Humanities and Social Sciences Library > History

The Humanities and Social Sciences Library:
A Bibliography

New York Public Library Central Information
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This is a guide to the Humanities and Social Sciences Library of The New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42^nd Street, and its constituent collections and divisions, its staff, and the famous structure which houses the Humanities and the Social Sciences Library and many of the administrative offices of The New York Public Library.

The Humanities and Social Sciences Library is one of the most familiar landmarks in the United States. The large marble building, designed in the classical style by John Carrère and Thomas Hastings, and guarded by its two stone lions, is notable not only for its collections but also for its architecture, sculpture, ornamentation, and decoration. That it has captured the imagination of scholars and researchers is beyond question; equally notable is its appeal to the general public. E.B. White noted in Here is New York (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949) that New Yorkers have the opportunity, even if they do not exercise it, to spend an "afternoon in the great rustling oaken silence of the reading room of the Public Library, with the book elevator (like an old water wheel) spewing out books onto the trays (p. 20)."

The building, which opened on May 23, 1911, was the result of the merger of the Astor Library, the Lenox Library, and the Tilden trust in 1895, a move which created the entity known as The New York Public Library. The combination of these different institutions and the creation of a large endowment permitted the Humanities and Social Sciences Library to house and sustain a large research library, which, although privately supported, has always been open to the public; it is this relationship of private funding, public access, and comprehensive collections which has given the Humanities and Social Sciences Library its unique stamp and distinctive character. In his speech at the opening of the Library in 1911, President William Howard Taft evoked these very qualities as he elicited support for the new institution from the city and the nation:

This day crowns a work of National importance. The dedication of this beautiful structure for the spread of knowledge among the people marks not only the consummation of a noteworthy plan for bringing within the grasp of the humblest and poorest citizen the opportunity for acquiring information on every subject of every kind, but it furnishes a model and example for other cities which have been struggling with the same problem, and points for them the true way.

Prepared by Warren C. Platt, General Research Division, December, 2001