1. Doing Research at NYPL is Always In Style

    When costume designer Eric Daman was tasked with outfitting the titular character in the new show The Carrie Diaries - a prequel to the oh-so-fashionable Sex and the City series set in the ’80s - where did he go for inspiration? The Library! As reported by The Cut:

    To achieve an authentic throwback look, Daman dusted off his own high-school yearbook, and pored over hundreds of archived patterns from McCalls and Vogue, to old Sears catalogues and vintage GQ ads at the New York Public Library. 

    We’re so glad Eric found what he was looking for here at the Library, but as Carrie Bradshaw would say, we couldn’t help but wonder…Did Eric’s romance with research blossom in the DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room as he looked through copies of magazines like Vogue and GQ and archives on microfilm? Or was it the Mid-Manhattan Library’s Picture Collection, filled with advertisements, fashion drawings and more? 

    Do some fashion research of your own this weekend, and remember the fabulous fashions of the 1980s and the 1880s. Or maybe it’s time to re-watch the Sex and the City movie and see Carrie (almost) walk down the aisle at a very lovely building you might just recognize.

  2. schomburgcenter:

    Federico Fernando Pita, President of DIAFAR (African Diaspora of Argentina) visited the Schomburg Center today. DIAFAR is an organization that includes “the Afro born in Argentina, African-Americans and African immigrants” to Argentina who are reviving the 500-year-old history and culture of Africans in Argentina.


    Captions:

    (1): Tammi Lawson, Librarian of the Schomburg’s Art and Artifacts Division, shows woodcuts related to the writings of Langston Hughes by Argentina artist Antonio Frasconi.

    (2): Sharon Howard (second from left), Chief Librarian, displays books in English and Spanish, relating to Argentina.

    (3): Diana Lachatanere (far right), Curator of Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, shows documents detailing the history of Africans in Argentina, which began with the arrival of enslaved Africans in the early 1500s.

    (4): Mary Yearwood (far right), Curator of the Photographs and Prints Division Mary Yearwood (far right), displays photographs and illustrations related to Argentina and all of Latin America.

  3. Did you catch the library’s appearance on Who Do You Think You Are? a few weeks ago? Librarian Maria Liriano helped Edie Falco search the census records for her ancestors. Check it out!

    You can live like a celebrity, too — come over to the library’s Milstein Division and one of our stellar librarians will help you get started researching your own family history.

    Also, stay tuned for May 4 — we have another cameo on the show… 

  4. Behind the Scenes

    Did you see the awesome new trailer for the Milstein Division of U.S. History, Local History & Genealogy? (Yes, even library research divisions can have trailers.) Find out how it was made and what the mysterious researcher was investigating. Perhaps his search will inspire you to dig up your own family secrets…

  5. Check out “Wikipedia, The Musical!”

    Looking for something to do tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 22)? Head to our Library for the Performing Arts anytime between noon and 6 pm and use our collections to help edit Wikipedia pages for musicals and theater music. This all-day “editathon” - called “Wikipedia, The Musical!” - is a partnership between NYPL and Wikipedia, and you can read more about it in the NY Times. Participants require ZERO experience with Wikipedia, so come on down!

  6. The New York Public Library released its very first iPad app this morning - Biblion: The Boundless Library, which highlights our very popular 1939-40 New York World’s Fair collection. Thousands of photos, internal documents and personal stories can be found in the app, as well as original essays to keep the info in context. The best part - the app captures the serendipitous experience of doing research in The Stacks. Read more about it here or here or here. Then download it right now - it’s free!

  7. All historians are prisoners of their own experience and servitors to their own prepossessions. We bring to history the preconceptions of our personality and the preoccupations of our age.

    — Arthur Schlesinger, Jr, whose papers the NYPL recently acquired. The New Yorker’s Book Bench did a wonderful story about the collection today.