414 stories from The New York Public Library
Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, my favorite part of the week was visiting the Florissant Valley Public Library and checking out cast recordings. I remember flipping through the bins of LP…
"It's the jokes. I need the jokes."
This is something a young library patron said to me the other day. He wanted me to find him a DVD of Abbott and Costello’s greatest movies…
In William Butler Yeats' poem "Among School Children" the poet famously asks "How can we know the dancer from the dance"? Many interpret this line as an observation…
On Sunday, the first of October, 2000 in Rome, Pope John Paul II presided over the ceremony that would elevate Philadelphia born Katharine Drexel to sainthood. It’s doubtful that …
In my last post I discussed the urgent problem of preserving "born digital" collections (that is, creative drafts produced using a computer rather than paper and pencil), and the v…
In the heart of Lincoln Center the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, nestled between the Metropolitan Opera and the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, thrives in its role as a vibrant c…
The Music Division is fortunate to have an internship program for several years. This program allows students the unique experience to see what it is like working in a large music research l…
The Performing Arts Library has an amazing collection of manuscript and typewritten drafts from some of the greatest writers and musicians in the world. The processes that led to groun…
Allow me to introduce myself — my name is Doug Reside, and in February I became the first Digital Curator for the Performing Arts at The New York Public Library. The position…
As a Manhattan-born teenager at the High School of Art & Design on East 57th Street, I was star-struck. I would go to a Broadway show whenever I could afford it. I practically lived at t…
For 100 years, The New York Public Library's landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street and its world-renowned collections have inspired people everywhere t…
In honor of April Fool's Day, I bring you an image of a jester and a ballerina which I found the other day in the Dance Division's photo collection. We don't know much about this photo,…
Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner in the original stage production The King and I in 1951. This was Lawrence's last show, performing the role of Anna Leonowens up until the last few weeks be…
It can be a strange thing when professional life intersects with the personal in the form of archival documents.
For the past week, the music world has been mourning the death of conductor Y…
