Posts from Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

In the 145 years since its initial publication, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has provided continuous inspiration for artists and illustrators. But the most iconic Alice images remain John Tenniel’s illustrations for the first edition published in 1865. This February marked the bicentennial anniversary of Tenniel’s birth, and in celebration of that milestone, The New York Public Library has digitized a set of Alice books interleaved with proofs of Tenniel’s illustrations.

In this episode, NYPL curators Ian Fowler and Julie Golia analyzed maps, illustrations, and other primary sources from NYPL’s collections to look at the transformation of Brooklyn’s waterfront economy and built environment

Chanukah is the perfect occasion to shine a spotlight on these stunning illuminated manuscripts in our collections.

In this episode, NYPL's Ian Fowler was joined by Eric Sanderson, author of The Welikia Project. They discussed how this project builds on his past work, 'Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City', and how the original ecology of the city has changed and its impact on our modern built environment.

Doc Chatters explored themes of memory, trauma, and resilience through the oral history of one Holocaust survivor.

A behind-the-scenes glimpse into the making of one of Malcolm X's most iconic—and misunderstood—speeches, "The Ballot or the Bullet".

The enduring appeal of Art Deco is quite remarkable. It is also a paradox—both nostalgic, yet vanguard. And we never know when the style will pop up again.

The 1939 New York World's Fair promised a view of the "World of Tomorrow" through its dazzling displays of up-to-the-minute cultural and technological advancements. The fair's iconic posters were the topic of the most recent episode of Doc Chat—find a recording of the event below as well as links to related resources to explore.

In its inaugural episode, NYPL's Meredith Mann and Alicia Cheng, author of 'This Is What Democracy Looked Like: A Visual History of the Printed Ballot', discussed American ballots' evolving graphic design and what they can tell us about the history of voting and elections.

Revolution was in the air on October 8, 2020, when the Doc Chat community traveled back in time to New York City in the 1960s to learn about the vibrant radical literary culture of the Lower East Side.

Demons fleeing statues, corpses reanimating, stones transformed into gold: who knew that seeing a seven-headed beast would not be the most freakish thing to happen to someone? Yet these incidents and more are present in the several illuminated Apocalypses held in the NYPL’s Manuscripts and Rare Books collections.

A spirited conversation about a professional rivalry between two colonial printers, and what it can tell us about the American Revolution, and early American print culture.

NYPL’s Julie Golia and Bronx Community College Professor and public historian Prithi Kanakamedala discussed one anti-slavery illustration and what it can tell us about the racial politics of abolitionism.

A brief and interesting history of the evolving language used to identify people with ancestry from Spanish speaking territories or from countries south of the U.S.-Mexican border.

NYPL's Susan Kriete and Cara Dellatte used two evocative photos to piece together the life of "Militant" Maude Malone, who was not only a feminist and activist, but also a NYPL Librarian.

The NYPL has a bevy of resources to support students and educators on this journey.

Including genealogy, the performing arts, LGBT studies and more.

Virtual travel and time travel are at your fingertips with the remote resources of the Map Division.

Translation, writes Edith Grossman in Why Translation Matters, “permits us to savor the transformation of the foreign into the familiar and for a brief time to live outside our own skins, our own preconceptions and misconceptions."