New York Public Library and An American in Paris

Wednesday commenced with Anita and me walking to Times Square to get theatre tickets from the ticket booth.  We got top seats at the front of the orchestra (in the UK we would call it the stalls) for half price to see An American in Paris (80 USD each!)

Me in front of the Palace Theatre (and a NY yellow cab)

Chatting up the police in Times Square.  They were seriously armed!

 Then Anita and I went to the New York Public Library for a tour.  It was wonderful.   Funded by approximately one third government/council monies, and the rest by public donations.  We saw the Chairman of the Library in the corridors, which the guide said, usually meant he was escorting someone who was about to make a large bequest to the organisation.

The NY Public Library now has such a huge collection (second only to the Bodlean) that it is on 3 other sites too.  Humanities and languages are kept at this site.  We were taken into the map room, where they have maps from ancient to modern.  They have maps showing the west coast of America, when geographers thought California was an island - apparently explorers had identified large rivers at the top and bottom, but being unable to sail far up the Delta just assumed they joined up, thereby isolating California from the mainland.

This corridor runs the whole length of the library -
which is two blocks  long from 40th street to 42nd street

Ceiling in the map room

Lions with swags of fruit and flowers in the map room

More map room ceiling and cornice

Upstairs in the barrel vaulted hall, there were 5 paintings of the stages of bookmaking.
This is of a religious scribe hand writing a bible

 The NYPL has a Guttenberg bible.  There were several printed, but with no colour plates.  They were printed with spaces for the illuminated capitals and purchasers bought the loose pages, paid to have them illuminated and bound.  This is why some Guttenberg Bibles are very ornate with elaborate scrollwork in the margins, whereas others just have the capitals illuminated.

This library has a huge collection of English literature, and has an excellent representation of the English Romantic period.  The stars of their collection include the first copy from the first print of Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland, with his inscription to Alice Liddell; and the hand written diaries of Virginia Woolf, and the walking stick she left on the bank when she drowned herself.

The murals in this hall were completed during the 1930s, during the depression.  It was one way that the Government authorities supported artists during this time - by commissioning them to produce appropriate imagery for the public library.

Ornate plaster ceiling.
 If you can spot a pineapple, apparently it is a sign of welcome

Reading room with portraits of the Astor Family

The NYPL was originally set up with bequests from 3 collections, the Astor Family, the Shelley Family and the Lenox family.  Andrew Carnegie provided the plot of land it is sited on - two blocks in central NY, that was formerly the city reservoir!  They have sets of portraits from all 3 families in this room.

Mary Shelly is the top left portrait
(she wrote Frankenstein, and was the daughter of Mary Woolstonecraft)

Lenox family (I think)

Buildings around Times Square in the 1930s.  

Another reading room.

Inscription in a floor tile

This Lithuanian man migrated to NY in his 20s, and worked as a gardener.  He used the public library to self educate, played the stock exchange and ended up a multi-millionaire.  He never married and had no family, and left his entire estate to the library.  I found this most inspiring - partly because Anita's Mum, Mrs Konieczny, also self educated at a library when she was caring for an elderly uncle in Leeds, away from her family in Essex.  This might provide me with a phrase to use on her sampler "She self educated in a library".  I often find something pertinent to my work, when looking at other things! Yippee!

Then Anita and I went to see An American In Paris.  Wonderful.  It is a musical modern ballet.  The ballet bit is a bit lost on me, but the story was wonderful, well played by actors representing different types of people.  Frigid repressive parents, Jewish composer, French would-be night club star; American guy, American affluent debutante; and the young girl in love.  Great characterisation.  Lovely Gershwin music. And a happy ending.  What more could you want!