by Anthony W. Marx, President and Chief Executive Officer
Public libraries are at the foundation of our democracy of informed citizens, making information, fact, knowledge, and opportunity available to all. The New York Public Library is one of the oldest and largest public library systems in the country, and at its heart are its extraordinary and diverse collections.
For over a century, The New York Public Library has collected, preserved, and made accessible the world’s history, documenting our collective experience via manuscripts, rare books, photography, maps, audio and moving images, ephemera, unusual objects, and more.
These collections are more than the documenting, musings, writings, and thoughts of universally accepted great writers and historic leaders, but often the work of “everyday” people, chronicling day-to-day life in New York City, the United States, and beyond.
The Library has always taken seriously its role to preserve history from varying perspectives and to make that knowledge and education accessible to all. The only requirement for accessing our research collections is curiosity. Any individual can view, study, learn from, and be inspired by these collections, as have countless scholars and researchers of all ages and backgrounds.
An immeasurable number of works of fiction and nonfiction, art, performance, scholarship, and more were inspired and informed by the collections preserved by The New York Public Library. In the broadest sense, the Library has shaped our cultural and educational landscape. In a personal sense, the Library sparks excitement through these collections every day. There is nothing like the wonder of serendipitous discovery, of learning something new from our past, of uncovering a gem that can help us better navigate today’s waters.
That noble mission of our research libraries is arguably more important than ever, as truth and fact continue to be blurred, and too often we are forgetting the vital lessons of our past. But those lessons are still here, captured through the vast array of material that has withstood time.
This is why it is so important to the Library—and to me personally—that we keep on permanent display a rotating collection of some of our most profound, rich, inspiring research collection items in the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures. The exhibition’s first iteration ranges from the seemingly mundane to the monumental, and provides unique perspectives and glimpses into the places, events, and lives of people over history.
Visitors will be transported thousands of years into the past to the day-to-day lives of now-ancient civilizations while viewing cuneiform tablets, one of the earliest examples of the written word. They will get a sense of how Thomas Jefferson felt during that hot summer in Philadelphia writing the Declaration of Independence, and actually see that this venerable document was, in fact, debated until the last moment. They will peek into the minds of Malcolm X, Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, Phillis Wheatley, and so many other luminaries, leaders, and writers through their notes, drafts, manuscripts, typescripts, photographs, and letters. They will see and hopefully better understand what it was like to be an African American traveling in the Jim Crow South by viewing our Green Books, and discover early documentation of the fight for LGBTQ rights. And that’s just a small sample.
In this exhibition, one will get direct access to figures from history. Information, fact, and knowledge from the primary sources. The first drafts of history. The history you may not learn in school. It’s here.
It has been my personal goal since I joined the Library to ensure that every visitor to its iconic 42nd Street library experiences these treasures and is motivated to learn more about our past, our heroes, our mistakes, and our world. We can’t build on the foundation created by those who came before us without understanding that foundation. These items—and over 46 million others in our research collections—have always been and will always be accessible to anyone who wants to learn from them. This book documenting some of the exhibition is a first step toward that end, providing all readers and visitors with the small taste they need to provoke questions, inspire curiosity, and drive future visits to dig deeper into our collections.
I hope everyone enjoys and appreciates the Polonsky Exhibition and this gorgeous memento of its highlights, and I hope many will be inspired to visit or return to our research libraries to learn more.