Did You Know These NYPL Facts?
NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: ps_ar_59
The New York Public Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman building opened on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in 1911.
One of New York City's iconic landmarks, it welcomes millions of visitors a year to discover inspiring public spaces, unparalleled research collections, and vibrant programs and exhibitions. But that's not the whole story about the building behind the Library Lions.
Here are eleven little-known facts about the Library!
Exterior marble work: Fifth Avenue facade. 1905. Image from NYPL Digital Collections, ID: 489514
1. At the time it opened in 1911, the Library was the largest marble building ever built in the United States.
Fragments of the skull of Percy Bysshe Shelley. 1822. Image from NYPL Digital Collections, ID: 5113101
2. NYPL has fragments of Percy Bysshe Shelley's skull, part of the Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle.
Statues - New York Public Library - Lions. Wurts Bros. (New York, N.Y.). Image from NYPL Digital Collections, ID: 1558545
3. In the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia nicknamed the Library's marble lions Patience and Fortitude because he felt New Yorkers needed to possess these qualities to survive the Great Depression.
Lock of hair, initialed, signed and dated "73d year" and "Oct. 29, 1891." Walt Whitman. 1891. Image from NYPL Digital Collections, ID: 5102848
4. NYPL holds locks of hair from the heads of Charlotte Brontë, Walt Whitman, Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Wild Bill Hickok, among others.
Document [fair copy of the Declaration of Independence]. 1776. Image from NYPL Digital Collections, ID: psnypl_mss_1228
5. After the attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Library's most valuable volumes and manuscripts were moved to bank vaults around New York City.
Piglet, Tigger, Winnie-the-Pooh, Eeyore and Kanga. Image from NYPL Digital Collections, ID: 56597640
6. Since 1987, the original Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends—Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga, and Tigger—have lived at NYPL. They're now part of the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library's Treasures.
Main Reading Room. Image from NYPL Digital Collections, ID: 1153329
7. Norbert Pearlroth, the Ripley's Believe It or Not! researcher from 1923 to 1975, found all the information for the newspaper feature using the collection in the Library's Rose Main Reading Room.
Charles Dickens. Image from NYPL Digital Collections, ID: 483476
8. Charles Dickens's favorite paper knife is part of the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library's Treasures. The shaft is ivory, but the handle is the embalmed paw of his beloved cat, Bob, toenails and all.
Interior work: fireplace and dedicatory panel in the Trustees Room. Image from NYPL Digital Collections, ID: 489867
9. Along with the iconic Lions, the building's ornamentation also includes dolphins, turtles, birds, bees, catfish, dogs, roosters, eagles, rams, swans, snakes, and oxen.
Movie camera microscope. Image from NYPL Digital Collections, ID: 409721
10. Ghostbusters wasn't the only movie filmed at the Library! Spiderman, Ted 2, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and more were filmed at NYPL.
Central building, first floor lobby: looking from lobby (Astor Hall) toward exhibition hall. 1918. Image from NYPL Digital Collections, ID: 465477
11. The Library used 530,000 cubic feet of marble, including exterior marble that is 12 inches thick. The marble floors of the Library were deemed so hard that in 1911 all employees were supplied with rubber-soled shoes.
Learn even more facts about The New York Public Library: