Blogging@NYPL

Have you visited the High Line yet? I haven’t but I am looking forward to making the trip in the near future. The High Line is an elevated train track which fell out of use during the 1950s due to the increased use of interstate highways for freight deliveries. In the late nineties, two New Yorkers came together to start Friends of the High Line, a group whose mission was to keep the historic structure from being demolished. Ultimately, the group partnered with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to reinvent the High Line as a public space. Just a couple of weeks ago the first section of the High Line opened up to the public and the city's response has been very positive.

The High Line website offers excellent historical images of the structure and of the surrounding area as it was before the High Line was built. Looking through these great images, I started wondering what kinds of photographs we had in our digital gallery of the High Line. Surprisingly, I didn't find anything when searching by its name. There were images from the West Side Improvement Project but all were of locations above 34th Street, which meant, none of the tracks were the High Line. I then remembered that most of our street scene photographs are indexed by cross street. Searching for “Tenth Ave and 15th” I found some Wurts Brother's photographs. Here's the High Line taking its course through the national biscuit company:

This serves as a good reminder to researchers looking for street views of New York City or photographs of New York City buildings in our digital gallery. Most often you will not find anything under street addresses or building names (unless they are landmarked or famous). If you don't happen to find photographs for a particular structure you are researching, try searching its cross streets.

But avoid doing too much research this weekend. Go out and visit the High Line if you can!

This is one of my favorite images from the million and a half items held by the NYPL’s Picture Collection. Of course, I haven’t seen them all, and if you ask my co-workers they’ll tell you that I usually work with pictures about ships, airplanes, battles and weird animals like bats, insects and snakes. But this image really stirs me. Every few months I take it from its folder (labeled FAMILY LIFE – 1950s) and revisit it to remind me of the evocative power of art from another time. This picture stands for all the reasons we save it and other pictures for the public to use and enjoy.

It’s an illustration from an elementary school level reading book, and it shows a family getting ready to leave after a visit to relatives on a farm. It’s dated 1951, but still has a strong late-40’s feel, especially in the car with its small-windowed, round-fendered “roadster” look so unlike the plumper, chrome-adorned autos we associate with the Eisenhower era and which turned into the big-finned “land yachts” of the Kennedy years. Look how the artist has captured the behavior of the animals: the dog pulls back from the baby’s outthrust hand, while the cat leans into the ear-scratching given by the little girl. A chicken comes running to see what all the fuss is about. Father is opening the trunk of the car. He has his jacket and hat ready to go with those suit pants because, even though he may have gone around with his tie off and top button of his shirt undone, he’s going back the city now, and men have to dress for this. The young boy wears a straw hat as a memento, but his Mom has a hat and high heels. Grandpa (in overalls) and Grandma (in her apron) are bringing a farewell gift of fresh vegetables and eggs to take back to the suburbs.

Yes, it’s idealized, and even a little corny (no pun intended!), but it speaks to me in so many ways. I love the trim neatness of the farm buildings against the blue sky. I feel the undertones of modest prosperity and the strength of family ties. I’m reminded that there’s a whole country beyond the borders of New York City, with real people whose work feeds us all, and whom we often dismiss from our lofty urban perch. It all makes me try to imagine the classrooms where this book would have been used. What did the kids there do after school? Where did their parents work, and what did they watch on TV? It’s almost too clean and perfect, and all the faces are white.

It’s very much a product of its era, and I know this. But it still suggests how America wanted to see itself at the time it was made. To me, it’s as evocative of its era as anything by a Greek black-figure vase painter, Breugel or David Hockney. It’s an America I just missed seeing, and perhaps that’s why it appeals to me so strongly.

Meet Maybelline Mary Katherine Mary Ann Chestnut ("Maybe" for short). Maybe was named for her mother Chessy's favorite brand of mascara and two of Chessy's favorite Miss Americas. Living above her mother's charm school, perhaps it's not surprise that a lot of what Maybe does in Absolutely Maybe (2009) by Lisa Yee is part of a backlash against her mother.

Chessamay Chestnut Abajian Wing Marshall Wing Sinclair Alvarez (and soon to be Himmler) is a serial marryer. Somehow she winds up married to every man she dates--everyone except Maybe's father who remains a mystery.

