Checking Out Washington Irving’s Reading List: The New York Society Library

Sounds so fancy, doesn’t it.  The Society Library.  Where one rubs elbows with fellow members of society.  Pass me my monocle and my white gloves, won’t you, dear?

Well . . . . maybe not so much.

When the notice came out from Desk Set (a librarian social networking group here in town that is free for any librarian to join, just so’s you know) informing us that we were being invited to a special behind-the-scenes tour of The New York Society Library, the oldest library in the city of New York, I couldn’t resist.  Many members of Desk Set have worked in this venerable NYC institution over the years and how often does one field such a request?  So I passed up begging tickets to the recent Society of Illustrators show AND a chance to see John and Hank Green in concert just to go visit a library that has been in existence since 1754. 

Of course I was walking into it with my public librarian nerves all ah-jangle.  When the Society Library was first formed the term "society" was defined in terms of that old American Heritage Dictionary definition: "The totality of social relationships among humans."  Over the years, however, the word came to mean the exact opposite, conjuring up images of "high society" and the like.  This is not too surprising when you consider that the New York Society Library is, fascinatingly enough, a subscription library.  You pay money to check out books.  It’s an old-fashioned concept dating back to… well, to 1754 at the very least.  So it is fascinating to explore it because the mind begins to wonder, "What is there here that I cannot get from my own free public library?" 

I’m sorry, was there something else I was supposed to be talking about?  Oh, the library!  Yes!  So after being handed our free New York Society Library Sharpies (which, in turn, matched the accompanying handouts in our New York Society Library folders) we were given a little basic information about the place.  Here are the facts, as they were related to me:

Well for one thing, it’s not that different from a public reference library in terms of material use.  You don’t actually have to be a member to just walk in off the street.  If you look on their catalog and find something of use you can look at it there, no charge.  You just can’t check it out and take it home.  Members have other privileges too, like access to the cool back stacks and the like.

After getting some basics down (the library served as the first Library of Congress used by George Washington, John Adams, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton which the current Library of Congress conveniently forgets) it was time for walkies.  First up, the children’s room.

All things being equal, it’s a perfectly nice children’s room.  Nice non-member author visits are on the schedule with visits this particular month by Laura Vaccaro Seeger and Bruce Coville.  They have regular children’s programs, recommended reading lists, the usual.  Not many teens visit the library and the YA section is just a tiny little section in the Arnold Whitridge Room.

Next up, the Rare Books as presented by the amazingly named Arevig Caprielian.  Authors, I have just given you a free name.  If you’re desperately searching for a wonderful moniker for a character, consider "Arevig Caprielian" which is much fun to look at when written down.

"Library copy from the Winthrop Collection; boxed with #188: Das Buch Meteororum, 1566. Inscriptions: 1st blank has No. 466 in black ink and 38 in red pencil. 2nd blank recto: ms by John Dee and John Winthrop’s commentary on the above, signed and dated July 24, 1640. An important reference to John Dee’s works, including the authorship of Monas Hieroglyphica. Possibly received by John Winthrop from Arthur Dee. On verso: Wait Winthrop and 168 in pencil. Signed on t.p., above title: Johannes Dee and dated 1562; No. 466 in black ink; annotations above statement of responsibility and throughout."

John Dee’s book.  THE John Dee.  Now I have read two fantasy novels this year that involve John Dee.  One was very good and one … not so much.  So to see his book with what appears to be his writing just sitting on a table before me. . . you understand where it is that I am coming from here.

Other delights included Oscar Wilde’s first published work Poems signed by Mr. Wilde to the soprano Christine Neilson.  And then as a sidenote someone added that Ms. Neilson served as the possible inspiration for Christine Daae in Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera.  All those painful adolescent years as a Phantom fan and I didn’t even know this little fact?  Heavens.  There was also a beautiful edition of Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale – Fishery.  This was the edition that was regularly consulted by library member Herman Melville when he decided to write this little known novel involving a white whale of some sort.