Treasures

Inside the walls of its three research library buildings, The New York Public Library is a palace of wonders containing diverse collections of 55 million objects including rare books, maps, paintings, prints, sculpture, photographs, films, recorded sound, furniture, ephemera, rare and important historical documents, and more. In Fall 2020, in honor of the NYPL’s 125th anniversary, the library will open its first ever permanent exhibition in the exquisite Gottesman Hall on the first floor of its iconic 42nd Street Building: The Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures.

Treasures, the official book to accompany the exhibition, is a sumptuous four-color volume that showcases the depth and breadth of the library’s holdings. Filled with the creations of history-makers and influencers who changed the world, Treasures includes the Declaration of Independence written in Thomas Jefferson’s hand; the original Bill of Rights; Charles Dickens’s desk; George Washington’s handwritten farewell address; manuscript material from authors such as Maya Angelou, Charles Dickens, T.S. Eliot, Jack Kerouac, Vladimir Nabokov, Mary Shelley, Virginia Woolf, and many others; a Gutenberg Bible; Malcolm X’s briefcase; the original Winnie-The-Pooh dolls; a letter from Christopher Columbus to King Ferdinand, and a Sumerian cuneiform tablet ca. 2300 BC. Treasures is The New York Public Library’s gift to the world.