NYPL Awarded $5.7 Million Gift from Leon Levy Foundation to fund preservation of vital materials, expand training of conservators

March 7, 2025—The New York Public Library has received a $5.7 million grant from the Leon Levy Foundation, which will provide an endowment to sustain the Library’s conservation work as well as immediate funding to expand training for future conservators through the Shelby White and Leon Levy Conservation Fellowship. 

NYPL President Anthony W. Marx said, "We are deeply grateful to Shelby White and the Leon Levy Foundation for their generous support, which not only ensures the sustainability of our preservation efforts, but also enables us to expand education and training, sharing expertise at NYPL with the next generation of conservation professionals. Activities supported by the Foundation play a vital role in expanding access to our collections and ensuring that these materials will be available to future generations of researchers." 

As the second research library in the U.S. to establish a conservation division (in 1972), NYPL Conservation today includes the Barbara Goldsmith Conservation Lab and the Collections Care Lab – both located in the purpose-built Library Services Center in Long Island City constructed in 2009. NYPL Conservation supports the long-term preservation and survival of the Library’s rare and unique special and research collections held at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Library for the Performing Arts, including manuscripts, printed books, graphic works, art on paper, photographic materials, as well as non-traditional library collections. The Goldsmith Conservation Lab is one of the leading research library conservation labs in the country and one of only four with conservators specializing in bound, flat, or photographic materials. 

The Shelby White & Leon Levy Conservation Endowment will establish permanent funding to support the department’s leadership, the Shelby White and Leon Levy Associate Director of Conservation, which is currently held by Mary Oey. A trained conservator and experienced administrator, Oey, who has led the Conservation Lab since joining the Library in 2018, established the initial training program which the Leon Levy Foundation’s grant will expand. Prior to joining NYPL, Oey worked at the Library of Congress Conservation Division, Harvard Libraries Weissman Preservation Center, and the Morgan Library & Museum Thaw Conservation Center. Oey holds graduate degrees in Conservation and Art History from the New York University Institute of Fine Arts and Conservation Center and received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard College. The Leon Levy Foundation’s endowment of this essential position recognizes its crucial role in supporting the work and mission of NYPL, ensuring this essential work will continue. The role is responsible for developing and implementing plans that identify, prioritize, and address conservation needs while collaborating across the Library to envision and improve workflows that promote preservation and access. 

The Leon Levy Foundation’s grant will also provide immediate funding to expand NYPL Conservation’s burgeoning training program, which plays a critical role in passing on essential skills and knowledge to students and early career professionals. Hands-on skill building through internships and fellowships is an essential part of a conservator’s training, and the Goldsmith Conservation Lab is one of only two library conservation labs in the country with dedicated book, paper, and photograph conservators that offers funded training opportunities every year. The Leon Levy Foundation’s funding will allow the Library to expand its internship offerings to students pursuing graduate degrees in conservation and will also establish the Shelby White and Leon Levy Conservation Fellowship, which will support two 2-year post-graduate fellowships. Together with NYPL Conservation’s existing post-graduate offering, the Shelby White and Leon Levy Conservation Fellowship will make it possible for the Division to support post-graduate work experience in two different conservation specialties at a time. Through both the internship and the fellowship offerings, Foundation funding will bring NYPL conservation training experience within reach of more students and emerging conservators, amplify the educational impact of the Library’s world-class collections, and will strengthen the field of conservation.

 

About The New York Public Library

For over 125 years, The New York Public Library has been a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With over 90 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars, and has seen record numbers of attendance and circulation in recent years. The New York Public Library receives approximately 16 million visits through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.

About the Leon Levy Foundation 
The Leon Levy Foundation, founded in 2004, is a private, not-for-profit foundation created from the  estate of Leon Levy by his wife and Founding Trustee, Shelby White. The Foundation continues Leon Levy’s philanthropic legacy and builds on his vision, supporting the preservation, understanding and expansion of knowledge in the ancient world, Arts and Humanities, Nature and Gardens, Neuroscience, Human Rights, and Jewish Culture. To learn more, visit: www.leonlevyfoundation.org.