NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

 

5th Avenue Between 40th and 42nd Streets 
(212) 930-0800

The New York Public Library is one of the most famous architectural structures in New York. It’s beautiful Beaux Arts design and marble colonnade distinguish it from the skyscrapers and professional buildings that surround it and helped declare it a National Historic Landmark.

Besides the notable design of the building, the Library is known among New Yorkers for the pair of huge marble lions that mark either side of the 5^th Avenue entrance. Named "Patience" and "Fortitude" by beloved Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, they create the second most famous New York pun of "going to the library to read between the lions". (To find out the most famous pun,  ask any native New Yorker how to get to Carnegie Hall).

Besides being a remarkable architectural landmark, the New York Public Library is also a renowned research library. When originally constructed in 1911, the library housed the collections of the Lenox Library and the Astor Library. Today, the library has grown to contain over 6 million books, 12 million periodicals and almost three million pictures.

Free tours are available Monday through Saturday at 11am and 2pm. You must sign up in advance for the one-hour tours at the information desk. There is no standard tour, but most docents will bring you through Astor Hall, the beautiful main entrance to the library and the DeWitt Wallace Periodicals room, with its mural celebrating New York’s role in publishing. Don’t miss the Main Reading Room, it’s oak tables with brass fixtures create perfect reading spots within the cavernous room.

The library has several exhibition areas and galleries that house a mixture of permanent and temporary displays. Two of the most notable items in it’s permanent collection are Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington and Charles Dicken’s desk. Call (212) 869-8089 for exhibit information.