose This exhibition featured original drawings for The Charles Addams Mother Goose (New York: Windmill & Dutton, 1967). The Legacy of the Panthers: A Photographic Exhibition Produced by the Huey P. Newton Foundation, this exhibition strives to capture the central role of the black community in the mission and programs of the Black Panther Party. Encore: More Music for the Cinema An expanded version of the popular exhibition originally seen in the Music Division Reading Room, Encore: More Music for the Cinema uses a wide variety of materials from the Library's collections to give viewers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how music is created for film. Contracts, correspondence, manuscript scores, and continuity drafts reveal the workaday world of the film composer, while posters, photo stills, and sheet music covers show the methods used to promote movies, their music, and the illusion of glamour. With Pen in Hand: An Exhibition of Theatrical Correspondence Manuscript correspondence from such luminaries as Eugene O'Neill, John Barrymore, Groucho Marx, George Bernard Shaw, and Tennessee Williams reveals the personalities, humor, and heartbreak behind some of the theatre's greatest talents. Ernesto Halffter: Life & Work of a Spanish Musician Ernesto Halffter, one of Spain's leading 20th-century composers, is best known for his Sinfonietta, premiered in 1927, which successfully combines various influences on Spanish composers of the period. The exhibition of letters, scores, manuscripts, photographs, and other materials draws primarily on the private collections of Halffter's son Manuel and comes to the Library from Spain, where it was organized by Granada's Fundación Archivo Manuel de Falla and Madrid's Residencia de Estudiantes. Ralph Lee: Masks, Festival Figures & Theatre Designs The monsters, animals, and other fanciful characters created by Ralph Lee have delighted audiences of his Mettawee Theatre Company and the annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, which the artist founded in 1974. The exhibition includes a wide range of Lee's figures, as well as masks, costumes, and props he has constructed for his works and those of others. Runnin' Wild: The Collaborative Recordings of Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson, 1935-1939 Clarinetist Benny Goodman and pianist Teddy Wilson were acclaimed for their mid-1930s collaborations in the Benny Goodman Trio and Quartet and the Teddy Wilson Orchestra. The exhibition features original recordings, photographs, press clippings, and record catalogs celebrating the artistic collaboration of two of the Swing Era's great performers. A Son Comes Home: Ademola Olugebefola Responding to Dance Ademola Olugebefola's dance illustrations, such as the one reproduced on the cover of this brochure, are deceptive in their simplicity. With delicate line and expressive form, his works capture the movement and emotion of the compelling performances that inspired his creations. Harlem: The Vision of Morgan and Marvin Smith Nearly 300 items survey the lives, art, and work of Harlem's premiere twin photographers. Featuring 150 photographs taken by Morgan and Marvin Smith, the exhibition serves as a reminder of what these photographers viewed as the best Harlem had to offer from the 1930s through the 1950s. Also included are their paintings, drawings, and needlework, along with artifacts and memorabilia. Subject Matters: Photography, Romana Javitz, and The New York Public Library  Since its founding in 1914, the Picture Collection of The New York Public Library has become an essential resource for New York's creative communities. Subject Matters focuses on the subject-oriented picture collecting philosophy of Romana Javitz, head of the Picture Collection from 1929 to 1968. Javitz was a driving force behind many important photography acquisitions for the Picture Collection, many of which are now housed in the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. Highlighted in the exhibition are works by Berenice Abbott, Dorothea Lange, and Lewis Hine. A computer component enables viewers to try their hand at electronic picture research. Moving Uptown: 19th-century Views of Manhattan  This exhibition traces, through approximately 140 prints, drawings, and illustrated books, the dramatic growth of 19th-century New York City. A burgeoning population and flourishing businesses quickly pushed farther and farther north the limits of "uptown" as defined in the 18th century. Through bird's-eye panoramas and urban scenes of daily life, drawn primarily from the Stokes Collection of American Historical Prints and the Eno Collection of New York City Views, this exhibition also considers the growing city's needs for city services, from fire and police protection to an ample supply of fresh drinking water. The Romanovs: Their Empire, Their Books  During the 1920s and 1930s, The New York Public Library was one of very few U.S. libraries to purchase nationalized library materials from the former Soviet Union. Preeminent among these purchased collections were those of the Romanov family, whose dynasty ruled the world's largest, most ethnically diverse empire for 300 years. This exhibition examines some of the fundamental preoccupations of, and influences upon, imperial rule, from a unique perspective, namely from an interpretation of the books and manuscripts that filled the shelves of their libraries. This unusual prism provides new insight into how Russia's rulers approached and interpreted issues of empire, religion, peoples, culture, leisure, and war. