The New York Public Library Celebrates The Season With Wreaths for its Iconic Lions, Holiday Décor, and a Special Collections Display

Photos of the wreaths, the display, and other decor available here (credit Jonathan Blanc / NYPL)

NOVEMBER 22, 2016 – The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street has gotten decked out for the holiday season.

Beginning today, the Library continues its decades-old tradition of placing wreaths around the necks of Patience and Fortitude, the iconic marble lions who have stood guard over the building for over 100 years.

The Library is also displaying a tree – donated and designed by Library Trustee and interior designer Carey Maloney – and various other symbols of holidays and cultures in Astor Hall, including a brass 18th Century menorah loaned from the Herbert & Eileen Bernard Museum of Judaica at New York’s Temple Emanu-El.

In addition, The Library is displaying a series of collection items related to the holiday season, including Charles Dickens’ own copy of A Christmas Carol, complete with handwritten notes he used for public readings.

The free display – called “A Writer's Christmas: Dickens & More”– includes various literary items from the Library’s Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, including:

  • A 1929 Christmas card from James Joyce to a friend.
  • A typed Christmas card from Jack Kerouac to his soon-to-be wife Stella, with a drawing.
  • A “season’s greetings” card signed by Maurice Sendak to Randall and Mary Jarrell.
  • Poetic Christmas greetings from Sean O’Casey and E. E. Cummings.
  • Books with Christmas themes by T. S. Eliot and Edmund Wilson.
  • Pen-and-ink drawings by Joseph Clayton Clark, a photograph of the “real” Tiny Tim, and porcelain figures connected to A Christmas Carol

The items will be on display from November 22 through January 8 in the Library’s McGraw Rotunda on the third floor.

In addition to the holiday-specific décor and display, visitors to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building during the holiday season can enjoy several other free offerings, including:

  • Winnie-The-Pooh And Friends: The Library recently restored the stuffed animals that inspired A.A. Milne’s beloved Winnie-The-Pooh stories. The nearly 100-year-old dolls, owned by the real-life Christopher Robin, are on permanent display, currently in the Library’s Children’s Center on the ground floor.
  • Alexander Hamilton: Striver, Statesman, Scoundrel: This free exhibition in the Library’s Wachenheim Gallery uses documents from the Library’s collections – including Alexander Hamilton’s handwritten draft of George Washington’s farewell address, personal letters, and more – to illuminate the many facets of the prominent Founding Father, the subject of the award-winning Broadway show “Hamilton.” The show is on through December 31.
  • A Curious Hand: The Prints of Henri-Charles Guérard (1846-1897): This print exhibition on the Library’s third floor demonstrates the innovative work of master printmaker Henri-Charles Guérard as well as the work of artists who inspired him: prints by Rembrandt van Rijn, Édouard Manet and Katsushika Hokusai are included. With the largest collection of Guérard’s work in the United States, The New York Public Library will be showcasing over 90 prints covering a wide variety of subject matters, from the dark (death and decapitation) to the whimsical (cats, dogs, and other animals).

For more information about programs happening at The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building this holiday season, check out nypl.org/schwarzman.

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.

Media Contact:

Angela Montefinise | angelamontefinise@nypl.org

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