For the desk Charles Dickens sat at to write many of his classics, look no further than the New York Public Library. It’s just one of the more than 45 million items in its collection. More than 250 of those are part of the Polonsky Exhibition of the New York Public Library's Treasures, the first-ever permanent exhibition highlighting its world-renowned research collections.
What You Need To Know
- The Polonsky Exhibition of the New York Public Library's Treasures opens on Sept. 24
- The NYPL's Collection features more than 45 million items, some dating back thousands of years
- More than 250 items will be on display as part of the exhibition
- Items from the collection will be displayed on a rotating basis
"One of the surprising things for many of the people who come to the exhibition is going to be that the New York Public Library, internationally known for books, manuscripts and so forth, has much more than that," said Declan Kiely, director of exhibitions and special collections at NYPL.
The exhibition opens on Sept. 24 at the iconic main library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. There's the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the draft of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court handed to the printers by Mark Twain, the stuffed animals given to the real Christopher Robin by father A.A. Milne inspiring the Winnie the Pooh Books. The items have always been available for anyone doing research at the library to view, but the exhibition brings them together to make them visible and easily accessible to all.
"We have spent years trying to figure out what would be the right things to show in an exhibition of this kind, we wanted to try and achieve as much diversity as we could, we wanted to have as broad an appeal as we possibly could," said Kiely.
To pull this off, the New York Public Library had display cases specially designed and fabricated in Milan, Italy, providing the ultimate in protection for the items and a great view for visitors. So whether it's an invitation to Studio 54 from Andy Warhol to Truman Capote, or a letter opener given to Charles Dickens by his sister-in-law with the paw of his deceased cat named Bob, there's a lot to see, and items will rotate as many need to be out of the light to preserve them.
"As the years go on, I am hopeful that we will be able to rotate works in and out of this exhibition so that the public will see over a longitudinal period of time, a much greater proportion of the collection than we have ever been able to present before," said Kiely.