The Fales Library & Special Collections (NYU)

The Fales Library & Special Collections, comprising 350,000 volumes of book and print items, over 11,000 linear feet of archive and manuscript materials, and about 90,000 audiovisual elements, houses the Fales Collection of rare books and manuscripts in English and American literature, the Downtown Collection, the Food and Cookery Collection, the Riot Grrrl Collection, and the general Special Collections of the NYU Libraries (“The Fales Library & Special Collections”).

Our class visit to the Fales examined a variety of materials, including the Riot Grrrl collection, nineteenth century books on cooking, British colonial literature and maps about India, and the personal belongings of Charles Dickens. To see a detailed list of the items pulled from the Fales for our class visit, click here.

 

 

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (NYPL)

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem is one of the world’s leading cultural institutions devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. As a research division of The New York Public Library, the Schomburg Center features diverse programming and collections spanning over 11 million items that illuminate the richness of global Black history, arts, and culture (“Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture”).

Our class viewed, among many other materials, some items from the Personal Collection of Storme DeLarverie, a crucial participant in the Stonewall Riots.

 

Gay and Lesbian Collections (NYPL)

The Manuscripts and Archives Division of the New York Public Library holds over 100 collections pertaining to the history and culture of gay men and lesbians, and to the history of the AIDS/HIV epidemic. Gay and lesbian history and AIDS history are not a single subject; however, because of their interrelationships, they are grouped together (“Gay and Lesbian Collections & AIDS/HIV Collections”).

Our class visit examined several digital collections and archives, such as the NYPL archive portal and NYPL’s Digital Collections, as well as collections having to do with LGBT history, such as the LGBT Periodicals Collection, the NYC Trans Oral History Partnership, and the Digital Transgender Archive, among others.