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 2 MB) Drawings by Charles Addams: Beyond the Grave Exhibitions in the Library's rotating selection of drawings, many of which appeared inside and on the cover of The New Yorker. Who Are They?: Unknown Iconography in the Music Division  Can you identify the spaghetti-eating saxophonist, the peppy pop singers, or the pouting Pagliacci? Amid the vast collections of photographs, prints, and drawings in the Library's Music Division are many that are unidentified. These images have stumped our staff. Can you tell us who they are? Syvilla Fort: Through the Lens of Carmine Schiavone Syvilla Fort was an influential dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Carmine Schiavone's photographs of her document the Experimental Dance Group and her school. Four thematic groups--Ritual, Worship, Marriage, and Myth--show her explorations in what she termed Afro-Modern Dance. Pink Cadillacs and Yellow Submarines: Transportation in a Century of Popular Music Recordings Take a bus, a subway, or a taxi (and then an elevator) to the Rodgers &Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, where such recordings as "The Magic Bus," "Leaving on a Jet Plane," and "Take the A Train" illustrate transportation as reflected in a hundred years of popular recordings. Dry Drunk: The Culture of Tobacco in 17th- and 18th-Century Europe  Dry Drunk traces the growth of tobacco use in Europe from the early 17th century, when "tobacco drinking" first became a widespread but suspicious leisure activity, into the 18th and early 19th centuries, by which time the rituals and stereotypes of smoking and sniffing tobacco fit well-established, if ever controversial patterns of behavior. The Library's abundant collections of materials relating to tobacco permit coverage of a broad spectrum of historical attitudes toward the herb from the New World, which was seen, variously, as a new medical panacea, a novel alternative or accompaniment to alcohol, or, frequently, as a great medical and social danger. Books and prints on view include some of the earliest reports by New World explorers of tobacco use among American Indians, botanical and medical treatises describing the plant, its therapeutic uses and cultivation, governmental edicts against its use, and ironic and satirical texts and prints. Tobacco Leaves: Selections from the Collection of George Arents, Jr.  George Arents (1875-1960) was an industrialist and a lifelong collector whose enthusiasm for his subject, and for the hunt, led to a world-class collection of printed works and art objects related to tobacco. Upon his death, he bequeathed to the Library his collection, which contained printed books, manuscripts, all types of ephemera, and a wealth of art work, primarily works on paper, but including netsuke, bronzes, and paintings. A generous endowment has enabled continuous acquisition of tobacco-related works. This exhibition highlights visual materials from the collection including prints, drawings, posters, and photographs. Included are Max Beerbohm's caricature of Lord Queensberry, subject of Oscar Wilde's disastrous 1895 libel suit; a series of three early 19th-century Japanese woodblock prints, one of them depicting Tengu, a notorious folkloric character; and a photograph of a young Bob Dylan, taken by ethnomusicologist John Cohen in 1962. Image: Max Beerbohm. Digital ID: 483417 Risks & Rewards: Commissioned Works of American Ballet Theatre  The Library's unique archives of choreographic notes, original manuscripts, scores, and stage designs will show the development of ballet masterpieces created for ABT, such as Jerome Robbins's Fancy Free, Agnes de Mille's Fall River Legend, Antony Tudor's Pillar of Fire, and George Balanchine's Theme and Variations. The exhibit also focuses on the Ballet Theatre Workshop, and more recent commissions by company members and modern dance choreographers. Image: Hugh Laing and Nora Kaye in choreographer Antony Tudor's Pillar of Fire, 1942. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts/Dance Collection. Rouben Ter-Arutunian: A Working Collection The verdant forest that transforms into an art nouveau ballroom in George Balanchine's ballet Vienna Waltzes, and the vivid, magical settings for the choreographer's Nutcracker, are among the renderings and models on view in this selection of designs that redefines Ter-Arutunian's range. The exhibit showcases his pioneering work in television design in the 1950s and in open-air and televised opera, as well as his better-known designs for Broadway and the ballet stage. Many Rivers to Cross: The African-Canadian Experience This exhibition conveys an impression of the place that people of African descent have long occupied in the Canadian mosaic. It deals with immigration, culture, the struggle for justice, and work, all in the context of a complex and supportive community life. Swing The swinging sounds of big bands led by Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, and others defined popular culture in the 1940s. With such material as original arrangements used by Goodman and Dorsey; numerous commercial, off-air, and private recordings; programs and menus from popular nightclubs; and other memorabilia, the exhibition recalls the music that provided the soundtrack for a youthful generation as it asserted its independence and contended with war. Carmine Schiavone and Dance Carmine Schiavone's striking fashion photography graced the covers of such magazines as Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, and Seventeen. The exhibition showcases his photographs of such important dancers and choreographers as José Limón, Talley Beatty, Donald McKayle, and Katherine Dunham. America's Reconstruction: People and Politics After the Civil War The first major