York Public Library Research Articles

Lou Reed’s Emotional Geography

Starting with his band the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed wrote songs imbued with nonmoral depictions of people’s emotional experiences with drug use, sex work, marriage, poverty, friendships, and other aspects of life and survival in New York City. This paper presents an interpretation of Reed’s words and music from the twin perspective of geography and psychology. Drawing on materials in the Lou Reed Archive at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the author conducted a comprehensive analysis of song recordings released over three distinct periods of Reed’s music career. Each song was considered within the framework of a psychoevolutionary theory of human emotions and situated in New York’s diverse spaces and places. Reed’s grounded lyrics convey a deep empathy for people’s triumphs, setbacks, and conflicts as they search for love and act on a desire for transcendence and freedom. The paper recommends further research into songwriters who use their biography to tell geographic stories.

Serving the Slavic and East European and Eurasian Collections of the New York Public Library: A First Biographical Listing of Staff, Volunteers, and Advisors

ABSTRACT This article represents the first-ever attempt to create a biographical dictionary of the New York Public Library’s employees and volunteers who contributed their time and expertise to the development, cataloging, description, and service of the Library’s Slavic and East European collections, from their origins at the Astor and Lenox Libraries to the present day.

Acknowledgments and Accolades to the Slavic & East European Staff, NYPL: A First List

ABSTRACT The Slavic and East European staff of the New York Public Library have received numerous acknowledgments and accolades over their 125 years of service to both domestic and international research communities. The published expressions of praise presented here, listed in chronological order, were compiled from HathiTrust, Google Books, and information provided by former curators and staff of the Slavic and Baltic Division. To our knowledge, this is the first such checklist ever created.

“Foreign Work”: The New York Public Library’s Service to Slavic and East European Immigrants, 1901–1940

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the New York Public Library’s (NYPL) work with Czech and Slovak (Bohemian), Rusyn (Ruthenian), Hungarian, Polish and Russian immigrants 1901-1940. The work was commonly referred to among library staff as “foreign work.” Much of NYPL’s “foreign work” with members of these ethnic groups originated on the congested Lower East Side (five Carnegie branches), the Upper East Side (four Carnegie branches), and then followed population shifts to other areas of Manhattan and into the Bronx and Staten Island. By focusing on the needs and desires of these immigrants, the NYPL’s librarians helped them adapt to life in the United States of America.

The Slavic and East European Collections of The New York Public Library: A Chronological Checklist of Exhibitions

ABSTRACT The list provides records of the exhibitions concerning Slavic and East European collections held by the New York Public Library. This includes the gallery spaces in which Slavic and East European materials were exhibited: The Library’s main galleries, the Slavonic (Slavic & Baltic) Division’s reading room, and the Second Floor Corridor Gallery. The list also describes the exhibits chronologically from 1928 to 2019 with reference sources of reviews, press releases, and illustrations.

Catalogs, Checklists, and Articles Documenting the Slavic and East European Holdings of The New York Public Library

ABSTRACT This checklist covers catalogs, checklists, and articles on the Slavic and East European collections written by scholars and Slavic staff. It includes the general catalogs, in-house checklists, published monographs and articles checklists, and works on the General History of the Slavonic (later, Slavic & Baltic) Division. With some sample illustrations that are strongly related to the history of the Slavonic Collections, the checklist contains around 320 entries.

Hernan Díaz on “Trust” in Literature

ABSTRACT Hernan Díaz, an Argentine-American writer, is the Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of two novels published in thirty-seven languages. He was born in Buenos Aires in 1973 and moved to Sweden with his family when he was two. He earned a BA in literature in the University of Buenos Aires, a MA degree at King’s College London, and received his PhD in comparative literature from New York University. His first novel, In the Distance (2017), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. His second novel, Trust (2022), received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was a New York Times Bestseller, the winner of the Kirkus Prize, and longlisted for the Booker Prize, among other nominations. He is the recipient of the John Updike award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, given to “a writer whose contributions to American literature have demonstrated consistent excellence.” Díaz is also the author of Borges, between History and Eternity, whose essays and stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Granta, The Yale Review, Playboy, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, and fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center. This conversation took place in Shanghai, China, on May 12, 2024. It delves into the complexities of trust in literature, exploring the relationship between author and reader, translation and global readership, and the notion of American Dream. It also discusses the nature of narrative, the relationship between fiction and truth, the ethical considerations in fiction writing, as well as Díaz’s transnational experience and academic work.

