Handbook of The New York Public LibraryNew York Public Library
History
Handbook of The New York Public Library
New York Public Library
Libraries -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Among the foremost treasures of the Library are: the Gutenberg Bible
(printed by Gutenberg and Fust about 1455, one of the earliest books
printed from movable types); the Coverdale Bible (1535); Tyndale's
Pentateuch (1530) and New Testament (1536); and Eliot's Indian Bible. In
fact, the collection of early Bibles in English is one of the great
collections of the kind in existence. The Library also owns four copies
of the First Folio Shakespeare (1623); several copies of the Second,
Third, and Fourth Folios (1632, 1663-64, 1685); thirty-five editions of
the Shakespeare Quartos, before 1709; eight works printed by William
Caxton (1475-90); the Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in the
territory now comprised in the United States (Cambridge, 1640); and the
Doctrina Christiana, printed in Mexico in 1544.
[Illustration: BOOK STACK
(SHOWING HALF THE LENGTH OF ONE DECK)]
One contribution to the Library has been commemorated by a tablet near
the door of this room. It bears the inscription:
THE
BAILEY MYERS COLLECTION
OF
AMERICANA
FORMED BY
THEODORUS BAILEY MYERS
OF
NEW YORK CITY
1821-1888
GIVEN BY HIS WIDOW, DAUGHTER
AND DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AS A
MEMORIAL OF HIM AND HIS SON
THEODORUS BAILEY MYERS MASON
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER
UNITED STATES NAVY
Opposite, in Room 304, is the office of the Bibliographer of the
Library, and of the Chief of the American History Division.
=Prints Room.= Opening from the corridor on the east (the front) of the
Library is the Prints Room (No. 308). Open 9 a. m. to 6 p. m. week days;
1 to 6 p. m. Sundays. Here is the Samuel P. Avery Collection of 18,000
prints. They are mainly French and other modern etchings and
lithographs. There is also a large collection of modern American prints,
a collection of Japanese prints in color, and a collection of old prints
illustrating the development of reproductive graphic art to the present
day.
=Art and Architecture.= Room 313 is the reading room devoted to Art and
Architecture. The resources of the collection, about 25,000 books, deal
with art and craftsmanship in the widest sense.
[Illustration: TRUSTEES' ROOM]
=Map Room.= On the inner, or western, side of this corridor, opposite Room
313, is the Map Room (No. 312), a part of the American History Division.
Open 9 a. m. to 6 p. m. on week days.
=Stuart Gallery.= Opening from the corridor on the front of the building,
and directly opposite the entrance to the Public Catalogue Room, is the
room devoted to the Stuart Collection (No. 316). Open 9 a. m. to 6 p. m.
on week days. Closed on Sundays. This contains pictures, books, and
other objects of art bequeathed by Mrs. Robert L. Stuart. On the east
wall of the Gallery is a tablet with this inscription:
THE
ROBERT L. STUART
COLLECTION
THE GIFT OF HIS WIDOW,
MRS. MARY STUART.
BEQUEATHED TO THE
LENOX LIBRARY
1892.
Catalogues of the paintings are on sale for ten cents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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