December 2010
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Where is home?
Our central library at Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street hosts travelers from all around the world, every day we are open. And we’re open today! So if you read this, please stop by our Map Division on the first floor (turn right before The Library Shop) and stick a map tack onto a reproduction of a rare map and show us where you call home! Library staffer Artis Wright came up with the idea for...
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Digging Out! We're Open!
NYPL is back open! Armed with shovels and salt, our folks worked all day yesterday (much like the people in this image from our collection showing workers carting off snow in 1867 in NYC) and have dug out our branches. So if you’re getting cabin fever stuck indoors, visit your local branch in The Bronx, Manhattan or Staten Island. Read a book, see your neighbors. There may be delayed...
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Some Entertainment For The Snow Day
Looking for something to do while stuck indoors, blanketed under a million feet of snow? Here are a few news articles to check out. NYPL was mentioned in four stories over the last two days - and all of them are just fascinating, if we do say so ourselves. They show the wide variety of programs and materials we offer. Enjoy!
1 - CBS Sunday Morning highlighted our Three Faiths exhibit in a...
Snowed Out: NYPL Closed Today
Due to the horrific weather in NYC, all of New York Public Library’s locations across Manhattan, Staten Island and The Bronx are closed today, Monday, Dec. 27. All fines for materials due today will be waived, so don’t worry about that. If you’re snowed in and bored, we can still help - with a Library Card, you can still download eBooks from the comfort of your warm, toasty...
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NYTimes: The Library at Pooh Corner →
In an extremely touching New York Times OpEd, writer and professor Jennifer Finney Boylan writes about her early experiences working with the characters of Winnie the Pooh, and a touching reunion with the original Pooh at the New York Public Library Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.
You too can visit Pooh and all his friends in person at the Children’s Center at 42nd St.
Top NYPL Events for the 10 Under 10 Power Children
Are you one of New York Magazine’s 10 Under 10: The Most Powerful Children in New York? If so, congratulations (you’re so young and important, yes you are!).
But between running your media empire, attending gallery openings, and participating in preschool entry exam prep, you’re probably in need of some rest and relaxation.
So if you’re looking to unwind while spicing...
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NYPL Goes Topless . . . Sort Of
“Topless cellist” Charlotte Moorman and her 15 ground-breaking Avant Garde Festivals from 1963 to 1980 are the subject of a free lecture today at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Barbara Moore - art historian and writer in residence at the Library’s Wertheim Study - is going to present select images of the events by photographer Peter Moore, who documented the historic...
Last Minute Shopping Panic? Shhhhh. The Library...
OK guys. It’s less than a week until Christmas. Time is ticking. Looking for that amazing, last-second gift? Don’t want to aimlessly wander around the crowded streets of New York City (portrayed beautifully in this 1899 print from our Mid Manhattan Picture Collection)? THEN GO TO THE LIBRARY! The shop at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue has great items for ANYONE, from cuff links made of...
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Scholars (And Their Cute Kids) On Ice
All work and no play is no good for anyone. So Thursday morning, a bunch of hardworking Cullman Fellow scholars - including author David Bezmozgis and his ridiculously adorable daughter Mae Young - took a breather and hit the ice at the Bryant Park Skating Rink. There are plenty more pics where this came from on the Cullman Center’s Facebook page, but we figured we’d share one more -...
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Abbott And Costello's 'Tribute' To Bob Feller
There was no joy in the baseball world yesterday when the news came down that legendary Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller passed away at 92. There have been lots of tributes to “The Heater From Van Meter,” but none may be better than one comedy duo Abbott and Costello did waaaay back in the 1930s. Their “Feller” bit playing off the word “fella” or...
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The Tale Of A Nobel Winner And NYPL (Complete With...
Mario Vargas Llosa, this year’s Nobel Prize winner for literature, has been a longtime visitor to our landmark 42 Street building, often just sitting in the Rose Main Reading Room for hours and just, well, reading. “I’d never seen anybody who was able to read for such long periods of time without fidgeting or nodding off or being distracted by the activity around them or...
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'Cucumber Is The Basic Vegetable' And Other Tales...
Baby, it’s cold outside! But we bet it’s even colder in Siberia, where former Cullman Center Fellow (and current New Yorker writer) Ian Frazier traveled to write his acclaimed book Travels In Siberia, which made The Times’ “100 Notable Books of 2010” list. Frazier was recently at NYPL for this season’s final “Conversations From The Cullman Center”...
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Happy Birthday, Emily Dickinson
Legendary author Emily Dickinson (shown here as a child in an image from NYPL’s Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photography) was born today in 1830. We have plenty of books by and about her in our collections, but on this occasion, we thought we’d share one specific poem she wrote about, you guessed it, libraries. Enjoy. And happy birthday, Emily.
In A...
This Minnie Ain't No Mouse
The final scene in the 1910 production of Puccini’s opera La Fanciulla del West.
Hey, opera fans!
Tonight the wonderful Metropolitan Opera opens a new production of Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West. This evening’s performance also marks the 100th anniversary of the piece, which first premiered at the Met on December 10, 1910 with an all-star cast including Emmy Destinn and...
We love you back, Austria!
LIVE from the NYPL director Paul Holdengraber speaks four languages, is a killer ping pong player, and had Michel Foucault write his letter of recommendation for grad school. Now he has one more thing to add to that impressive biography. Last evening, he was bestowed the fancy Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art!
The intimate ceremony was held at the home of the Austrian Consul General in...
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'Keith Richards Killed My Orchid'
One living thing did not survive Keith Richards’ visit to the New York Public Library in late October - an orchid in the office of Cullman Center Deputy Director Marie d’Origny. While Keef was waiting ‘backstage’ in the center before the talk, he unexpectedly lit up a cigarette in Marie’s office, and grabbed the clay saucer underneath the orchid for a makeshift ash...
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Cheers - We're Baaaaaaaack
We’re so happy that the good folks at Tumblr fixed their technical difficulties and brought us back to life that we figured we’d toast them with this fairly absurd cigarette card from between 1934 and 1938. It’s from the Library’s George Arents Collection. Cheers!
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LIVE from the NYPL tonight: poet Derek Walcott
Feeling a bit dispirited after a generally dreary/soggy week? We’ve got just the medicine for you - poetry! (No, seriously, we mean it.) Restore your soul & join us for an evening with the amazing poet Derek Walcott. Hope to see you at 7:00PM in the Schwarzman Building! Here’s one of his lovely poems:
Love After Love By Derek Walcott
The time will come when, with elation ...
An 1814 first edition of "The Star-Spangled... →
Hey, we’ve got one of these too!
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Top Titles At NYPL: Keef, Franzen, 'Wimpy Kid'
So Jonathan Franzen’s book Freedom: A Novel was the most circulated book at NYPL in the month of November, making it top dog for the second straight month. Right behind it is Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney, according to the just-released November circ numbers. We’re happy to see, by the way, that the book Life by NYPL visitor Keith Richards made the top five...
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