exhibition devoted exclusively to telling the story of Reconstruction, America's Reconstruction includes more than 250 artifacts and images gathered from 35 museums and libraries throughout the country. Music for the Cinema With materials from the collections of the Library's Music Division, the exhibition explores the history of film music. Among the items included are manuscripts of scores by Louis Gruenberg, George Antheil, and Aaron Copland. Maiden Voyages: First Books by American Authors  An exhibition of first books by American authors from Phillis Wheatley's Poems to Williams Burroughs's Junkie. Along the way are some books to rediscover, and some that have been forgotten: The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain, The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katherine Green, Maggie, A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane, The Son of the Wolf by Jack London, Three Lives by Gertrude Stein, April Twilights by Willa Cather, Color by Countee Cullen, The Crisis in Industry by Thomas Wolfe, The Key by Eudora Welty, and I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Maiden Voyages is the third version of an exhibition formerly entitled First Fruits, which was presented by two previous Berg curators in 1951 and 1968. Image: Poems on various subjects, religous and moral by Phillis Wheatley Visionary Daughters of Albion: A Bicentenary Celebration of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley  In the summer of 1797, Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), died shortly after having given birth to the future Mary Shelley, author of the enduring classic Frankenstein (1818) and wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. This exhibition offers a glimpse into the lives and works of these two important figures and brings into focus the intellectual milieu in which they flourished. On display are not only their writings--early editions, manuscripts, and correspondence--but also a number of portraits and prints, contemporary and modern, which bring the subjects and their times to life. Image: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Lincoln Kirstein: Collector Lincoln Kirstein's gifts to the world were the New York City Ballet and School of American Ballet, which he created with George Balanchine. Kirstein was also a great collector, and early in the history of the Dance Collection gave the Library a wealth of rare dance materials. Before his death in 1996, he donated all his papers, artworks, and other materials related to the history of dance and his life in the arts. This exhibition provides a first glimpse at the important treasures in the Kirstein collection that will be available to inform future generations pursuing knowledge of dance. Cotillion to Cakewalk: Social Dance Prints The manners, personalities, and dance steps of the private ballroom and public club are illustrated in a series of vivid prints spanning the past 50 years. A recent gift of prints from the estate of Josephine Butler, a noted teacher of social dances, joins other examples from the Dance Collection. Musica Popular/Misique Popilè/Popular Music of the Caribbean Rumba, Meringue, Reggae, Ska! Throughout this century, New Yorkers have performed, listened, and danced to the beats of Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban, Jamaican, Haitian, and other Caribbean musical forms. The exhibition looks at the development and continuing influence of Afro-Caribbean and indigenous rhythms, instruments, and vocal styles. Drawings by Charles Addams Exhibitions in the Library's rotating selection of drawings, many of which appeared inside and on the cover of The New Yorker. Wild New York: The Printmaker and the Natural Landscape from the Age of Exploration Through the Twentieth Century  A selection of prints and drawings from the Library's Print Collection depicting natural landscapes of New York State, including the Catskills, Niagara Falls, and the New York City area. Featured are works by Currier & Ives, William James Bennett, Thomas Kelah Wharton, John Henry Hill, and Mary Nimmo Moran. Richard Tuttle: Books & Prints  Another in the Library's series of exhibitions organized and installed in collaboration with internationally recognized contemporary artists, this display of books and prints is designed to reveal the range of Richard Tuttle's printed art created over the past 30 years. Tuttle's works are informed by his installations, sculpture, drawings, and watercolors, as well as his affinity for poetry, literature, and philosophy, and his fascination with discovering alternatives to the written word. His expanded definition of the book ranges from marks and colors on a few sheets of paper to elaborate productions involving handmade paper, complex printmaking processes, letterpress printing, and unorthodox structures. New York in Sound: Recordings Celebrating the City's Last Century This exhibit features recordings of music about New York City or made in New York City, sounds of the city, and public personalities reflecting life and culture in the Big Apple. Included are such songs as "The Sheikh of Avenue B," "He's a Latin from Staten Island," and "Harlem on My Mind," as well as recordings like The Sound of New York: A Music-Sound Portrait, and Nueva New York: A Tape Documentary of Puerto Rican New Yorkers. Visions Speaking to the Soul: A National Conference of Black Artists Invitational Exhibition A national exhibition organized by the NCA featuring 60 works by 30 prominent African American artists, including paintings, prints, sculpture, and photographs. Alternative Rocks David Bowie, Lou Reed, The Sex Pistols, Bob Marley, Tribe 8, Joan Jett, The