Most of the time, Maybe can deal with all of that. Sure, her mother's charm school students taunt her and constantly make fun of her baggy clothes and funky hair colors, but they don't matter. Neither do Chessy's not-always-so-gentle criticisms. Maybe is above all of that. At least until Chessy chooses her sketchy fiance over Maybe, which is the last straw and convinces Maybe that she has to leave her hometown. And her mother. For good.  read more »

Wings (2009) is Aprilynne Pike's debut novel. The first thing to know about it is that the idea has been thrown around that Wings might possibly be the next Twilight. I have my own varied and complex issues with Twilight but I can see the connection. The tone, protagonist, and a lot of other things are very different. But the general "vibe" of the two books are strikingly similar. The jacket praise from Stephenie Meyer also helps.* That said, if you loved Twilight, you should read this book. If you hated it, or if you wanted to like it but couldn't, you should also read this book. Finally, if you are with me in being on Team Jacob, you must read this book for reasons that will become apparent as the story progresses.**

Onward . . .  read more »

D.I.Y., or "Do it Yourself," is all the rage lately! On June 24th at 6:30 p.m. the Mulberry Street Branch launches its Summer Do It Yourself Series for adults. We'll be making simple books using recycled materials (bring an empty cereal box if you can). Just one way to Be Creative this summer!

Registration is required. RSVP by calling the library at 212-966-3424 or send us an email at mulberry_branch@nypl.org.

Thanks for sharing your comments and insights. I hope you enjoyed posting and reading this blog as much as I did.
Can't wait for Hosseini's next book!

Throughout these late winter and spring months, work crews have been feverishly drilling, planting, laying, grouting, irrigating, digging and welding outside of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in preparation for summer, when crowds of tourists and city dwellers will be looking for a shaded seat or a grassy knoll on which to perch with a sandwich or a friend. The problem is, and has been, that Lincoln Center Plaza as it was conceptualized and built in the 1960s was neither shaded nor grassy and that one would be hard pressed to find a reason to linger when there are no shops, no eateries, no vendors, no space that fosters interaction. The aforementioned reconstruction, which includes trees and benches, comes at a time when city space and urban planning is being re-evaluated; in a city of 8 million, we cannot afford to have barren architectural monuments and open spaces that serve only the few. Even the Statue of Liberty has been put back to work, with the reopening of her crown to visitors planned for July 4, 2009.

One would think that this urban introspection is a new phenomenon, one born of the increasing population in New York City as well as the influx of visitors from elsewhere in our more mobile, credit-fueled global community. But, in fact, we are merely revisiting an old debate: are cities meant to be monolithic grids or lush communal places? Whose values should be represented when ground is broken on a new building, stadium or park?  read more »

This year has seen many concerts marking the bicentennial of composer Joseph Haydn's death on May 31, 1809. As part of these events, the publisher, G. Henle Verlag of Munich has issued a facsimile of one of the Music Division's prized manuscripts, Haydn's Variations in F Minor, Hob. XVII:6. Composed in 1793, this work contains (in the words of noted musicologist James Webster): "arguably Haydn’s most original and concentrated double-variation movement, with a coda (added in revision) of Beethovenian power."  read more »

The retro fashion for Steampunk has been well covered by other bloggers. Steampunk extends to more than clothes, and includes novels, films, music, and accessories. A tribute to the age of steam which culminated in sleeker industrial designs by the 1890s, I think of Steampunk as a mix of Sherlock Holmes, narrow-gauge railways, the Wild, Wild West television series, and the lovely lady pictured here. Her mutton leg sleeves remind me irresistibly of the pneumatic tubes we see in the Main Reading Room at the 42nd Street Library.
 
 
 
Women’s clothing in this decade reveal the final vestiges of Victorian costume shading into Edwardian dress. I think there’s something symbolic about the flaring lines and angles in feminine garments now. My second illustration depicts a woman who looks like a teapot that’s ready to be poured. Comfort isn’t the attribute that leaps to my mind when looking at these ensembles. Don’t worry, though, all this will change.

Speaking of wild, wild Wests, I’m heading out there again. After a hiatus, I will return— but on a new timetable. I’ll be posting once a week during July and August. There’s much to be done in the Education department this summer. And I mean to wrap up this foray into the nineteenth century before September. Change is good.

My friend and I have a longstanding debate over whether kangaroos run or hop. Regardless of who is correct (I am), it’s true that many urban dwellers develop a curious understanding of the natural world. Here’s a small sampling of how some people, city folk and others, relate to animals or view the animal kingdom.

