Near the entrance to the Public Catalogue Room, and at the right, is a bronze tablet:
BORN A.D. MDCCCXIII (Bas-relief of Sir Isaac Pitman) TABLET ERECTED A.D. MCMXIII TO COMMEMORATE THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF SIR ISAAC PITMAN AND IN RECOGNITION OF THE IMPORTANT COLLECTION OF SHORTHAND LITERATURE IN THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Over the door leading from the Public Catalogue Room to the Main Reading Room is inscribed the famous quotation from Milton"s "Areopagitica":
A good Booke is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalm"d and treasur"d up on purpose to a life beyond life
[Ill.u.s.tration: ENTRANCE LOBBY]
=Information Desk.= The Information Desk of the Library is in the Public Catalogue Room, and here inquiries should be made about the resources and regulations of the Library, the use of the catalogue, and any other matter upon which the visitor may have a question to ask.
=Application for books= to be used in the Main Reading Room should be made in the Public Catalogue Room. The applicant writes his request upon the slip furnished for the purpose, and files it at the desk in this room. A numbered ticket is handed him, which he takes into the Main Reading Room, going to the right if the ticket number is odd; to the left if the number is even. He then waits at the indicator at the western end of the delivery desk until the number on his ticket appears. This means that his books are ready for him at the desk. If, however, he prefers first to select a seat in the Main Reading Room, he should write the number of that seat on his application, and his books will be left at that seat, if he is there to receive them.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
=The Main Reading Room=, in the rear, extends nearly the entire length of the building. It has a floor area of half an acre, and is divided in the middle by a booth from which books are delivered. There are seats for 768 readers. Mr. A. C. David, in the article previously quoted from the _Architectural Record_, says:
"The Main Reading Room is one of the most s.p.a.cious rooms in the world--beautifully proportioned, lighted by a series of windows on both the long sides of the room, and entirely accessible to the stacks. To have obtained a room of these dimensions, so excellently adapted to its purpose in every respect, was a great triumph for the architects."
[Ill.u.s.tration: DOOR OF EXHIBITION ROOM]
The shelves along the walls contain a collection of about 25,000 volumes. These books are not only the usual works of reference,--dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and the like, but they also include a good working library of general literature,--philosophy, religion, science, history, law, biography, standard novels, poetry, and the drama. These books are for the free use of anyone in this room, without the need of making any application. The reader has only to select the book he wishes, and to take it to a table, where he may consult it. When he has finished he should leave it on the table, rather than attempt to return it to its place, since a misplaced book is temporarily lost.
=The Library"s Books.= It should be kept in mind that the books of the Reference Department are all in the Central Building, and must all be used in that building. The great body of them are in the stack beneath the Main Reading Room. In addition, there are the books in the Main Reading Room itself, and in the special reading rooms in other parts of the building. Books and pamphlets number, altogether, about one million and a quarter.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ENTRANCE LOBBY, LOOKING WEST]
The books in the Central Circulation Room and in the Children"s Room in the bas.e.m.e.nt, the books in the Library for the Blind, those in the Travelling Libraries office in the bas.e.m.e.nt, and those in the forty-three Branch Libraries in other parts of the Boroughs of Manhattan, The Bronx, and Richmond are under control of the Circulation Department of the Library. Nearly all of these books are lent to borrowers for home use. They number about 1,100,000 volumes.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SOUTH SIDE OF EXHIBITION ROOM]
[Ill.u.s.tration: MAIN READING ROOM]
In regard to the books in the Reference Department, it is correct to say that in them the Library owns a well-balanced collection for research in nearly every branch of human knowledge. The books formerly in the Astor and Lenox Libraries compose the foundation of the collection. The subjects most adequately represented are those of American history, of topics connected with the American continents, and the economic and social sciences. There are also extensive sets of public doc.u.ments, of the publications of learned inst.i.tutions, as well as comprehensive files of periodicals. In recent years not so much attempt has been made to get publications on law, theology, medicine and biology, since there are special libraries, elsewhere in the City, where these subjects are covered. The reader is nevertheless sure to find in the special reading rooms, and in the books which may be brought to the Main Reading Room for his use, the fundamental printed sources in practically every field of knowledge.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PANEL IN CEILING, EXHIBITION ROOM]
[Ill.u.s.tration: DOOR IN SCREEN
MAIN READING ROOM]
=Use of Books.= The Library"s situation in the metropolis, and its freedom from restrictions (according to the custom of American libraries) have caused the use of its books to become two or three times greater than that of any of the other large libraries of the world; the average daily number of readers is more than double the number in any foreign library.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
=Stack.= Underneath the Main Reading Room is the steel stack, in seven decks, containing 334,500 feet, or 63.3 miles, of shelving. It has room for about 2,500,000 books. (The special reading rooms have a shelf capacity for about 500,000 books.) The books in the stack are brought by electric elevators to the Main Reading Room, as they are called for by readers. The stack is not open to readers or visitors.
