414 stories from The New York Public Library
Last week I introduced Melissa, a volunteer with the Music Division, who began a series of three blog posts on the newly available inventory of the Music Division's Clipping file.  Her…
I'm happy to announce that the "Names" portion of the Music Division's Clipping File has been inventoried. This inventory contains over 46,000 names and is a list of folders in our Clipping …
To whom it may concern: Today I spoke with a reference librarian about donating my copy of Marc Blitzstein's original working score of Regina. I worked with Marc for two years singing his so…
Isadora Duncan dancing La Marseillaise, 1917. Photo by Arnold Genthe. Image ID: isadora_0060va
It's April 9Â in Paris in the spring of 1916. The Battle of Verdun, one of the largest battl…
Silas Farley first visited NYPL's Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center when he was just 14 years old. Now, as a dancer for the New York City Ballet and a self-described "nerd" f…
In 1985, a group of musicians fed up with industry-imposed limitations that pigeonholed Black artists into either R&B singers or rappers, formed the Black Rock Coalition (BRC). Founders …
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Promotional Brochure, "Thoughts of Prominent Men Regarding Margaret Mather," for her Romeo and Juliet tour, back cover, 1880s.Â
Shakespeare's Star Turn in America, the new exhibiti…
Florence Mills. Image ID: 5105186
In 1916, five years before her big break in Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake's musical Shuffle Along, Florence Mills performed in Chicago's Panama Cafe as part…
In the beginning of February of 1916, a Los Angeles-based dance company was held over for an additional week of performances at the Palace Theatre, a top vaudeville house in New York. As rep…
Guest post by Emma Thursland
The Dance Broadside Collection was processed by Camille Dee and has recently been made available to the public. A new exhibit showcasing a few pieces from th…
As a tribute to David Bowie's life, his music and his acting, here is a list of works by him as well as about him. Materials on the evolution of electronic music are also included. All are a…
This is one of a series of blog posts related to the NYPL Public Domain Release:Â discover the collections and find inspiration for using them in your own research, teaching, and creative …
... because it's time for some binge-reading.
It's still the beginning of resolution season, and we suspect that some of you have vowed that this year, you'll turn off the TV, stop looking …
This is one of a series of blog posts related to the NYPL Public Domain Release:Â discover the collections and find inspiration for using them in your own research, teaching, and creative …
Happy New Year! Rather than look back at 2015, we're going back 100 years for the first in a series of blog  posts featuring events in dance history from (about) 100 years ago. And I'm…
Long before cut and paste, there was cutting and pasting. As part of the development of Head Shots, we searched out articles and books that advised actors and photographers on ideal examples…
Today we share the news of the appointment of The New York Public Library's Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Research Libraries"William P. Kelly.
The Library's Mellon Director leads the Lib…
Tallulah Bankhead. Photograph by Florence Vandamm. Image ID: 5057002
If you walk west on 65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, you will go past the "blades." These electronic s…
Guest post by Emma Winter Zieg, volunteer and former intern at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Dulcie Cooper. Image ID: TH-04678
If you've never heard of Dulcie …
Eva LeGallienne, as the White Queen in the 1982 revival of Alice in Wonderland.. Photograph by Martha Swope
In the mid-1950s, the networks and independent channels campaigned to establish t…
NYPL Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Division.
October 28 marks the birthday of Evelyn Waugh: novelist, journalist, biographer, professional curmudgeon. He was a versatile author wh…
A guest post by Kate Edney.
Page from the original souvenir program of Golden DawnÂ
Golden Dawn (1927) is one of those musicals that has been almost completely erased from histories o…
The Library for the Performing Arts is having a photogenic summer. Between Sinatra in the Oenslager Gallery and Geoffrey Holder in the Corridor Gallery, we have many examples of compelling i…
Contact Strips of Anna Held (above) and Lillian Burkhardt
One of the themes of the exhibition Head Shots is the selection process through which performers view options and chose their heads…
Image from published sheet music of Little Nemo. Image ID: g99c836_001
A guest post By Brian D. Valencia
In one of two overblown patriotic spectacles, the Act 2 finale of Little Nemo in…