Talking Heads, and Nirvana are just a few of the bands and artists that took rock and roll in a multitude of innovative directions from its early rhythm and blues-based incarnations. The exhibition uses materials from the Library's collections to explore the "alternative" artists who, even today, push rock toward new horizons. Henry Cowell: A Centennial Celebration The exhibition focuses on the extraordinary life of Henry Cowell, visionary composer, teacher, and theorist. Archival material from the Music Division's Henry Cowell Collection of manuscripts, photographs, and personal memorabilia illuminate his seminal contributions to the shaping of 20th-century American music. Let There Be Light: William Tyndale and the Making of the English Bible  At the center of Let There Be Light are the only two known surviving complete copies (from The British Library and the Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, Germany) of the first edition (1526) of William Tyndale's New Testament. Tyndale, a Gloucestershire priest, first translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into English and printed it in the early 16th century. He was tried for heresy and executed in 1536. Most of the familiar language of the "authorized" King James Version of 1611--"eat, drink and be merry," "the fat of the land," "the powers that be," "signs of the times," and "fight the good fight," for example--comes directly from Tyndale, whose influence on the life and language of England and the English-speaking world is incalculable. read more... Image: William Tyndale The New Baroque: Early Dance Re-creations and Inspirations  Twentieth-century encounters with Baroque dance and music have been made possible by gifted historians who show the results of their research in performance. This exhibition features prints and illustrations of 17th- and 18th-century dance, as well as documentation of contemporary works by such groups as the New York Baroque Dance Company, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Image: Costume design for Reine des Sylphes in Le Balet des Elémens, 1763, by Jean-Baptiste Martin. From The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dance Collection. Jo Mielziner: Scenic Poet of the Theatre Stage designer Mielziner brought a striking, stylized realism to Broadway, creating the settings for such productions as Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. In aesthetics and technical accomplishment, his influence on stage design is still greatly felt. The exhibition will feature original sketches, renderings, and plans, as well as correspondence with his many renowned collaborators. The Necessity of Rainbows: Lyrics by Yip Harburg From soulful ballads to biting satire, Yip Harburg wrote the lyrics for many of America's most haunting popular and theatrical songs. His contributions to American culture include lyrics for such standards as "Brother Can You Spare a Dime," "It's Only a Paper Moon," and "April in Paris," as well as the classic songs from the film The Wizard of Oz and the Broadway musical Finian's Rainbow. The exhibition traces Harburg's rise from the Lower East Side to Broadway and Hollywood, and his career-long commitment to the expression of social concerns in his art. The Hiram Stead Collection An avid theatregoer and devoted traveler, Hiram Stead trekked across Europe in search of theatre and theatre memorabilia. In the early 1930s, the Library acquired Stead's collection, which includes materials dating from the early 18th century to the early 20th century. The exhibit features highlights from the enormous variety of items in the collection, including broadsides, correspondence, iconography, toy theatres, and rarities such as an invitation to the coronation of George IV. Bearing Witness: African-American Vernacular Art of the South A display of one of the world's outstanding collections of present-day work by self-taught, Southern African-American artists. Drawn entirely from the holdings of Ronald and June Shelp are 80 works by 25 artists, ranging from assemblages made out of root, hair, and costume jewelry by the late Bessie Harvey of Dallas, Georgia, to large-scale canvases and works on paper created by Thornton Dial, Sr. of Bessemer, Alabama. Approximately one-third of the works on view are being exhibited for the first time. Colored Town/Overtown 1947: Max Waldman Images of a Southern Black Community An exhibition of 50 black-and-white photographs by Max Waldman documenting the historic Colored Town/Overtown community in Dade County, Florida, in 1947. Historically the largest and most vibrant black community in Southern Florida, Colored Town was the cradle of business and culture for African Americans from 1896 to the 1960s. Like many photojournalists of the Depression and post-Depression eras, Waldman made images that both depicted the harsh social realities of the times and affirmed the humanity and dignity of his subjects. Artful Interiors: Rooms with a View Items ranging from influential architectural source books of the 18th century to a 1928 Sears, Roebuck catalog present a panoramic historical survey of public and domestic interiors in Europe and America from 1750 to 1950. The social and psychological history of interior decoration is revealed through a chronological progression of design ideas, which indicate significant shifts in interior effects, from aristocratic presentations to the homely additions of modern conveniences. The Hand of the Poet - Part Two: E. E. Cummings to Julia Alvarez  Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, from John Donne to Julia Alvarez Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer): Gustation and Libation in Recorded Popular Song The exhibition features recordings and visuals, both singing the praises of glorious consumption and lamenting the woes of gluttony. The audio portion includes works by artists such as Bessie Smith, Johnny Paycheck, Louis Prima, and Tom Waits, to name a few. This is a serious and silly examination of the prevalence of these subjects in our popular culture. The Dance Heroes of José Limón José Limón carried forward and expanded the American modern dance tradition. With his own company he created such masterpieces as The Moor's Pavane and also kept alive in repertory the works of his mentor Doris Humphrey and other influential choreographers. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the José Limón Dance Company, the exhibition features correspondence between Limón and his collaborators, films and videos of his dances, posters, choreographic notebooks, and original costumes. The League/International Society for Contemporary Music--Then and Now The League of Composers and the U.S. Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music, both founded in 1923, have been vital forces in the promotion of contemporary music in America. With documents from the Library's Music Division, this exhibit traces the history of the League/ISCM (the groups combined in 1954) and showcases the work of George Perle, the composer honored by the society this year. Drawings by Charles Addams: Little Devils A rotating selection of drawings, many of which appeared inside and on the cover of The New Yorker. Inside and Out: The Costumes of Barbara Matera, Ltd. As New York's leading costume shop, Barbara Matera, Ltd. has constructed wardrobe for everything from La Cage aux Folles (Broadway) to Les Petits Riens (New York City Ballet). The exhibition demonstrates the transformation from concept to costume by showing the various stages of construction of an elaborate Norma Desmond outfit from Broadway's Sunset Boulevard. Also featured are a wide range of other costumes, original designs, working drawings, catalogues, and swatch books, as well as industrial sewing machines and other equipment from the Matera shop. The Romance of the Stone: Lithography, 1796-1825  At the end of the 18th century, an unsuccessful German actor and writer named Alois Senefelder discovered a process for reproducing designs drawn on stone with greasy ink. The initial impact of this new printing method was similar to that of the photocopy machine in the 20th century, and "stone printing" quickly spread throughout Europe and eventually to the United States. It was enthusiastically adopted for printmaking by the rising generation of Romantic artists, who were quick to explore its creative and expressive possibilities. In 1804, the process was rechristened "lithography," from the Greek for "stone writing." This exhibition features more than 200 examples of early lithography--all from the Library's collections--ranging from specimens of early sheet music, caricatures, and printed books through masterpieces by such major figures as Francesco Goya, Théodore Géricault, Eugène Delacroix, Benjamin West, Henry Fuseli, Johann Gottfried Schadow, and Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The exhibition is made possible by the generosity of Miriam and Ira D. Wallach. African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church Bicentennial Exhibition 1796-1996: A Faith Journey A celebration of the denomination's bicentennial. A History of Women Photographers  The Library is the premiere site for the tour of the first large-scale, comprehensive exhibition chronicling women's achievements in photography as a fine art from the beginnings of photography through 1975. Organized by the Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio, the exhibition presents approximately 220 vintage photographs and 30 vintage publications by 219 women, setting the work of better-known women artists within the broader fabric of the accomplishments of the lesser-known female photographers of each era. Photographs in the exhibition are drawn from libraries (including The New York Public Library), museums, historical societies, galleries, and private collections in Europe, Latin America, Canada, Japan, and throughout the United States. A mural-sized timeline and introductory videotape set the art into the context of the historical and political events that affected the lives of women between 1830 and the present. read more... Image: Belle Johnson. Untitled, 1896-1905. Collection of Massillon Museum, Massillon Ohio. Akron Art Museum. Léonide Massine: Symphonic Choreographer As chief choreographer and star dancer of Ballets Russes, Léonide Massine is remembered for his astute comedy and burning intensity in such ballets as Gaîté Parisienne and The Three-Cornered Hat. With companies now regularly reviving his works, Massine is being recognized as a major force in 20th-century modernism. The exhibition includes photographs and designs representing landmarks of his career. The Schomburg Legacy: Documenting the Global Black Experience for the 21st Century  The last in a series of three exhibitions at the Schomburg Center commemorating the Library's Centennial and the Center's 70th anniversary, this exhibition focuses on the development of the Schomburg Center's collections since Arturo Alfonso Schomburg served as curator. Among the approximately 300 items on view are personal papers of artists and public figures including Nobel peace laureate Ralph Bunche and singer Lena Horne. Unique objects exemplifying the collections' diversity and geographic scope range from a 7th- or 8th-century Egyptian Coptic tunic to a Pullman porter's uniform. Works of important writers