Digital Projects

  • The Shelley-Godwin Archive

     In its initial planning stages, The Shelley-Godwin Archive will present key works of British Romanticism by Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. The Archive will draw primarily from the two foremost collections of these materials, those of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and the Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle at NYPL, which together hold an estimated 90 percent of all known relevant manuscripts worldwide.

  • Theatrical Lighting Database

    In partnership with the Lighting Archive and legendary designer Beverly Emmons, the Theatrical Lighting Database is a proof-of-concept version of what is aimed at being an extensive digital archive of original lighting documents.

  • Biblion: The Boundless Library

    Biblion, The Boundless Library immerses users in rare items from The New York Public Library’s vast collections, providing context while also allowing for serendipitous discoveries. The first edition, Biblion World's Fair, contains more than 700 photos, letters, maps and more from NYPL's archive of the 1939-1940 World's Fair. The second edition, Biblion Frankenstein: The Afterlife of Shelley’s Circle, takes advantage of new social media features to spark digitally enhanced conversation and social reading — and gives users a direct view into original primary source documents. Apple named Biblion one of its top apps in 2011 in the education category. Wired magazine praised it as one of 14 “outstanding apps for readers,” and The Atlantic magazine described it as “the magazine app of the future.” We welcome you to browse full editions online or download the free iPad app.

  • What's on the Menu?

    Help the Library transcribe its famous menu collection and build a powerful database for culinary and historical research. Join tens of thousands of online volunteers in this award-winning participatory experiment. A collaboration between the Rare Book Division and NYPL Labs.

  • In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience

    A sweeping narrative from the transatlantic slave trade to the Great Migration, from the Western migration to the contemporary immigration of Caribbeans, Haitians, and sub-Saharan Africans. Includes 25,000 pages of texts, rare visual materials, maps, contemporary photojournalism, and lesson plans.

  • The State of Black Studies: Methodology, Pedagogy and Research

    60 hours of conference proceedings

  • When Is a Book Not a Book? Oliver Twist in Context

    In this illustrated presentation, Robert L. Patten, professor of English at Rice University, describes the novel's genesis as a serial in the periodical Bentley's Miscellany and examines how serialization influenced its composition.

  • Yizkor (Holocaust Memorial) Books

    Electronic access to the content of the largest collection of yizkor books in the United States, describing the life and death of 650 eastern European Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust.

  • Charles Dickens: The Life of the Author

    In this presentation, The New York Public Library's Kenneth Benson surveys the life and works of the most beloved author of the Victorian era.

  • Performing Arts in America 1875-1923

    Performing Arts in America 1875 -1923, a website of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, captures a glimpse of this world. With visual and audio images drawn from the extensive archival collections at The Library, the site features an authentic look at this past, from the Broadway theater and Tin Pan Alley to the art of dancer Loie Fuller and composer Charles Griffes, all brought to you in original documents.