Blog Posts by Subject: Brooklyn

For over 130 years, the Brooklyn Bridge has been an icon of the New York City landscape—longer if you account for the 13 years required to construct it. This beloved connection between boroughs is still in use while many of its contemporaries have been replaced or dismantled worldwide.

Archtober is an annual month-long celebration of New York City's built environment, with thirty-one "building of the day" sites. Here are seven locations that archi-lovers can explore any day of the year, using materials at NYPL.

What's Open House New York? It's an invitation to explore the city. Every October, the five boroughs open up for the annual weekend—this year on October 14 and 15, with over 200 buildings and projects. Can't make it? In honor of the festival's fifteenth anniversary, I selected seventeen long-time participants you can explore more through NYPL resources.

Interested in learning more about New York's role, and the early battles of the American Revolution? Inspired by Hamilton?

A prolific amateur photographer and local historian, Hubacher documented New York City and its environs with a seemingly objective eye, the typed or handwritten captions on the verso of each photograph often markedly specific in terms of date and location.

Last year, the Mid-Manhattan Library hosted distinguished scholars and authors at the Author @ The Library series. Some of the topics presented included photography, education, science and technology, New York City, performing and visual arts, politics and government, religion and sports.

For the reader who just can't get enough of those busy city streets, or is just dying to know where exactly in the five boroughs their favorite characters are inhabiting, here is a list of famous New York City-based novels according to the neighborhood in which they take place—complete with an interactive map of nearby landmarks and attractions!

Remember how the neighborhood used to look? Well, for a very happy #TBT, we're indulging in some neighborhood nostalgia for Bushwick, Brooklyn.

We can gain a deep understanding of the development of the city’s public transit infrastructure simply by examining nine maps published between 1845 and 1921.

Between January 1978 and April 1979, Nooney networked her way through Brooklyn documenting residences and their occupants, asking each for a referral to another willing subject. Over 150 families or individuals entrusted her to capture glimpses into their private worlds and personal tastes.

Nearly one hundred land auctioneering pamphlets from the 1860s to 1920s and covering the Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn were digitized this past year. With their richly designed covers, these promotional brochures provide modern day researchers with a window onto neighborhood development and changing patterns of land use in the city.

Can I tell you how to get to Sesame Street? Well, I can try. You can get to the Sesame Street Subway Stop by the A, B, 1, or 2 trains, which if you check any MTA map, do not intersect at any current station.

Where in the world are you reading about? Fiction finds its settings in all corners of the world (and some places only imagined in our minds) but there's something special about fiction set in a familiar city or neighborhood. Let's take a trip out of Manhattan for now, and into the lively borough of Brooklyn! This is one of the most storied areas that make up New York City.

Settlers from the Dutch West India Company first founded the Village of Bruckelen in 1646, though the Lenape Native Americans had lived on the land that makes up the county for hundreds 

Pearl Street Native/Indigenous

AIR is a Native American and ancient colloquialism for music and voice, as heard upon the earth. Musicians and singers performed at festivals at sacred places like Pearl Street, where shells mounded for centuries, in Lenape tradition, to honor and "give thanks" for the sun, moon, stars, rain, wind and all elements of the air.

New Amsterdam. ca. 1625 - People arrived to the various ceremonies and festivals along the East River shoreline via rafts, canoes and by walking down the main island trail (widened for vehicles in the 

Welcome back to the October 2013 edition of the Reader's Den!

This is our final week (pages 198-240; chapters 13-15) of Buddhaland Brooklyn by Richard C. Morais. If you missed any of this month's discussions, then you can revisit earlier weeks:

Week 1: Introduction and Reading Schedule Week 2: 

Welcome back to the October 2013 edition of the Reader's Den!

For week 4, we read pages 138-197 (chapters 9-12), of Buddhaland Brooklyn by Richard C. Morais, a continuation of this year's New York theme. It is not too late to join the discussion!

Remember that you can catch up with us and comment on any of posts at anytime in the future. If you need a copy of the book, then you can reserve one through the NYPL catalog. The book is available in both 

Welcome back to the October 2013 edition of the Reader's Den!

We are at the half-way mark, Week 3 (chapters 5-8; pages 70-137), of Buddhaland Brooklyn by Richard C. Morais, a continuation of this year's New York theme. If you need a copy of the book, then you can reserve one through the NYPL catalogue. The book is available in both print and

Welcome back to October 2013 edition of the Reader's Den!

Our title this month is Buddhaland Brooklyn by Richard C. Morais, a continuation of this year's New York theme. For week two, we read chapters 1-4 (pages 1-69). If you need a copy of the book, then you can reserve it through the NYPL catalogue. The book is available in both print and

"It was strange, like a dream, to be in Japan one moment and America the next."

Welcome to the October 2013 installment of the New York Public Library's online book discussion group—the Reader's Den. In continuation of this year's New York theme, our title this month is Buddhaland Brooklyn by Richard C. Morais.

Just before his fortieth birthday Seido Oda, a monk since the age of eleven, is tasked