and artists represented in the exhibition include the original manuscripts of Richard Wright's Black Boy and original art by painter Romare Bearden. Play It Again Sam: Popular Songs on the Silver Screen This exhibition explores original and re-recorded popular songs that were used in films. It illustrates how popular songs can have several different lives as a result of their placement in various media. On display are record jackets, books, periodicals, and a selection of audio materials to aid visitors in comparing different versions. Headlines, Deadlines, Bylines: The New York Times Morgue, 1896-1996 Commemorating the anniversary of Adolph S. Och's purchase of The New York Times in 1896, this exhibition surveys the paper's coverage of stories over the last 100 years. Historic materials from the Times's morgue, a vast collection of 22 million clippings and photographs, bring to life momentous events of the century--from the sinking of the Titanic to the bombing of the World Trade Center--and illustrate how changes in the Times have corresponded to the changing world reported in its pages. The exhibition is supported by The New York Times Company Foundation, Inc. Puppets & Performing Objects Throughout the 20th century, artists from many disciplines and backgrounds have explored the use of objects in performance. While puppetry and mask performances are at the center of the form, this exhibition also focuses on techniques that might seem beyond the traditions of puppetry. Included in Puppets & Performing Objects are works by Alexandra Exter, Bil Baird, Bread and Puppet Theatre, Mabou Mines, Pablo Picasso, and others. Presented in conjunction with the Jim Henson Foundation as part of the Third International Festival of Puppet Theater. Meredith Monk: Archeology of an Artist As a composer, choreographer, singer, director, and filmmaker, Meredith Monk has built a body of work that cuts across many genres, and has established herself as a major creative force in the performing arts. The Library's exhibition explored the full evolution of Monk's pioneering performance works, from her earliest pieces to her latest stagings. In addition to photographs, posters, programs, films, recordings, and designs documenting such performances as 16mm Earrings, Juice, Education of the Girlchild, and Quarry, the exhibition featured scores of artifacts from Monk's productions, including the headdresses worn in Education of the Girlchild, X-ray boxes from Quarry, costumes and storyboards from Atlas, and a wall of shoes from various productions. Viva Verdi The life and work of composer Giuseppe Verdi were examined in this exhibition, which coincided with the continuing Viva Verdi Festival in Central Park, a series of 28 Verdi operas presented over seven summers by Vincent La Selva's New York Grand Opera Company. Curated by Mary Jane Phillips Matz, author of a highly acclaimed biography of the composer, the exhibition focused on the four operas presented in the 1996 festival, Alzira, Attila, Macbeth, and I Masnadieri. Included were original scores, librettos, engravings, and programs from the Library's collections, as well as materials from the personal collection of the curator. Poetry and Dance  In collaboration with the Poetry Society of America, the Library's Dance Collection presented this exhibition focusing on choreography inspired by poetry, and works of verse which reflect images of dance and particular dancers. Among the dances highlighted were Vaslav Nijinsky's Afternoon of a Faun and Jerome Robbins's Afternoon of a Faun, both based on the poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, Doris Humphrey's Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejías, inspired by Federico García Lorca's poem, and Martha Graham's Letter to the World, based on the poem by Emily Dickinson. These productions were documented with photographs and other materials from the Dance Collection. The exhibition, presented in tribute to Lincoln Kirstein, was part of the Library's Poetry and Dance Festival. Image: Baron Adolf de Meyer. Photograph of Nijinsky as the Faun in L’Après-midi d’un Faune, Paris, 1911. Roger Pryor Dodge Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Drawn to the Theatre Theatrical caricatures and illustrations are usually created to help promote a production or accompany a published article. Yet, throughout the last century, such works have provided unique documentation of theatrical productions, and often convey the life and movement of the theatre more effectively than other media. In addition to original drawings, rare posters, handbills, photographs, scrapbooks, and letters, this exhibition showed the process of creating an illustration from the earliest concept sketches to the finished piece as it was published. On view in Drawn to the Theatre were the well-known creations of artists from the turn of the century to the present: Nell Brinkley, Paul Davis, Al Frueh, Alex Gard, Al Hirschfeld, James McMullan, Ben Solowey, and many others. The Global Library http://www.nypl.org  The second of The New York Public Library's major Centennial exhibitions, The Global Library http://www.nypl.org examined the digital revolution within the context of a 5,000-year history of communications. The exhibition offered visitors both a guided tour of the World Wide Web, with hands-on access to 14 computer terminals, and a display of more than 60 artifacts from the Library's collections documenting seminal moments in the history of recorded information. The subtitle of the exhibition, http://www.nypl.org, is the address (also known as the URL) of the Library's home page on the World Wide Web, through which, for the first time, users