



Produced by Carla Foust, and The Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)





Transcriber's note


Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice.




[Illustration: CENTRAL BUILDING

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY]




   HANDBOOK

   _of_

   THE NEW YORK PUBLIC
   LIBRARY

   1916




   Copyright, 1916, by
   THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY




CONTENTS


   THE CENTRAL BUILDING:                        PAGE

     EXTERIOR                                      7

     SCULPTURE                                    13

     THE REAR OF THE BUILDING                     15


   FIRST FLOOR

     ENTRANCES                                    17

     ELEVATORS                                    19

     EXHIBITION ROOM                              19

     CURRENT PERIODICALS ROOM                     19

     BUSINESS OFFICES                             21

     TECHNOLOGY DIVISION                          21

     PATENTS ROOM                                 22

     THE LIBRARY FOR THE BLIND                    22


   SECOND FLOOR

     ORIENTAL DIVISION                            23

     JEWISH DIVISION                              23

     SLAVONIC DIVISION                            23

     SCIENCE DIVISION                             25

     ECONOMICS DIVISION                           25

     BUSINESS OFFICES                             25


   THIRD FLOOR

     PUBLIC CATALOGUE ROOM                        27

     INFORMATION DESK                             31

     APPLICATION FOR BOOKS                        31

     THE MAIN READING ROOM                        31

     THE LIBRARY'S BOOKS                          33

     USE OF BOOKS                                 39

     STACK                                        39

     GENEALOGY ROOM                               39

     AMERICAN HISTORY DIVISION                    39

     RESERVE BOOKS                                41

     PRINTS ROOM                                  43

     ART AND ARCHITECTURE                         43

     MAP ROOM                                     45

     STUART GALLERY                               45

     GENERAL GALLERY                              45

     PRINTS GALLERY                               45

     MANUSCRIPT DIVISION                          46

     MUSIC DIVISION                               47


   BASEMENT

     NEWSPAPER ROOM                               47

     CENTRAL CIRCULATION BRANCH                   49

     CHILDREN'S ROOM                              51

     LIBRARY SCHOOL                               51

     PUBLIC TELEPHONES                            53

     BUSINESS OFFICES                             53

     TRAVELLING LIBRARIES OFFICE                  53


   CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT (BRANCHES):

     CIRCULATION OF BOOKS                         55

     SPECIAL COLLECTIONS                          57

     INTERBRANCH LOAN                             57

     READING ROOMS                                57

     LIBRARY FOR THE BLIND                        59

     TRAVELLING LIBRARIES                         59

     WORK WITH CHILDREN                           61

     LECTURES AND MEETINGS                        62


   HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE LIBRARY:

     THE ASTOR LIBRARY                            63

     THE LENOX LIBRARY                            67

     THE TILDEN TRUST                             67

     CONSOLIDATION                                69

     NEW YORK FREE CIRCULATING LIBRARY            71

     OTHER CIRCULATING LIBRARIES                  71

     CARNEGIE BRANCHES                            71

     MANAGEMENT                                   71

     BENEFACTORS                                  72

     WORK OF THE LIBRARY                          73


   FLOOR PLANS, CENTRAL BUILDING                  74

   TRUSTEES AND OFFICERS OF THE LIBRARY           76

   DIRECTORY OF BRANCH LIBRARIES                  77

   PUBLICATIONS OF THE LIBRARY                    78

   THE CROTON RESERVOIR                           79




_NOTE_


_Although the purpose of this Handbook is to tell the principal facts
about the Library as an institution, its chief use is likely to be that
of a guide to the Central Building. The section about the Central
Building is therefore given first place. Any visitor who cares to take
the trouble, before beginning his tour of the Building, to read the
brief historical sketch (on pages 63-73) will have a better
understanding of the organization and work of the Library, and see the
reasons for a number of things which might not otherwise be clear._




THE CENTRAL BUILDING


OPEN: WEEK DAYS, INCLUDING HOLIDAYS, 9 A.M. TO 10 P.M. SUNDAYS, 1 P.M.
TO 10 P.M.

(Except where otherwise noted these are the hours of the special reading
rooms.)




THE CENTRAL BUILDING


=The Central Building= of The New York Public Library is on the western
side of Fifth Avenue, occupying the two blocks between 40th and 42nd
Streets. It stands on part of the site of the old Croton distributing
reservoir, and it was built by the City of New York at a cost of about
nine million dollars.

Competitions to choose the architect for the building were held in 1897,
two years after The New York Public Library was incorporated. The result
of the competition was the selection of Messrs. Carrere and Hastings, of
New York, as architects. In 1899 the work of removing the old reservoir
began. Various legal difficulties and labor troubles delayed beginning
the construction of the building, but by November 10, 1902, the work had
progressed so far that the cornerstone was laid. The building was opened
to the public May 23, 1911, in the presence of the President of the
United States, the Governor of the State of New York, the Mayor of New
York, and an audience of about six hundred persons.

=Exterior.= The material of the building is largely Vermont marble, and
the style that of the modern Renaissance, somewhat in the manner of the
period of Louis XVI, with certain modifications to suit the conditions
of to-day. It is rectangular in shape, 390 feet long and 270 feet deep,
built around two inner courts. It has a cellar, basement or ground
floor, and three upper floors.

