1. We have one more week until Halloween, so what better way to celebrate than with this picture of a screaming spool by local artist Ner Beck? You can visit this photograph at Grand Central Library’s current exhibition of Mr. Beck’s work, which contains a plethora of inspiring images of objects and displays found during his daily walks in neighborhoods throughout the city.   We think you’ll be inspired to discover your own interesting images on your journeys about town! But, first take a stroll down to Grand Central Library!

    We have one more week until Halloween, so what better way to celebrate than with this picture of a screaming spool by local artist Ner Beck? You can visit this photograph at Grand Central Library’s current exhibition of Mr. Beck’s work, which contains a plethora of inspiring images of objects and displays found during his daily walks in neighborhoods throughout the city.  

    We think you’ll be inspired to discover your own interesting images on your journeys about town! But, first take a stroll down to Grand Central Library!


  2. On this beautiful Friday, we suggest you take a leisurely stroll down (or up) Fifth Avenue. Walk up the stairs of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Enter through the gorgeous doors and walk toward the end of Astor Hall. Turn left and you will see the majestic red curtain beckoning you to enter the Library’s new exhibition Charles Dickens: The Key to Character, where you can  imagine yourself transported back to Dickens time and learn about his inspirations and how he inspired others.  Happy Flashback Friday! (Image: J. R. Brown. “Dickens Surrounded by His Characters.” Engraving from Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil, by Frederic G. Kitton (London: F. T. Sabin, 1890). NYPL, General Research Division.)

    On this beautiful Friday, we suggest you take a leisurely stroll down (or up) Fifth Avenue. Walk up the stairs of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Enter through the gorgeous doors and walk toward the end of Astor Hall. Turn left and you will see the majestic red curtain beckoning you to enter the Library’s new exhibition Charles Dickens: The Key to Character, where you can  imagine yourself transported back to Dickens time and learn about his inspirations and how he inspired others. 

    Happy Flashback Friday!

    (Image: J. R. Brown. “Dickens Surrounded by His Characters.” Engraving from Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil, by Frederic G. Kitton (London: F. T. Sabin, 1890). NYPL, General Research Division.)

  3. Lunch Hour NYC, the NYPL’s newest exhibition, opens on Friday!! Watch the video to learn more!

  4. John Milisenda’s photographs of Manhattan’s Lower East Side during the 1960s will be on display at the Grand Central Library through June 20.

    His photos are a candid portrait of everyday experiences, balanced between romanticism and mean streets. Many of these images were made when he was a teenager and even before he studied art at the Pratt Institute.

    John Milisenda lives in Brooklyn. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Brooklyn Museum, among others.

  5. dianediem: Stylized tree decor for Shelley exhibition. One of many study breaks today. It’s a beautiful installation!

    dianediem:

    Stylized tree decor for Shelley exhibition. One of many study breaks today.

    It’s a beautiful installation!

  6. Shelley’s Ghost: The Afterlife of a Poet opens today. Head over to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building to check out Mary’s Shelley’s original draft of Frankenstein, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s baby rattle, and much more. Some of the artifacts and manuscripts have never been displayed in the United States before, so don’t miss this chance to see them!

    Shelley’s Ghost: The Afterlife of a Poet opens today. Head over to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building to check out Mary’s Shelley’s original draft of Frankenstein, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s baby rattle, and much more. Some of the artifacts and manuscripts have never been displayed in the United States before, so don’t miss this chance to see them!

  7. SCHOMBURG CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN BLACK CULTURE: GMAD at 25: A History in Words and Images →

    schomburgcenter:

    By Steven G. Fullwood, Co-curator of the exhibition GMAD at 25: A History in Words and Images, and Project Director for the Black Gay & Lesbian Archive, Schomburg Center

    I discovered Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD) in 1998, four months after I moved to New York City. At the time GMAD’s…

  8. A Honey of a Tuesday

    “Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is go where they can find you.” - Winnie the Pooh


    Wishing all of our 20,000 followers a very happy day for today is A. A. Milne’s birthday.  Our deepest gratitude to Mr. Milne for creating the wondrous characters of Hundred Acre Wood, who you can see in reality if you stop by the Library’s centennial exhibition, where Pooh and his friends are enjoying hundreds of historic items.

  9. Keep your out-of-town relations happy - take them to the NYPL!

    So you have family in town and need to keep them busy sightseeing. Don’t forget NYPL exhibitions! They’re free and open to the public, and exhibitions are up at different branches around town.

    There’s Leironica Hawkins’ art exhibition Asperger’s Syndrome: An Invisible Disability, on display at Grand Central Library.

    There’s Malcolm X: A Search for Truth at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, which offers the public new insights into Malcolm X’s multifaceted persona and personality.

    There’s The Birth of Promotion: Inventing Film Publicity in the Silent Film Era or Out of the Shadows: The Fashion of Film Noir at the Library for the Performing Arts, at Lincoln Center.

    And there’s our Centennial exhibition, Celebrating 100 Years, at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue, where you can see Winnie the Pooh (and Tigger too) — the real soft toys that Christopher Robin himself played with as a boy — along with a Gutenberg Bible, a copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson’s hand, Virginia Woolf’s cane, and many other wonderful items from the Library’s archives.

    If you don’t make it down to a library before the end of the year, don’t fret — both the Centennial Exhibition and Malcolm X have been extended into the spring. Yay!

    Hope we’ll see you soon!

    NB: All Library branches are closed Dec. 24-26, re-opening on Tuesday, December 27.

  10. Cool photo, right? It’s even more fabulous when you realize that photographer Vera Lutter took this photo while inside a walk-in, pinhole camera. Yes, a walk-in, pinhole camera. Recent Acquisitions: Prints and Photographs opens today at the Stephen A. Schwarzman building at Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street. All of the exhibition photographs and prints on display were obtained by the Library in the last decade. It’s a free exhibition and you can see it whenever the Library is open; stop by if you’re in midtown NYC today or make a trip to see it. It’s worth your time. Vera Lutter, “Corte Barozzi, Venice: March 10, 2006.”  The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. © Vera Lutter; reproduced courtesy of Carolina Nitsch, New York.

    Cool photo, right? It’s even more fabulous when you realize that photographer Vera Lutter took this photo while inside a walk-in, pinhole camera. Yes, a walk-in, pinhole camera. Recent Acquisitions: Prints and Photographs opens today at the Stephen A. Schwarzman building at Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street. All of the exhibition photographs and prints on display were obtained by the Library in the last decade. It’s a free exhibition and you can see it whenever the Library is open; stop by if you’re in midtown NYC today or make a trip to see it. It’s worth your time.

    Vera Lutter, “Corte Barozzi, Venice: March 10, 2006.”  The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. © Vera Lutter; reproduced courtesy of Carolina Nitsch, New York.