Marina Belozerskaya’s The Medici Giraffe: and other tales of exotic animals and power (Little Brown, 2006) has a truly striking cover, I even had someone on the train comment on what an attractive book it is. This book is more about the political climates that encouraged the exploitation and slaughter of exotic breeds for power, amusement and misguided curiosity than some of the accounts of animal caretaking that I will discuss here. A really thorough account of zoos and the use of animals by leaders such as Alexander the Great.

Recommended for bird-watching enthusiasts, or by those who love accounts of the truly obsessed is Club George by Bob Levy (St. Martin’s Press, 2006). Levy feeds (!) his way into the heart of a red wing blackbird in Central Park and keeps a detailed diary about it and other birds and mammals in the park. There’s an entire chapter dedicated to what binoculars to get for optimum bird-watching… need I say more?

With the same friend I have the kangaroo debate with, I watched a show on Animal Planet about animal surrogates, that is, people who adopted Tasmanian devils or wombats and raised them in pouches until they were old enough and healthy enough to be released into the wild. Interestingly enough, this practice has an antecedent in the literary world, in Dante Gabriel Rossetti. I think I was introduced to this idea in The Medici Giraffe, my apologies if I’m not attributing the story to the right book. Dante Gabriel Rossetti kept a wombat as a pet, among a cadre of other animals, and it purportedly slept on a silver platter on his dining table. The British Museum has a copy of a pen drawing and verse lamenting the death of his beloved wombat.

In Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger (Random House, 2005, A NYPL Book for the Teen Age 2006, under Fur, Feathers and Scales), two New York Times authors, Margaret Mittelbach and Michael Crewdson, visit Tasmania with their pot-smoking artist friend in search of sightings of the Tasmanian “tiger”, a marsupial last seen in the 1920s and widely believed to be extinct. Along their quest, they report on the exotic and unusual creatures both thriving and threatened in Tasmania, recent attempts to clone the tiger, and the threat of logging on the old-growth eucalyptus forests. www.carnivorousnights.com.

The variety of animals on our planet never ceases to amaze me. A recent New York Times article by Natalie Angier focused on the echidna, found in New Guinea, a mammal worthy of that amazement and a potential, IMHO, topic for Mittelbach and Crewdson’s next book.

Another NYPL Book for the Teen Age 2006, under Fur, Feathers and Scales, is Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson’s Raising the Peaceable Kingdom (Ballantine Books, 2005). Mr. Moussaieff Masson, no stranger to writing (When Elephants Weep and Dogs Never Lie About Love ) about animals and a former psychoanalyst, decides to conduct an experiment in his New Zealand home wherein he adopts several baby animals: chickens, cats, dogs, a rabbit and two rats, and sees if he can build his own “peaceable kingdom”. This book raises lots of interesting questions about nature vs. nurture, the process of socialization and animalistic characteristics vs. humanistic characteristics. More recently, in his newer book, The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Your Food and in a New York Times profile on him, he applies his findings to advocate for veganism.

Sy Montgomery’s The Good Good Pig (Ballantine Books, 2006) employs a similar hands-on approach to experiencing the emotional lives of animals firsthand. Her book chronicles the life of “Christopher Hogwood”, a black and white pig on her small farm in New Hampshire who grows from an undersized runt to a 500 lb attraction. It’s a beautifully told story by an author who has also covered dolphins and Southeast Asian bears. This book is sure to appeal to fans of Jon Katz’s dog books.

I recently wrote about an old favorite of mine, the fantasy novel Time and Again, by Jack Finney. It is the story of a man who travels back in time to New York in the 1800s. Once there, the story is compelling, precise in its details, and completely believable, the only far-fetched element being his actual methodology for returning to the past--he looks at old pictures and sort of thinks himself back through time. At least I thought this was far-fetched, until I got a look at the photographs I’ve reproduced here.