=Genealogy Room.= At the northern end of the Main Reading Room is the room devoted to Local History and Genealogy (No. 328). The collection numbers about thirty thousand volumes.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PART OF MAIN READING ROOM]
=American History Division.= At the southern end of the Main Reading Room is the room devoted to American history (No. 300). It is one of the strongest divisions of the Library, since its books are so distinguished among collections of this kind as to make them of the greatest importance to students and scholars in the field of American history. The foundation of this collection was formed by the books on American history owned by James Lenox, the founder of the Lenox Library, one of the components of the present New York Public Library. The tablet in the floor near the entrance of Room 300 is inscribed as follows:
IN MEMORY OF JAMES LENOX A NATIVE AND RESIDENT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK BORN AUGUST 19 1800 DIED FEBRUARY 17 1880 THE TRUSTEES OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS IN PERFORMANCE OF A GRATEFUL DUTY HAVE CAUSED THIS TABLET TO BE PLACED HERE AMONG THE BOOKS HE CHERISHED AS A MEMORIAL OF HIS SERVICES TO THE HISTORY OF AMERICA
From the corridors on the front and sides of the third floor, rooms open in the following order, beginning with the corridor at the south, running along the 40th Street side of the building:
=Reserve Books= (No. 303): In this room are kept the rare and reserved books of the Library.
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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 j.a.panese prints in color, and a collection of old prints ill.u.s.trating 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.
=General Gallery.= The next room to the north is the general gallery (No.
318). (Sign reads "Picture Gallery.") The pictures in this room are largely from the collection of James Lenox. The catalogue, mentioned in the preceding paragraph, gives a list of them, and a brief description of many. Open 9 a. m. to 6 p. m. week days and 1 to 5 p. m. Sundays.
=Prints Gallery.= Opening from No. 318, and also from the north end of the front corridor, is the Prints Gallery (No. 321). Here are held exhibitions of prints, changed several times each year. Open 9 a. m. to 6 p. m. on week days and 1 to 5 p. m. Sundays.
=Ma.n.u.script Division.= On the west or inner side of the front corridor is the research room of the Ma.n.u.script Division (No. 319). This is open only to those who hold cards signed by the Director of the Library. Open 9 a. m. to 6 p. m. week days. The Division has a good selection of Oriental ma.n.u.scripts, and of European illuminated ma.n.u.scripts. Among these older ones may be mentioned an "Evangelistarium, sive Lectiones ex Evangeliis," a French-Carlovingian ma.n.u.script on 200 vellum leaves, date about 870 A. D. Another ma.n.u.script of special note is the work of Giulio Clovio, his "Christi Vita ab Evangelistis descripta," sometimes called "The Towneley Lectionary." It was made for Alexander, Cardinal Farnese, and was presented by him to Pope Paul III.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ONE OF THE SPECIAL READING ROOMS
(GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY)]