Study of Surface Treatments for Restoring Flexibility in Leather Conservation: Focusing on the Physical Properties of Treated Leather

In this study, to investigate the physical properties of surface treatments for restoring the flexibility in leather conservation, six surface treatments, including NYPL(New York Public Library) leather dressing, Polymerized oil, SC6000, Ester wax, Klucel G(2% w/v in ethanol) and Cellugel were selected and applied to artificially aged leather specimens and subjected to aging experiments again, and then observed by visual and microscopic observation, color changes and flexibility. As a result, Klucel G, which is used to treat Red-rot, showed the best results in terms of dimension and color change, and also showed a good effect in improving flexibility. Polymerized oil is also considered to be a suitable surface treatment that maintains flexibility in the long term, although it has a large color change.

Where to Start: Creating a Roadmap for Collection Storage Planning Through a Collaborative Values-Based Approach: A National Endowment for the Humanities Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections project at The New York Public Library

Collection storage is one of the most complex collaborations a museum, library, or archive can undertake. A high-level initial assessment can help overcome the inertia and complexity that overwhelms larger organizations due to the number of stakeholders, spaces, and collections. Large institutions need to rise above room-level preservation issues and focus on global, values-based thinking. With support from the Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections (SCHC) program of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), The Research Libraries of the New York Public Library (NYPL) designed a collaborative pre-planning exercise to inform long-range collection storage planning for over fifty storage areas within its Manhattan research centers. Pulling together experts in architecture, preservation environment, and sustainability to review NYPL’s storage needs in collaboration with an internal team of stakeholders, the project established foundations for ongoing values-based collaborative planning. Project design and considerations on synthesizing observations into recommendations are discussed in this article.

Mihály Munkácsy’s Blind Milton Dictating Paradise Lost to His Daughters: Contemporary Views

At the pick of his career, Mihály Munkácsy (1844–1900) was seen in the first rank of living artists. Many of his works were acquired by American collectors, including Blind Milton Dictating “Paradise Lost” to His Daughters. This large work had been displayed in many European cities before it arrived in New York City to be permanently displayed at the Lenox Library, the predecessor of the New York Public Library. The article discusses the marketing and the reception of the painting in the late 19th century.

Identifying and Addressing Disparities in Public Libraries with Bayesian Latent Variable Modeling

Public libraries are an essential public good. We ask: are urban library systems providing equitable service to all residents, in terms of the books they have access to and check out? If not, what causes disparities: heterogeneous book collections, resident behavior and access, and/or operational policies? Existing methods leverage only system-level outcome data (such as overall checkouts per branch), and so cannot distinguish between these factors. As a result, it is difficult to use their results to guide interventions to increase equitable access. We propose a Bayesian framework to characterize book checkout behavior across multiple branches of a library system, learning heterogeneous book popularity, overall branch demand, and usage of the online hold system, while controlling for book availability. In collaboration with the New York Public Library, we apply our framework to granular data consisting of over 400,000 checkouts during 2022. We first show that our model significantly out-performs baseline methods in predicting checkouts at the book-branch level. Next, we study spatial and socioeconomic disparities. We show that disparities are largely driven by disparate use of the online holds system, which allows library patrons to receive books from any other branch through an online portal. This system thus leads to a large outflow of popular books from branches in lower income neighborhoods to those in high income ones. Finally, we illustrate the use of our model and insights to quantify the impact of potential interventions, such as changing how books are internally routed between branches to fulfill hold requests.

Tapping the Margins: Feminist Research in Tap Dance History

The research project Tapping the Margins was undertaken by Ann Kilkelly and Mary Neth from 1999 through 2005 and focused on women in tap dance. Their scope was unprecedented: to analyze constructions of gender, race, class, and sexuality in tap history. This article has a dual purpose: to detail the project’s materials, which will be accessible at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and include notes for a never-completed book, archival video footage of dancers, film analyses, oral histories, plus stage and film production records; and to examine Kilkelly’s feminist, personal, and embodied explorations of tap dance history.

The Italian Scapigliatura in New York

In 1884, Dario Papa and Ferdinando Fontana, both well known in the milieu of Scapigliatura, published a reportage that is a kind of written photograph of New York at the time. Papa had travelled to America with Fontana to discover the secrets of modern journalism. Another well-known writer of the Scapigliatura, Giuseppe Giacosa, friend of Arrigo Boito and Emilio Praga, travelled to the USA a few years later. Giacosa also wrote a series of interesting travel notes later collected in Impressioni d’America, but here are especially mentioned some articles dedicated to him in the local press and preserved at the New York Public Library.

Russian Tamizdat Publications at the New York Public Library: A Checklist

ABSTRACT This checklist includes Russian tamizdat titles from the holdings of The New York Public Library. Manuscripts of these materials had been smuggled out of Soviet Unione and published in the West between 1929 and 1991. For the purposes of the checklist, the definition of the tamizdat was expanded to include titles in foreign languages, but limited to English translations only. The checklist excludes, however, Russian translations of works by foreign-language authors. The checklist is organized alphabetically by the name of the authors while the titles of their works appear in chronological order of their publication, regardless of the language in which they were first printed.

