New Exhibition Documents Past and Current Work at The New York Public Library’s Iconic Midtown Building

Preserving a Masterpiece: From Soaring Ceilings to Subterranean Storage opens on June 17, showcasing the restoration of the Rose Main Reading Room, the expansion of underground vaults, and the history of the 105-year-old Stephen A. Schwarzman Building


JUNE 10, 2016: The New York Public Library will celebrate its iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in a new exhibition documenting its history and ongoing preservation efforts, such as the current restoration of the Rose Main Reading Room and the expansion of underground collections storage.

Preserving A Masterpiece: From Soaring Ceilings to Subterranean Storage will open on June 17 on the third floor of the Stephen A. Schwarzman. The free exhibition will include over 75 photos – many never before seen – of the diligent preservation and restoration work currently happening in the building, as well as historic photos from the construction of the building and its early years. It will also include two decorative plaster rosettes from the Rose Main Reading Room ceiling.

“The Library is proud to be a dedicated, great steward of all of its buildings, including and especially the iconic and historic 42nd Street Library and its beloved reading rooms,” said NYPL President Tony Marx. “Looking at photographs of this building from its beginnings to its current state is a powerful reminder of what makes it so special, so extraordinary, and so important.” 

Objects featured include:

  • Behind the scenes images of the over two-year restoration of the ceilings in the Rose Main Reading Room and the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room. The photos show the 50-foot scaffolding used to reach the ceilings, measures used to protect the room during work, up-close shots of the ceilings, the creation of a new mural for the Bill Blass room, and more. The rooms were closed, inspected, and repaired after a rosette fell from the Reading Room ceiling overnight in May 2014. Both rooms are scheduled to reopen ahead of schedule this fall.
  • Two rosettes from the Reading Room ceiling: the one that fell from the ceiling in 2014, prompting the inspection, and one that was pulled down by the engineers conducting the inspection to test the ceiling’s strength: it took over 430 pounds of weight to pull down the rosette, showing that the over 100-year-old ceiling was in strong shape.
  • Behind the scenes images of the construction of a second level of collections storage underneath Bryant Park. The new 55,700 square foot level of the Milstein Research Stacks – built out with generous funding from Trustee Abby Milstein and her husband Howard Milstein – was built over about a year and completed in May. The new level of storage brings the capacity for research collections storage in the building to about 4.3 million volumes. Books are being moved into the space now, a process that is expected to end in early 2017.
  • Historic photos from the Library’s collections of the construction and early years of the building, including a 1902 photo depicting workers hand-carving marble for interior details (the building is comprised of 530,00 cubic feet of marble), a photo of President William Howard Taft at the building’s dedication on May 23, 1911 (the day after “The People’s Palace” opened, it welcomed 50,000 visitors), a 1916 photo of the Library’s steps being used for a book drive during World War I.

The exhibition will run through September 18.

Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, and Jonathan Altman.

Contact: Sara Beth Joren | sarabethjoren@nypl.org

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