from around the world could visit a New York Public Library exhibition electronically. read more... The Hand of the Poet - Part One: John Donne to T. S. Eliot Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, from John Donne to Julia Alvarez Books of the Century  The librarians of the Branch and Research Libraries have guided millions of readers since The New York Public Library was founded 100 years ago. For this exhibition, current staff members chose approximately 150 books that have influenced or interpreted the times, or provided enlightenment or pleasure to great numbers of readers. These "books of the century" represent the wide reach of the written word from landmarks of modern literature, such as James Joyce's Ulysses and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, to books reflecting the horrors of war and totalitarianism, such as Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Some visitors may be surprised and amused to find titles like Peyton Place and Dracula, as well as Gone with the Wind, The Joy of Cooking, and The Politics of Ecstasy. The books on view included rare editions from the Special Collections and well-thumbed books from the stacks, grouped thematically into such sections as Women Rise, Protest & Progress, and Optimism, Joy, Gentility. The original exhibition was augmented by a listing and selective display of the titles most frequently noted in the visitor's comment book. Books of the Century was made possible by Reliance Group Holdings, Inc. read more... Voices of Spain Presented in conjunction with the Library's Music and Dance of Spain performance series, the exhibition featured recorded Spanish music, plays, and poetry from the collections of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives, with particular focus on the works of composer Manuel de Falla in recognition of the 50th anniversary of his death. In addition to displays of record jackets, books, and periodicals, the exhibit featured a selection of audio materials which visitors could enjoy on headphones. Joseph Schillinger's World of Tomorrow Joseph Schillinger's System of Music Composition combined the principles of science, mathematics, and the arts into a unique method of writing music. The exhibit contained examples of his own compositions, charts based on his system, as well as original correspondence with students, colleagues, and collaborators. The Collecting Adventure, 1895-1995 To make The Research Libraries' collections what they are today, generations of farsighted curators and librarians have actively collected from distant wars and disappearing frontiers, resisted the pressures of censorship and convention, and made persuasive visits to the quiet studies and attics of poets and novelists. The three-part exhibition The Collecting Adventure, 1895-1995 was created to tell how the collections were built and to celebrate those who built them. Part I: Documenting Pop and Avant-Garde, which ran from May 20 to September 1, 1995, showed how the Library has documented modernist culture, sometimes in defiance of convention and established canons. Part II: Preserving Works of Beauty and the Spirit, which ran from September 30, 1995 to February 3, 1996, illuminated the Library's role in acquiring and preserving some of the world's most precious book and manuscript treasures. Part III: Gathering Evidence, which ran from March 2 to May 24, 1996, focused on the Library's diverse and comprehensive collections of sociopolitical materials, which serve the needs of scholar and layman alike. Long before it became fashionable in academia, the Library gathered resources for scholarship on women, immigration, slavery, and gay and lesbian life. This exhibition displayed a wide array of unusual materials, from slave narratives to photographs as social documents to film and video footage about New York. Metal Earth Wood Styrofoam = Music Beyond traditional instruments lies the realm of music-making devices designed and built by composers and musicians themselves. Whether constructed from beautifully crafted ceramics or from styrofoam and string, these instruments open up new possibilities for the creation of sound. Metal Earth Wood Styrofoam = Music featured instruments used in the innovative ensembles of composers Skip LaPlante/Music for Handmade Instruments, Raphael Mostel/Tibetan Singing Bowl Ensemble, and Tan Dun/Earthsounds Ceramic Orchestra designed by Ragner Naess, as well as instruments of the late Harry Partch used by Dean Drummond/New Band. Manuscript scores, performance photographs, and audio-visual materials were also on display. Arturo Alfonso Schomburg: The Man and His Times The second in a series of three exhibitions at the Schomburg Center commemorating the Library's Centennial and the Center's 70th anniversary, this exhibition offers an overview of the life of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, from his birth in Santurce, Puerto Rico, in 1874 to his death in New York City 64 years later. The objects included in the exhibition comment on both the life of Schomburg and the world in which he lived. On view in the exhibition are numerous rare photographs and letters, including an early photograph of Schomburg at the presentation of the Harmon Foundation Awards, and a letter to his mentor, the journalist and historian John E. Bruce, dated 1911. Best known as a bibliophile, Schomburg was also a patron of the arts, lecturer, scholar, educator, and social activist. The exhibition reveals the many facets and contributions of this complex man and the forces that influenced his visionary work in helping to establish the Schomburg Center 70 years ago. Hansen's Harlem: A Commemorative Exhibition The Schomburg Center presents this exhibition of approximately 150 photographs in tribute to Austin Hansen, one of Harlem's premier photojournalists and studio photographers, who died on January 23, 1996 at age 85. The exhibition offers highlights from Mr. Hansen's collection of over 500,000 prints and negatives, which the Center acquired over an eight-year period beginning in 1982. Roll Over Beethoven First edition sheet music by The Beatles and Bob Dylan, and original lead sheets to such rhythm and blues hits as "Stand by Me" and "The Twist," were among the objects on view in this exhibition, which explored the origins of rock and roll in blues and boogie woogie, the instruments used to create its unique sound, the performers who defined the genre, and the means by which the music is promoted and disseminated. 