We can pretend that our work lives are a linear progression, day after day, neatly punctuated by weekends, with a summer vacation splitting each year down the middle. The truth, as usual, is far messier. If you work long enough at the same job, your experiences become layered like geological sediment. As of this past April I’ve worked in the General Research Division of the New York Public Library for thirty-two years. When it occurred to me that the library itself will be celebrating its centennial in 2011, I realized how much of its history I’ve actually participated in. Now, there are people--I’m sure you know a few--who seem to dwell principally in the past, always reminiscing about the old days and the peculiar characters who used to inhabit them…while their stories might hold your interest for awhile, it doesn’t take long before the tedium sets in. For the most part, I try to stay on the surface of the present moment, like a skater on a frozen lake; but with these photographs I’ve cracked through the skin of ice and gone plunging down and down. . .  read more »

Bold hussies would get their comeuppance, predicted the morally offended critics of a society growing too racy for comfort. How dare they talk about a “New Woman,” ready to take part in every aspect of society? Such ideas were on a par with the fashion for progress in all things technological and scientific. Social change had come and left its mark. The outward signs of this, however, were still not apparent to all. Indeed, many considered the 1890s a time of uncertainty.

I am from Detroit and I don’t remember noting the ethnic background of anyone while growing up. In Detroit we seemed to organize ourselves by way of race not ethnicity, you were either black or white. The food had more distinction of ethnicity than the people responsible for making it. For the time we lived in Detroit, it seemed like it was the center of the world. My folks, really my mother, would travel all over the city to get her taste of food she craved. Years after the riots in 68, when our family followed white flight, just like everyone else, my mom would say “hop in the car Cyn, lets go to Etta’s Shrimp Shack” or someplace else. She and I would drive into Detroit via the expressway, get off at the desired exit and travel a few miles. We would come up to Etta’s a take-out shop. The place would be packed with cars. I would wait behind the wheel and in my mom would go, a short time later she would appear with a bag of good smelling food. Sometimes it would be barbeque, but it would always be shrimp, my personal favorite. The order would be accompanied with tasty side dishes like greens flavored with pork and flavorful black-eyed peas. For dessert, my mother would order the rhubarb pie too. Too tart for me but she and my dad loved it.

For many years, that type of food, what I came to know as soul food vanished from my life. I went to college and there seemed to be very few African Americans on the western side of Michigan. Eventually I moved back to Detroit and then to New York City. Once in New York, Harlem was close by and when the urge hit, my husband I would be on the train. I was happy with the nameless spot that had the mouth watering menu in the window and I was never disappointed. Now it seems you can find soul food or a variation of soul and southern cooking in any of the boroughs. Likewise barbeque is everywhere. In the last twenty years there has been a hybridization of food styles, though the roots clearly are southern or what I would call soul food, like what I had in Detroit.

Fortunately in New York City we reap the benefits of this food revolution. Greens smothered in flavorful bacon fat (lardon or pancetta) are an offering on any number of menus in French restaurants to eclectic dining spots all over the city. Where race seemed to clearly divide us not that long ago, it’s food with its many offerings that seems to be bringing us back together.

Frederick Douglas Opie will be discussing his book Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America at the Mid-Manhattan Library this evening at 6:30 PM.

So the song goes. But may I ask—are you bustin' out all over? If so, it may be time to get moving. Even if you’re smooth, sleek and at your fighting weight, exercise is always a good thing and doing it with others multiplies the enjoyment.

This past Saturday I spent an energizing few hours walking from Manhattan to Ward’s Island, then to Randall’s Island, north to the Triborough Bridge (recently re-named the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge) and over it, back to Manhattan. If you didn’t know such a thing were possible, as I hadn’t until I did it, you too might consider taking a walk with the Outdoors Club. Walking with an interesting group of people and a knowledgeable leader greatly enhanced the experience for me.

I learned about the Outdoors Club at the 50+ Fitness Fairs hosted this past April and May at several of the public libraries. If you missed the fairs, you can get the information to start your own physical fitness plan by checking out the websites below. No money? No problem! Many of them offer free activities; others are very low cost.

Bike New York and Transportation Alternatives can tell you where and how to safely ride a bicycle in New York City and its environs besides keeping you up-to-date on cycling-related issues and advocacy. But before you start cycling, be sure to get a free helmet courtesy of the NYC Department of Transportation. Wondering about community gardens and how to get involved with them? The Open Space Greening Program of NYC’s Council on the Environment will give you answers—and gardening is a great way to get in some physical activity while producing something beautiful, and maybe edible. Speaking of beautiful things, I can’t think of a more appealing place to explore than Wave Hill—the Hudson River views, the super-oxygenated air, the flowers, the art, the crafts, the dance, even the urban beekeeping—I could go on and on about the delights of Wave Hill. . .  read more »

Rasheed symbolizes the oppression of women. At first his oppression seems benign but soon he is a danger to Mariam, Laila and Aziza. What might the three women symbolize?