Russian Publishing Abroad: The New York Public Library Collections in the Longer View

ABSTRACT From the early years of its existence the New York Public Library has systematically acquired Russian titles published outside of Russia. They first included works by Russian authors escaping czarist censorship but soon gave way to publications by authors who could not freely publish their works in the Soviet Union. Russian and other publishers operating outside of Russia/Soviet Union played a vital role in making these works available to a broader public.

Blake and Exhibitions, 2022

Continuing effects of COVID-19 disruption included delayed and sometimes reduced displays to mark the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death (Fogg Art Museum; Simon Fraser University; University of Melbourne) and delayed rehangs of works kept in storage after exhibitions or during renovations. In February 2022 the Rosenbach celebrated the rehang of The Number of the Beast Is 666 after a period of rest since its loan to the Blake retrospective at Tate Britain in 2019–​20. In May Glasgow Museums reinstalled Eve Naming the Birds and Adam Naming the Beasts in the main corridor of Pollok House following storage to protect the works from environmental conditions. Displays featuring treasures from permanent collections included the incipit of Vala, or The Four Zoas at the British Library and Milton at the New York Public Library. Building the Bookman’s Paradise, an exhibition reconstructing plans and showcasing treasures at the Morgan Library, included two Job watercolors among early medieval and Renaissance illuminations and modern treasures.

John Leo Mish at the New York Public Library: A Biographical Note

ABSTRACT John Leo Mish (1909–1983) was the Chief of the Slavic and Baltic Division from 1956 through 1976. He was also the Chief of the Oriental (later Middle East) Division at the same time. He was a renowned linguist, fluent in 34 languages including Manchu language. He was born in Upper Silesia, during World War II, found himself in Austria, Greece and finally in India. He emigrated to the USA in 1946 where he continued his scholarly career.

“I Feel Beautiful When I Dance”: Beauty and Somatic Dance

Integrative and Complementary TherapiesVol. 29, No. 3 “I Feel Beautiful When I Dance”: Beauty and Somatic DanceHiie SaumaaHiie SaumaaHiie Saumaa, PhD, is a dance writer, scholar, and somatic movement educator. She is a certified instructor of Nia dance, The BodyLogos Technique, and JourneyDance, and teaches classes and workshops in sensory-based dance modalities, creative movement, expressive arts, mindful strength training, and somatic awareness. Her work explores interconnections between dance, somatics, embodied knowledge, health, creativity, and imagination. In 2018–2019, she was an inaugural fellow at Columbia University's Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris, France, and in 2017, she was a fellow at the Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She has taught at Columbia University, New York University, the University of Tennessee, Paris College of Art, EFREI Pantheon-Assas, the Catholic University of Paris, Emlyon Business School, and l'Institut Mines-Télécom.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:16 Jun 2023https://doi.org/10.1089/ict.2023.29072.hsaAboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View articleFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 29Issue 3Jun 2023 InformationCopyright 2023, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishersTo cite this article:Hiie Saumaa.“I Feel Beautiful When I Dance”: Beauty and Somatic Dance.Integrative and Complementary Therapies.Jun 2023.125-129.http://doi.org/10.1089/ict.2023.29072.hsaPublished in Volume: 29 Issue 3: June 16, 2023PDF download

Moving Sensually: Sensuality, Sexuality, and Somatic Dance

Integrative and Complementary TherapiesVol. 29, No. 2 Moving Sensually: Sensuality, Sexuality, and Somatic DanceHiie SaumaaHiie SaumaaHiie Saumaa, PhD, is a dance writer, scholar, and somatic movement educator. She is a certified instructor of Nia dance, The BodyLogos Technique, and JourneyDance, and teaches classes and workshops in sensory-based dance modalities, creative movement, expressive arts, mindful strength training, and somatic awareness. Her work explores interconnections between dance, somatics, embodied knowledge, health, creativity, and imagination. In 2018–2019, she was an inaugural fellow at Columbia University's Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris, France, and in 2017, she was a fellow at the Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She has taught at Columbia University, New York University, the University of Tennessee, Paris College of Art, EFREI Pantheon-Assas, the Catholic University of Paris, Emlyon Business School, and l'Institut Mines-Télécom.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:17 Apr 2023https://doi.org/10.1089/ict.2023.29070.hsaAboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View articleFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 29Issue 2Apr 2023 InformationCopyright 2023, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishersTo cite this article:Hiie Saumaa.Moving Sensually: Sensuality, Sexuality, and Somatic Dance.Integrative and Complementary Therapies.Apr 2023.78-82.http://doi.org/10.1089/ict.2023.29070.hsaPublished in Volume: 29 Issue 2: April 17, 2023PDF download

Dateline 1977: The LHRT as Connective Tissue

Dateline 1977: The LHRT as Connective Tissue