1995 Centennial Exhibition: Ten Decades  In celebration of the Library's Centennial and the 30th anniversary of the move of the Library for the Performing Arts to Lincoln Center, this multimedia exhibition documented the significant developments in the performing arts in each of the decades between 1895 and 1995. The exhibition considered mainstream art forms such as vaudeville and movie musicals, alternative art forms such as modern dance and performance art, and forms of dissemination such as sheet music, radio, and LPs. Treasures from the Library's collections on view included an 1897 film clip of dancer Annabelle Whitford, produced by Thomas Edison's company; designs by Jo Mielziner for the original production of Death of a Salesman; Agnes de Mille's notes on transferring the dream ballet in Oklahoma! from stage to screen; photos and posters of modern dance giants Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Martha Graham; music by John Cage; and a teenaged fan's scrapbook of Beatles clippings. Image: Annabelle Whitford Arturo Alfonso Schomburg: Race Man Objects from the 10,000-item private library of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, the foundation of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, illustrated how Schomburg documented and preserved the histories and heritages of peoples of African descent and their place in the making of world civilization. Included in the exhibition was one of the rarest books in the world, the 16th-century Ad Catholicum, by Juan Latino, the earliest imprint by an African author in the Schomburg Center. Schomburg's dedication to the encouragement of scholars and artists was demonstrated by the 1937 gouache on paper entitled The Curator (Arthur A. Schomburg) by Jacob Lawrence. What Price Freedom  The centerpiece of The New York Public Library's Centennial Exhibitions, What Price Freedom highlighted 20 objects from the Library's collections that exemplify moments in history when people took great risks to express themselves freely: from a manuscript of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson's hand to a 1989 handbill distributed by Chinese students, calling for an anti-government hunger strike in Tiananmen Square--from Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address to Nelson Mandela's 1985 statement from prison refusing the opportunity to obtain his release in exchange for an endorsement of South African Government. Writers in Wartime: Looking at World War II from the Berg Collection  The 50th anniversaries of V-E Day and V-J Day were noted by this colorful exhibition with a parade of works (diaries, letters, first editions, corrected proofs, flyers, and more). The exhibition stressed reactions to the war in Europe as viewed by poets, playwrights, and novelists, including Thomas Mann, W. H. Auden, Virginia Woolf, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Noel Coward, Lillian Hellman, John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac, and others. A Change of Clothes: Femininity, Fashion and Feminism Can a woman be defined by her clothing? Assault On The Arts  Assault on the Arts examines some of the literature, art, film, and music that was censored and banned by the Nazis, along with works that were sponsored and glorified. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 4.1 MB) New York American Historical Prints  The Prints Room of The New York Public Library contains a rich pictorial record of New York City's Development from the seventeenth century through the nineteenth century. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 2.2 MB) NEW YORK: The Prints of Reginald Marsh  New York City was Reginald Marsh's favorite subject. The city in all its aspects fascinated him-the Manhattan skyline, ringed by water and bridges, its crowed neighborhood streets, nightclubs and dance halls, the Metropolitan Opera and burlesque houses, the subways and various entertainments offered at Coney Island. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 1.32 MB) Victorian Ornament: Excerpts from Design History  The human desire to decorate objects dates back to prehistoric times. Ornament, a form of superimposed decoration, has therefore always been an important part of design history. During the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), British ornamental design had a wide impact on European and American decoration. This exhibition displays key texts and illustrations that reveal major developments in Victorian design theory and practice from London’s Great Exhibition of 1851 to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Victorian ornament, derived from a profusion of historical sources, was used on every kind of object, including bookbindings, ceramics, clothing, furniture, metalwork, textiles, and wallpaper. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 2 MB) |
