Kid-Free in New York City: Day 3 is When We Go to the Library!

This whirlwind trip was, indeed, a whirlwind! Still reeling with excitement from Hadestown, the Rangers game, doughnuts, bagels, Van Gogh, karaoke-singing waitresses, and the view from the High Line, we got up early, checked out of the Republican stronghold, and set out for just a few more precious hours in New York City.

Even on a random Wednesday morning in February, all the other tourists in the city had the same idea, and so we all met up at Rockefeller Center:

Then all the tourists in New York City all headed over to FAO Schwartz together. My partner basically had to run a deprogramming campaign on me to convince me not to buy these SHOCKINGLY expensive and TINY stuffies for the kids, but I doubt it's going to stick since now I have the store's web address. Yes, this keychain-sized stuffed dragon IS LITERALLY THIRTY DOLLARS, but it's so freaking soft. This croissant purse is forty dollars, but it is a Croissant Purse. I don't even know what to tell you if you don't think that is worth dipping into your retirement savings for.

Ah, well. Stymied for the short-term, I let myself be dragged bodily from FAO Schwartz, and instead we, along with all the other tourists in New York City, headed for someplace that was actually free:

In its smartest move yet, the New York Public Library just went ahead and made an entire permanent exhibition out of its coolest stuff. As soon as we stepped inside, my partner and I essentially abandoned everything else on our to-do list for the morning (Sorry, Hamilton! I'll go check out your grave another time!) and stayed here until we absolutely had to leave for the airport. 

Beethoven's sheet music in his own handwriting

Manuscript page of The Secret Garden in Francis Hodgson Burnett's own handwriting

The real Winnie-the-Pooh and friends

Finally, some celebrities that I CAN meet and take selfies with!

I love their sweet little faces! I am devastated to tell you, though, that Roo was lost in an apple orchard...

Please pay special attention to my precious Eeyore. I took a lot of notice, when I was a kid, of how he wasn't afraid to show that he was sad, and how the creatures around him never seemed annoyed by that:

I love how well-loved they all look. I just wish that every now and then, maybe once a year or so, they'd get to come outside their box and play with some real kids again. 

Noah Webster's spelling book

He's why we spell things weird here in America!

manuscript copy of Ptolemy's Geographica

On this map of Greece there's a label for Hades, so apparently they knew where that was!

Hunt-Lenox globe

This globe's claim to fame is that it's one of only two from the Medieval OR Renaissance eras to include the label "Hic sunt dracones!" 

marketing materials for the Montgomery Bus Boycott

I'm so excited that I got to see this--this is the first time that I've ever seen real-life primary source materials from the Montgomery Bus Boycott in person! The handwritten ride-share flyer, in particular, is such a precious artifact.

typewritten poem "Malcolm X" by Gwendolyn Brooks

I've never seen this wealth of primary source material before. So many manuscript pages and works in progress! I'd be very interested to know if this was Gwendolyn Brooks' own typewriter, or if she had an assistant who did her typing. Either way, I'm fascinated by the noticeable wear on some of the letters--the "g", especially--showing their frequency of use.

Shakespeare First Folio

I used to work in a Special Collections library, so there were a few items here--the double elephant folio of Audobon's Birds of America, for instance, and this Shakespeare first folio--that I'm already acquainted with. But that just means that I could greet them with not the excitement of novelty, but the happiness of again spotting a well-loved old friend.

cuneiform

Here's another old friend--y'all KNOW how much I love cuneiform!

manuscript copy of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

This makes me wish that I HAD made time to bring my now-collegiate environmental scientist here the last time we were in New York City, because she would have freaked out with excitement to see this. But I did get immediately onto my public library's website and put a copy of Silent Spring on hold to read when I got back.

first edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

I didn't catch why, but the NYPL has an AMAZING Mary Shelley collection, including materials about/by her famous mother, Mary Wollstonecraft.

portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft

This painting, a copy of one that hung in baby Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's family parlor, was commissioned by AARON BURR(!!!) for his daughter, Theodosia.

Gutenberg Bible

Another old friend! The Special Collections library where I once worked also had a life-sized model of a Gutenberg printing press that my kids could probably draw with their eyes closed, I've made them look at it so many times over the years.

handwritten manuscript of "Transformation," by Mary Shelley

I've never read this Mary Shelley work! I was so interested to see her handwriting and all of her in-text edits.

Frankenstein first edition

This was one of only 500! Not shown here but also on display: literal fragments of Percy Bysshe Shelley's skull(?!?).

the Green Book

Another primary source first for me! My teenager has been so interested in African-American history during her AP US History study this year that I wish she could have seen some of these materials in person, too.

SO MANY COOL THINGS!!!! In the end, only my horror of not showing up at the airport far too early for my flight got me out of that library. 

After dragging myself, weeping, out of the NYPL, my partner and I bought some bagels to take home (once again, we did not check our order before we left the store, and once again WE GOT SHORTED BY A BAGEL?!?!), rode the subway to the train and the train to the airport, got screamed at and patted down only a little at security, and then made our way back home to chickens, cats, dog, and one teenager who in our absence had kept up with her schoolwork and ballet, maintained the house and pets in excellent condition, and tbh did not seem super excited to have her quiet haven wrecked by our noisy excitement and cluttery luggage.

She was happy to see the New York bagels, though!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!