New York Public Library

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New York Public Library, main building, built 1897–1911, architects Carrère and Hastings

The New York Public Library (NYPL) is one of three public libraries in New York City and one of the largest libraries on earth with over 55 million media . Its main building on Fifth Avenue was designed by the Beaux Arts architectural firm Carrère and Hastings . The library has, among other things, a Gutenberg Bible and an edition of the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica .

Since April 2012, the library has offered 800,000 digital copies from its collection online. In April 2014, the digital offering was expanded to include around 20,000 historical maps.

history

By the late 19th century, New York City had two public reference libraries: the Astor Library , founded with a $ 400,000 estate by John Jacob Astor that opened in 1849, and the Lenox Library , founded by James Lenox , a book collector who on Fifth Avenue and now exhibits the Frick Collection .

In 1886, Samuel J. Tilden left an estate of about $ 2.4 million to be used to set up a library in New York City.

Postcard, ca.1920

John Bigelow (1817-1911), a New York lawyer and manager of Tilden's legacy, put the financially strapped Astor- and Lenox libraries with the fortune of Tilden together to The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations to form . It was established on May 23, 1895 as a private foundation.

The library merged with the New York Free Circulating Library in February 1901. Andrew Carnegie donated $ 5.2 million to build branches, on condition that they be maintained and funded by the City of New York. The New York Public Library is thus a collaboration between the city administration and private organizations, a characteristic of the "American way" .

Corridor on the first floor ...
... and the ceiling
One of the two reading rooms.

In May 1902, after several years of planning and site work on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan between 40th and 42nd Street, the foundation stone was laid for the main library designed as a scientific library (now the Humanities and Social Sciences Library ). It was inaugurated by President William Howard Taft on May 23, 1911 - exactly 16 years to the day after the foundation was established - and opened the following day. Construction costs ended up being $ 9 million.

The famous lions at the entrance were created by Edward Clark Potter . In the 1930s, they were given by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia nicknamed "Patience" (English: Patience ) and "valor" (English: Fortitude ). He chose these names because he thought these were exactly the qualities New Yorkers needed to get through the Great Depression . Their previous names were Lord Astor and Lady Lenox, although both lions are male. At Christmas they had large wreaths around their necks, but this practice was abandoned at the turn of the millennium because the weight of the wreaths damaged the lions' necks.

In December 1965, the building was granted National Historic Landmark status . In October of the following year, it was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places .

In the 1980s the library (12,000 m²) received new storage space for books. This expansion required a major construction project that closed and excavated Bryant Park , just west of the library. The new facilities in the library were built underground. The park was then restored above the underground facilities and reopened to the public.

A plan decided in 2007 to convert the main building met with considerable opposition and was abandoned in 2014. Architect Norman Foster had submitted a draft according to which a new lending library for Manhattan was to be set up on the floor below the large reading rooms with its reference library . The reference holdings would have been significantly reduced and most of them had been relocated to New Jersey , from where they were to be made available to users in the reading rooms in the form of scans within a maximum of 24 hours, if possible. In addition, in the largest renovation program in the history of the library, the branches in the districts of New York should have been modernized. The total volume of around 1 billion dollars for the renovation of the main building and the branches should have been financed in part by the closure of a branch and a specialist library and the sale of the buildings. The city of New York would have provided $ 150 million, the rest should be provided by donations. The project met with harsh criticism from many New York-based intellectuals who signed an appeal against the rebuilding plans - including Salman Rushdie and Mario Vargas Llosa .

In early 2016, the NYPL put 180,000 copyright-free images online.

Branches

The NYPL has 89 offices in the Bronx , Manhattan and Staten Island . The branches provide popular literature and basic research materials. The four academic libraries of the NYPL offer world-renowned collections on a wide variety of subjects. The academic libraries include the humanities and social sciences library, the New York Public Library for the performing arts, the Schomburg Center for research on African American culture, and the science, industry, and business library.

Library Way

Plaque for Lewis Carroll

Since the late 1990s, the “Library Way” has been running on East 41st Street between Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building , the largest building in the New York Public Library. In the paving of the pedestrian walkway on both sides of the street, 96 rectangular bronze plaques are embedded, which are dedicated to important writers and contain quotations from their works. The designs are by Gregg LeFevre and have been awarded the “Excellence in Design” prize by the New York City Arts Commission.

The library in films

The NYPL often appeared in films, mostly as a backdrop or a hangout for the characters. It was used as a backdrop in the 2002 film Spider-Man and was an important location for the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow . In addition, in Ghostbusters you can find yourself right at the beginning on the lower floor of the library. In Sex and the City , Carrie Bradshaw selects the library as the location for her wedding.

A scene from the film Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) is also set in the NYPL.

In 2017, Frederick Wiseman dedicated the three and a half hour documentary Ex Libris - The New York Public Library to the library and the social significance of the institution .

literature

English

Web links

Commons : New York Public Library  - Album of pictures, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Reference on the library website , accessed on November 11, 2018
  2. ^ NYPL Digital Gallery
  3. ↑ NYPL Map Warper
  4. ^ John Bigelow memorial addresses delivered before the Century association March 9, 1912  - Internet Archive Resolutions adopted Dec. 19, 1911.
  5. ^ The Library Lions: Patience and Fortitude
  6. ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: New York. National Park Service , accessed January 31, 2020.
  7. ^ New York Public Library on the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed January 31, 2020.
  8. ^ NYPL Shelves Plan to Gut Central Library. In: The Nation. May 7, 2014.
  9. ↑ Ambitions rekindled at Public Library. In: The New York Times . February 15, 2012.
  10. ↑ Sebastian Moll: New York - Library in Danger. In: Berliner Zeitung . May 2, 2012.
  11. ^ Alison Flood: Salman Rushdie joins writers protesting New York library revamp. In: guardian.co.uk , May 10, 2012.
  12. ↑ heise.de: New York Public Library puts 180,000 copyright-free images online
  13. ↑ nypl.org: Public Domain Collections: Free to Share & Reuse
  14. ^ Matthew J. Boylan: The Road to the Library is Paved with Inspired Quotations , lj.libraryjournal.com, July 5, 2012, accessed May 5, 2014.
  15. ^ New York's Literary Walking Tour , telegraph.co.uk, accessed May 6, 2014.

Coordinates: 40 ° 45 ′ 11 "  N , 73 ° 58 ′ 55"  W.