Welcome to our journey of visiting rare manuscript and book libraries! Our first stop? Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in New Haven, Connecticut. The overall experience was quite delightful with a special highlight on a memory trip down American theatre history and some of its precious permanent exhibits. But before I dive into the visit itself, let's talk about the background of this library.
History
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library opened its doors in October 1963 after being designed by Gordon Bunshaft of the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The building was constructed in a cathedral-style, characteristic of many of the buildings at Yale. With around 180,000 volumes, over 200,000 visitors stop by each year to glamour over the valuable collections that the library contains.
The Beinecke Library's structural design itself is specifically tailored for rare collections with marble panels that protect the collections from sunlight while simultaneously absorbing the exterior light in warm hues.
The Beinecke Library holds more than one million books with a rich variety of manuscript pages, papyri, photographs, maps, posters, and art objects from pre-1500 to post-1800.
Visit
Walking through the revolving door into the library felt like walking into a whole new universe. While the Yale campus itself was quiet as all the students had gone home for the summer, stepping into the building was a new type of quiet—one that felt like you were in a soundproof room.
In addition to John James Audubon's Birds of America painting, the other permanent exhibit was truly breathtaking: the Gutenberg Bible, the first published book in the Western world printed from the moveable type. A truly legendary figure that I only heard about or read in history class.
At the time I went, there was a special exhibit titled Brava! Women Make American Theatre running from 1/28/22 to 7/3/22. Here, you can see one of the earliest Playbills printed in America to costumes and sketches from iconic films and plays such as An American in Paris and The King and I. Personally, as a fan of Broadway shows myself, it was truly an unique experience to be able to see how far our country's entertainment and arts culture evolved over time.
Conclusion
Well, that concludes our first stop in our journey visiting rare collection libraries. If you happen to be in the area and have some time, I strongly recommend stopping by! While the main collection are reserved for researchers, open exhibits like those I mentioned above are readily viewable for the public! What separates these collections from your town's public library or even a college library is not just that there are rare books but it's the experience as if you are stepping into a time machine. You are able to experience the literary culture from decades and centuries prior.
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