[Illustration: MAIN ENTRANCE]

"The Library," wrote Mr. A. C. David, in the _Architectural Record_[1],
"is undeniably popular. It has already taken its place in the public
mind as a building of which every New Yorker may be proud, and this
opinion of the building is shared by the architectural profession of the
country. Of course, it does not please everybody; but if American
architects in good standing were asked to name the one building which
embodied most of what was good in contemporary American architecture,
The New York Public Library would be the choice of a handsome majority."

Mr. David continued: "The Library is not, then, intended to be a great
monumental building, which would look almost as well from one point of
view as another, and which would be fundamentally an example of pure
architectural form. It is designed rather to face on the avenue of a
city, and not to seem out of place on such a site. It is essentially and
frankly an instance of street architecture; and as an instance of street
architecture it is distinguished in its appearance rather than imposing.
Not, indeed, that it is lacking in dignity. The facade on Fifth Avenue
has poise, as well as distinction; character, as well as good manners.
But still it does not insist upon its own peculiar importance, as every
monumental building must do. It is content with a somewhat humbler role,
but one which is probably more appropriate. It looks ingratiating rather
than imposing, and that is probably one reason for its popularity. It is
intended for popular rather than for official use, and the building
issues to the people an invitation to enter rather than a command....

[Illustration: TERRACE IN FRONT OF LIBRARY

LOOKING SOUTH]

"The final judgment on the Library will be, consequently, that it is not
a great monument, because considerations of architectural form have in
several conspicuous instances been deliberately subordinated to the
needs of the plan. In this respect it resembles the new Museum of Fine
Arts in Boston. The building is at bottom a compromise between two
groups of partly antagonistic demands, and a compromise can hardly ever
become a consummate example of architectural form. But, on the other
hand, Messrs. Carrere and Hastings have, as in so many other cases, made
their compromise successful. Faithful as they have been to the
fundamental requirement of adapting the building to its purpose as a
library, they have also succeeded in making it look well; and they have
succeeded in making it look well partly because the design is
appropriate to its function as a building in which books are stored,
read and distributed. A merely monumental library always appears
somewhat forbidding and remote. The Library looks attractive, and so far
as a large building can, even intimate....

[Illustration: BY EDWARD C. POTTER]

[Illustration: TERRACE LOOKING NORTH]

"The popularity of the Library has, consequently, been well earned. The
public has reason to like it, because it offers them a smiling
countenance; and the welcome it gives is merely the outward and visible
sign of an inward grace. When people enter they will find a building
which has been ingeniously and carefully adapted to their use.
Professional architects like it, because they recognize the skill, the
good taste and the abundant resources of which the building, as a whole,
is the result; and while many of them doubtless cherish a secret
thought that they would have done it better, they are obliged to
recognize that in order to have done it better they would have been
obliged to exhibit a high degree of architectural intelligence. In the
realism of its plan and in the mixture of dignity and distinction in the
design, The New York Public Library is typical of that which is best in
the contemporary American architectural movement; and New York is
fortunate, indeed, that such a statement can be made of the most
important public building erected in the city during several
generations."

[Illustration: ROMANCE BY PAUL BARTLETT]

=Sculpture.= Of the sculptural designs, the two lions on either side of
the main approach are by E. C. Potter. They have been subjected to much
criticism, mainly of a humorous nature, and in the daily press. This
adverse comment has not been endorsed by critics of art and
architecture. Mr. Potter was chosen for this work by Augustus St.
Gaudens, and again, after Mr. St. Gaudens' death, by Mr. D. C. French,
also an eminent sculptor. Any layman can satisfy himself, by a brief
observation of the building as a whole, that the architectural balance
of the structure demands figures of heroic size to flank the main
approach. With that requirement in view, the designer of such figures
has but a limited choice of subject, since there are few living
creatures whose forms possess dignity without being cumbrous. The
sculptor in this instance has followed well-established precedents in
designing the lions according to the canons of decorative art. They are
as realistic as would be suitable for figures of this size, and in this
position.

[Illustration: PHILOSOPHY BY PAUL BARTLETT]

The groups in the pediments are by George Gray Barnard; the one in the
northern pediment represents History, and the one in the southern, Art.

The figures above the fountains on either side of the main entrance are
by Frederick MacMonnies; the man seated on the Sphinx, on the northern
side of the entrance represents Truth. On the southern side, the figure
of the woman seated on Pegasus represents Beauty. Above the figure of
Truth is this inscription from the Apocrypha (1 Esdras, chapter 3):

   BUT ABOVE ALL THINGS
   TRUTH
   BEARETH AWAY
   THE VICTORY

The inscription above the figure of Beauty is:

   BEAUTY
   OLD YET EVER NEW
   ETERNAL VOICE
   AND INWARD WORD

This is from the twenty-first stanza of Whittier's poem, "The Shadow and
the Light."

The six figures above the main entrance are by Paul Bartlett; naming
them from north to south they are: History, Drama, Poetry, Religion,
Romance, and Philosophy. Above the entrance are inscriptions concerning
three of the component parts of The New York Public Library. They are as
follows:

   THE LENOX LIBRARY
   FOUNDED BY
   JAMES LENOX
   DEDICATED TO HISTORY
   LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS
   MDCCCLXX

   THE ASTOR LIBRARY
   FOUNDED BY
   JOHN JACOB ASTOR
   FOR THE
   ADVANCEMENT OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE
   MDCCCXLVIII

   THE TILDEN TRUST
   FOUNDED BY
   SAMUEL JONES TILDEN
   TO SERVE THE INTERESTS OF
   SCIENCE AND POPULAR EDUCATION
