Art and handcrafted books of the fine press movement have produced wildly innovative takes on traditional printing and book production. The Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division collects modern takes on t what a “book” might actually be.
This intriguing look into the medical practices of Europe some 600 years ago was written by Andrew Gaudio, a reference librarian in the Researcher and Reference Services Division. As the world grapples with containing the COVID-19 pandemic with a range of vaccines, each with varying rates of effectiveness, it’s worth remembering that cure-alls for deadly […]
The Library is collaborating with the international initiative Fragmentarium.ms to help pioneer digital fragmentology, piecing together long-ago manuscripts that were torn apart or had fallen into pieces over the centuries.
Fragmentarium is building an international community around the ability to identify, search, compare, and collect data on medieval manuscript fragments. What does that mean? For one, it means that libraries across the world can work together to create complete virtual reconstructions of Ege’s manuscripts. O
The Library has acquired the Aramont Library, a stunning collection of more than 1,700 literary first editions, illustrated books, and an astonishing number livres artiste (books by artists) by some of the most important artists of the 20th century. The Library has been in private hands for more than 40 years and has never been seen before by the public.
The Library’s newly digitized gallery of African American portraits from the late 19th and early 20th centuries showcases the lives, hopes and dreams of the famous and the forgotten of the era. Here are stories of Robert Church, Gertrude Mossell and William Pettigrew.
After the Union victory at Gettysburg in the Civil War in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln asked the nation set aside the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday of thanksgiving. Congress made it official in 1870.
The Library’s collection of Lynd Ward’s works includes a first-edition copy of “Gods’ Man,” a 1929 wordless novel that is credited as the precursor of the graphic novel.
Mark Dimunation, the head of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, writes about the famous last seance that attempted to reach the ghost of Harry Houdini, atop the Knickerbocker Hotel on Halloween, 1936.
We first ran this piece last year at Halloween. It proved so popular year-round that we reprint it this Halloween season. It was co-researched and co-written by digital library specialist Elizabeth Gettins, who also had the brilliant idea for the piece. An ancient tome delving into the dark arts of witchcraft and magic…a book […]
The Library has a pair of the 15th century’s most influential books on the alleged practices of witchcraft, both from the era when alleged witches were tortured and killed.