April 10, 2009 @ 1:57 am
I didn’t know this but according to ScoutingNY the original Winnie The Pooh stuffed animals used to be housed at the Donnell Library. But now that the Donnell Library is closed, the collection of stuffed animals has moved over to the main New York Public Library at 42nd Street and 5th Avenue where you can once again freely view the original toys.
I had no idea that the NYPL even owned these items and now I’m going to make my way there and check it out tomorrow.
February 14, 2009 @ 8:38 am
If you need a last-minute Valentine’s Day card for your loved one, the New York Public Library might be able to save you because they’ve got a collection of old-timey Valentine’s Day cards available for free. You can probably get away with printing one out if you’ve got access to good paper and printer. Just hope that your Valentine doesn’t notice how cheap you are otherwise that’s probably grounds for a break-up.
The collection is worth looking at whether you need a card or not. It’s full of cupids, flowery hearts, and pastel illustrations. Fancy!
December 16, 2008 @ 5:46 pm
Yesterday, Flickr added a few wonderful collections from the New York Public Library image archives to Flickr Commons. If you’re a sucker for old and vintage photos of New York and its citizens, then you’ll find some great photographic works in the NYPL photostream. The collections are graciously categorized into sets (16 of them at the moment), so you can skip around and browse whatever topic you want without having to filter them out yourself.
My favorite is the “Changing New York, 1935-1938″ set. Look at the Chelsea Hotel in this photo. Man, I could waste away the rest of my day in this collection.
December 12, 2008 @ 9:31 am
Driven By Boredom is written by Nate Smith, an employee of The Internet Archive who captured these images of the Donnell Library on 53rd Street on one of its last days before being converted to a luxury hotel. I wrote about how sad I was about the library’s closing and how the area will be so different without a branch of the NYPL there in full view (the Donnell Library will return to the same location in the future, but will reside as an afterthought in the basement of the new hotel).
It’s certainly weird to see the colored walls of the Donnell Library without any shelves or books around. It looks like they really did a good job of gutting the place down to nothing but drywall and miscellaneous scrap.
October 9, 2008 @ 1:36 am
I’m falling in love with these vintage New York atlases from various counties in New York State. I’ve literally spent the last hour just browsing through them over at the NYPL Digital Gallery. If I had the money, I’d totally order all of these as prints to hang in my room. They seem so elegant and carefully constructed and there isn’t one that I prefer over another — I just think they’re all great.
I’d love to see more design today take some cues from these late 19th-century booklets. Obviously, that typeface is outdated, but that’s what makes it so beautiful to look at. Ok, I’m gonna go back to the NYPL Digital Gallery now to keep looking.