What point is made by the description of the Bamiyan trip? What may the two Buddhas symbolize? (Consider the reality of what happened to the statues in 2001).

"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls."

What does this quotation from Saib-e-Tabrizi's poem tell us about the characters and / or situations in the book? In other words, what is the significance of the title?

As always, please feel free to add your insights and comments.

Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last (2005) is the stunning conclusion to Susan Juby's debut trilogy (preceeded by Alice, I Think and its sequel Miss Smithers). You might recognize Juby's name from the 2009 Edgar Awards where Getting the Girl was a nominee.

This installment opens with the first scene from Alice's screenplay "Of Moose and Men"--a creative work loosely based on her own life. Excerpts of the screenplay are sprinkled throughout the novel. The writing is overwrought, exaggerated, and provides hysterical insight into Alice's psyche throughout the story. In addition to being Alice's latest career of choice, writing her screenplay also helps this sixteen-year-old heroine make sense of the chaos that has become her life.  read more »

A real fashion breakthrough occurs in the late nineteenth century with the notion of specific costumes for sports. As early as 1888, advertisements show models of “bicycle-gowns.” This would lead to the adoption of bloomers and divided, or bifurcated, skirts. Modesty and seemliness were deplored in vain.

Why, that pernicious bicycle would even bring about a man and woman riding in tandem! How tame does costume of this era seem today when compared to our lycra and spandex sports outfits. Yet the revolutionary nature of this small first step toward sports clothes is more than evident. Bicycling was one more breakthrough on the road to women’s rights and liberation from confining corsets and billowing skirts. Look in the Digital Gallery under the headings Bicycle and Cycling for a visual glimpse of this “road to ruin.”

Interested in learning how books were made during the hand-press era? If so, please join me at the Library this evening for an illustrated history of the craftsmanship of paper making, printing, and bookbinding. I’ll be gathering some how-to books on book arts from our collections to share with you too, to help you get started making books. There's no need to register, and it’s a free class—here are the details:

Wednesday June 10th, 6:00 to 7:00pm (classroom will open at 5:45pm)
New York Public Library
Celeste Bartos Education Center
First Floor, South Court Classrooms
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue & 42nd Street

One last note: I'll teach this class two more times this summer (at 2:00pm on July 25th, and at 2:00pm on August 22nd), so please mark your calendars for one of these dates if you are interested but can't come this evening.

A Thousand Splendid Suns starts with a term of abuse thrown at one of the protagonists — Mariam — by her mother: "harami." The word means illegitimate and would be deeply hurtful to someone from a culture that prizes patriarchy. To be without her father's name and patronage is Mariam's curse. It shapes her character and her destiny. What is interesting is that despite Jalil Khan's rejection and Nana's warnings, Mariam worships her father. Her feelings for Nana are more ambivalent. Nana's depression and epilepsy make her a difficult parent but she tries to forearm Mariam by telling her, " ... a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always." Mariam will remember this all her life.

1. What does the location (on the outskirts of Gul Daman) of the hut that Nana and Mariam live in tell us about their position in Jalil's life and in the community?
2. What kind of a mother is Nana? Do you believe Nana's account of Mariam's birth?
3. Can we understand Jalil's refusal to see his daughter when she comes to Herat? Could he have been thinking of her welfare by arranging her marriage to Rasheed?
4. What is your take on Mullah Faizullah explanation of Nana's behavior? Is Nana a sympathetic character?

What a short stretch of time before bathing can become swimming! The social mores that prevent women from disrobing or showing their bodies will slowly be overcome by the end of the 1880s. Since the Enlightenment, women were permitted to wear flowing, concealing robes if they wanted to take a dip in the sea, or even a spa pool. The concept of a bathing suit was far from what we know today. In the 1880s, a woman might wear a slightly more relaxed form of dress, but dressed she remained.

Contrast such clothing with the adoption of a swimming costume. This was a special garment, still concerned with concealment, but now more ‘sporting” in nature. Looking at the image above, dated July 1892, we see the future opening up. If you want to pursue information on the history of swim wear, using the subject heading Bathing Suits when searching the Library’s catalog.